It is common for the career path of young academics to involve a good deal of stress and uncertainty. Also, in Russia, Western Europe and the USA there is a marked asymmetry in appointments made to positions of any kind among people from certain ethnic minorities, while progress to the highest levels of academic appointments is much less common among women than among men. All this raises important questions about how to organise the processes of study, recruitment and pro motions in order that the candidates who are genuinely the best actually get preferment and the demands of equal opportunity are satisfied. Some of these questions were discussed by the participants of this “Forum”.