Gender equality award for SMPCS

A national charter mark recognising work to address gender inequality has been retained by the School of Mathematical, Physical & Computational Sciences (SMPCS) at the University.

The Athena Swan award scheme, run by Advance HE, recognises work to support and transform gender equality within higher education around the world.

SMPCS was praised for its feedback gathering process around parental leave for staff and student experience, its mentoring system to aid promotion and progression, and its work to increase the number of women leading its research projects.

This work allowed the School to successfully bid to renew its Silver charter mark, which was awarded in January 2023 and runs for five years, to January 2028.

Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez, Head of SMPCS, said: “We have so many incredibly talented women among the scientists and students in our School, and are pleased to have progressed our ambitions to increase this number and provide the right support to aid career progression.

“I want to thank all of my colleagues who have contributed to this work, both in the current award cycle and throughout the last 15 years. I am proud of this collective commitment, which is a big reason why our School continues to make strong progress on gender equality.”

SMPCS is one of seven schools at the University to hold an Athena Swan charter mark, with five of those being at Silver level. The University as a whole was also awarded Silver status in 2020.

Only 249 schools and departments at UK universities have achieved Silver or Gold status.

The School has a long track record of work to address gender equality. It has achieved an Athena Swan Silver award mark three times previously, in 2010, 2014 and 2017.