Applied Sciences leads the way with their second Athena Swan Silver award

The School of Applied Sciences has successfully renewed its Athena Swan Silver award and is now considering going for Gold when the accreditation next expires in 2028.

The Athena Swan Charter was originally established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) in higher education and research, and has more recently extended to arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law.

Professor Michael Ginger, Dean of the School of Applied Sciences, offered his gratitude to  the University’s HR department for their key support and congratulated Dr Gemma Sweeney, Chair of the School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and its members, for leading the successful renewal application.

“I hope everyone throughout the School of Applied Sciences rightfully takes pride in this award,” said Professor Ginger in the School’s newsletter.

“Your collegiate approach, offering and acting on new ideas to refine an inclusive, equal way of working has seen us retain our Silver status and on the assumption of our continuing good progress we have received warm encouragement from the assessment panel to consider positioning ourselves for a gold application next time around.

“We will work as hard as we possibly can to ensure this achievement becomes a reality when we come to renew the accreditation in five years’ time,” he said.

The Charter has included trans staff and students since 2015 and now also covers staff in professional and support roles. In committing to the principles of the Athena Swan Charter the School of Applied Sciences joins a global community with a shared goal of addressing gender inequalities and embedding inclusive cultures.

Since receiving the first Silver award in 2018, the assessment panel noted how the School of Applied Sciences has made significant progress in a number of key areas:

  • Recruitment of women academics - 43% of academic and research staff are now women, compared with 36% at the time of the last award
  • Significant increase in proportion of women applying for academic and research roles - up from 28% of applications being from women to 45% over the same period
  • Gender balance of students on Chemical Sciences undergraduate courses –consistently have gender parity on these compared with only 36% women four years ago, which was below national benchmarks
  • Provision of career progression support for staff such as bespoke career progression workshops, a writing retreat (part sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry), and sabbatical opportunities
  • Continued consultation with staff about their perception and experience of working in the School via the Culture Survey.

As the School is considering going for Gold next time, following the advice of the panel who conferred the Silver award, a number of priority areas for further work have been identified:

  • Career progression of women academics (there has been a reduction in the proportion of women applying for promotion over the last three years which is much lower than the proportion of men), and there will be a big focus on mentoring and support
  • Gender balance of staff in the Department of Chemical Sciences (currently 22% women)
  • Gender balance of the senior leadership team
  • Continuing development and refinement of the Work Allocation Model
  • Reducing the student attainment gap, particularly in relation to prior attainment.

For more information on Athena Swan please contact the University’s Dr Gemma Sweeney.