The National Rugby League is set to appoint an expert in gender studies as a specialist advisor to the game.

The NRL board accepted a number of recommendations from its Education and Welfare Committee, among them the introduction of University of Sydney Associate Professor Catharine Lumby as a specialist advisor.

Lumby is a respected author, an Advertising Standards Board member, a former consultant to the Equal Opportunity Commissioner of South Australia and the current director of the University of Sydney's Media and Communications Programme.

Committee head Greg Harris said the NRL needed to ensure players were informed and educated.

"We looked around the room today and it was clear that one perspective we needed to add was the expertise of someone like Catharine Lumby and I'm delighted she has agreed to take part going forward," Harris said.

"Over my involvement in the last 12 months, I've got no doubt about the intentions of the NRL to face up to education and welfare issues and we need to keep heading down the path that we are.

"This should serve to emphasise the importance of what is being done."

Other recommendations accepted by the board included:

* NRL to emphasise the importance of the existing welfare courses and the clubs' compliance with the NRL Welfare and Education policy finalised in 2003, which already allows for an additional investment of $1 million in education and welfare;

* the NRL and Rugby League Professionals Association (RLPA) to promote individual player responsibility and the need to have players individually accountable for their actions;

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