University wins Athena SWAN award
Published: 3 May 2013
The University of Glasgow has been given an institutional Bronze Award by Athena SWAN.
The University of Glasgow has been given an institutional Bronze Award by Athena SWAN. The Athena SWAN Awards recognise success in developing employment practices to further and support the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine in higher education. 
There was an additional boost for the School of Physics & Astronomy which was awarded a Silver, departmental award. This was in recognition of the School already holding the Institute of Physics Juno Champion status which seeks to redress the under-representation of women at the very highest level of physics academia in the UK and Ireland.
The University's Athena SWAN Bronze Award was in recognition of a commitment to provide the resources necessary to eliminate gender bias and create an inclusive culture that values female staff. Although Athena SWAN is focused on the STEMM disciplines, the University’s Senior Management Group and the Equality and Diversity Strategy Committee say they believe that the achievement of a Bronze Award will have a positive impact across the institution, on both male and female careers and across disciplines.
Professor Neal Juster, the University’s Gender Equality Champion, said: “I am very pleased that the University has been awarded the institutional Athena SWAN Bronze Award. The application, and associated action plan, was the result of a lot of hard work by the Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team (ASSAT), drawn from across the University.
“ASSAT also ran a number of consultation events with staff. These events provided valuable input to the application, improving its content. However Athena SWAN is not about being able to use a logo on our letter head, its value is in ensuring that we pursue the action plan and effect real change to our culture and processes. Although ASSAT will monitor progress, all staff need to be committed to ensuring we are an organization committed to gender equality.”
In his letter of endorsement for the Athena SWAN application, the Principal, Professor Anton Muscatelli, wrote: “I recognise that there is still a long way to go. A key challenge is to ensure that gender equality is firmly embedded in the culture. I am personally deeply committed to ensuring that significant progress continued to be made.”
The awards will be presented at an awards ceremony to be held at The Royal Society of Edinburgh on Thursday 6th June.
First published: 3 May 2013
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