Glasgow gains further two departmental Athena SWAN awards - September 2014

Published: 14 October 2014

A further two departmental Athena SWAN awards have been conferred on the University of Glasgow for the Institute of Health and Wellbeing and the School of Chemistry.

A further two departmental Athena SWAN awards have been conferred on the University of Glasgow.

The Institute of Health and Wellbeing and the School of Chemistry have secured bronze awards in the scheme established by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) to champion gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics (STEMM).

The new additions join the existing bronze-status School of Geographical and Earth Sciences and the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, and the School of Physics and Astronomy which has a silver award.

The School of Law has a bronze Gender Equality Charter Mark having been part of the pilot for this initiative also operated by the ECU  – with the full roll out of this charter mark for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences expected next year. The University overall has secured bronze status.

Professor Sally Ann Cooper, Deputy Director of the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, said: “We’re delighted to have gained bronze status from Athena Swan. It’s the start of a process we hope will lead to higher status as we strive to ensure gender equality is firmly embedded within our Institute.”

Professor Stephen Clarke, Head of the School of Chemistry, said: “Ensuring our colleagues are valued and recognised on the strength of their individual contribution – regardless of their gender – is very important to me. I am tremendously pleased we have gained bronze status and hope to achieve silver, on our way to gold, at the earliest opportunity.”

Professor Anne Anderson, Vice Principal and Equality and Diversity Champion at the University of Glasgow, said: “I would like to congratulate the two latest winners of these bronze awards. As a university we are committed to improving gender equality and we have an action plan in place to achieve this.

“These latest awards confirm we are making progress though we recognise we still have some way to go before we can honestly say our systems, procedures and culture are truly gender equal.”

The awards will be conferred at a ceremony at the University of Cambridge on Thursday 6 November.


First published: 14 October 2014