Athena SWAN Awards

Athena SWAN Gold Award

The School of Biology achieved a Departmental Athena SWAN Gold Award in May 2021.

The redacted submission and action plan can be found here (NB. file is 8 MB).

We received thoughtful critical feedback on our submission from Advance HE including: “The panel commends the level of ambition in some of the targets” and noted “Progression and achievement is sustained and is now being demonstrated through impact that is clearly linked to previous actions”.

Advance HE also produce a resource highlighting examples of good-practice from each submission round. Our submission noted that “Staff have not only been supported to attend Aurora workshops, but the impact on individuals in terms of their progression and on the School in terms of increasing women in leadership roles is clearly demonstrated”.

We are now working on implementation of our action plan – the outcomes of which are recorded in many of our news posts.

Athena SWAN Silver Award

The School of Biology achieved a Departmental Athena SWAN Silver Award in May 2018.

The submission and action plan can be found here.

We received excellent feedback from Advance HE : “This is a strong submission that evidences a track record of effective activity. Equality and diversity work is clearly embedded in the school, rather than being driven by Athena SWAN cycles. The school is a leader within the institution. Where there are areas that need further attention, these are recognised and actions are in place.”

Advance HE also produce a resource highlighting examples of good-practice from each submission round. Our submission was noted for Undergraduate tutorials on unconscious bias and disability issues. More information on these tutorials is available on our activities page.

We are now working on implementation of our action plan – the outcomes of which are recorded in many of our news posts. Biology staff can also view our progress updates here.