The University of Canterbury's looking at its recruitment and promotion systems to help fix academia's big gender pay gap.

This comes after its own professors found Kiwi Universities have a gender pay gap of up to $200,000 over a lifetime.

Canterbury's human relations director Paul O'Flaherty says they've noticed female academics are being recruited at a lower level - and are being promoted later.

He told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the researchers looked at the average careers of female and male academics. 

"We've got to make sure that we appoint as many females as males on merit and they enjoy the same academic rank.

He says they'll try to balance recruitment panels to fight unconscious bias - and speak to female academics about what's stopping them applying for promotions.

Researchers and executives will speak at the University's International Woman's Day event tomorrow.

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