The Athena Swan Charter, created by Advance HE, a higher education charity, is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education and research. Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now being used across the globe to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.
Çï¿ûÊÓƵ has been granted an Institutional Bronze Athena Swan Award.
The Athena Swan award was submitted to Advance HE in March 2024 and through undertaking this extensive process, good practice was highlighted across the university and established six key priorities, which now form the five-year action plan going forward. Those six key priorities are:
- Address job segregation within professional services roles.
- Enhance and embed inclusive recruitment and selection processes for academic staff.
- Increase the proportion of women in AC5 positions via academic promotions.
- Support and improve confidence to report incidences of bullying and harassment.
- Improve data quality on gender identity and gender reassignment to better understand gaps in support.
- Improve experience of staff returning from a career break (including parental leave).
Vice Chancellor and CEO, Professor Jane Harrington said:
'This is a fantastic achievement for our whole university. It is a key milestone in our strategic objective of Inclusivity and Culture as set out in our 2030 Strategy. This award marks our commitment to a broad range of criteria around gender equality across the whole institution, along with our ongoing dedication to enhance representation, progress and success for all. I look forward to hearing about the progress of our Athena Swan Working Group as they continue with this important work in the next academic year.'
As next steps, the university will be forming an Athena Swan Working Group in term one 2024/2025 to support the delivery of their action plan and further communications will be published in due course. If anyone would like to register their interest to be involved with this group then please email Sian Atkins.
