The University has successfully renewed its Athena Swan Silver award and we continue to be one of only 20 UK universities to hold this level of award.
The Athena Swan Charter recognises and celebrates good gender equality practices in higher education, acknowledging that academia cannot reach its full potential unless it benefits from the talents of all. A Silver award recognises a significant record of activity and achievement by the institution in promoting gender equality and in addressing challenges across different disciplines.
Key Highlights
We are proud of our progress on gender equality. Today:
- We have a third more female professors than in 2014/15, including an increase of over 50 per cent in STEMM, assisted by changes to our career pathways introduced by the Reward Project. Through this project we have equalised recognition across the Education, Research and Enterprise pathways and improved our guidance, so that academics on this pathway (which have proportionately more women) can achieve promotion just as readily as those on the Balanced and Research pathways.
- We have introduced Academic Career Development Committees in every school to help identify potential promotion applicants, especially among women and under-represented groups.
- We continue to achieve new Bronze and Silver departmental awards, with the Faculty of Medicine and School of Biological Sciences recently receiving Silver awards.
- Our Super-Recruiters project is adding additional rigour to recruitment, ensuring best practice, and targeting higher female application rates.
Diana Eccles, Athena Swan Sponsor, Dean of Medicine and Professor of Clinical Genetics commented:
“The news that we have been awarded our institutional Athena Swan Silver was so very welcome and fitting given that this news arrived on International Women’s Day. This is the reward for a huge amount of hard work from countless people over the last three years. Multiple contributions both big and small helped deliver this Silver level submission and we all have our part to play now in delivering the ambitious action plan. Working hand in hand across all EDI activities, all job families, all levels, we can focus on creating a truly inclusive environment for the people who are our University and who are the centre of our triple helix of excellence.”
Our priorities and next steps
Looking ahead, we know there is more work to be done to understand and unblock talent pipelines, attract and appoint more diverse job applicants, foster job security, enhance flexible working practices and ensure our family-friendly policies are truly inclusive. The action plan that accompanies our submission is structured into themes to address these areas between now and 2027.
It is important that we share the knowledge and insight gained in producing our Athena Swan submission. Our full submission and action plan are now publicly available. We will also be organising engagement opportunities this spring so that you can learn more about gender equality in the University, how you can play a role in bringing our action plan to life, and help us continue to move towards a more inclusive University.
