Gender equality
The Advance HE Athena Swan Scheme recognises commitment to advancing the careers of women in science. The School of Biology currently holds an Athena Swan Gold Award (May 2021), recognising our commitment to embedding gender equality into all of our policies, practices and culture (submission and action plan available). Through many actions, we have worked to eradicate historical gender biases in recruitment, promotion, and grant success.
Beacon activities
- UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science Public Seminar: since 2017, we have run annual events to showcase a high-profile female biologist, with their lectures live-streamed and available online.
- Academic Women Here: Several School of Biology staff participated in the St Andrews University Publication “Academic Women Here! On being a female academic at the University of St Andrews”, showing the diversity of possible paths through academia, emphasising that there is no such thing as an archetypal female academic.
- Publications: members of the school have published thought-provoking articles
- Academics must balance privacy and honesty to become great role models (Nature Careers Column, Hooker 2020)
- Adopting as academics: what we learnt (Nature Careers Column, Ly & Bailey 2021)
- Conference guidelines: Following concerns about diversity and inclusion at conferences, we produced guidelines for organising a diverse conference/workshop.
- Recruitment advice:
- We have developed an advertising and recruitment checklist to highlight EDI issues around advertising new positions
- We have developed EDI Guidelines for the Assessment of Candidates and Recruitment Presentations
- Unconscious bias training for all staff and students. Prior to any interviews, we ask staff to take an unconscious bias awareness refresher by looking over the University resources and watching the video produced by the Royal Society. For academic staff appointments, we also ask that the selection panel watches this video on common biases during candidate selection.
Students
Students that become pregnant during their studies are advised to contact their local GP or the University’s Student Health Helpline. The University’s Parental Leave for Postgraduate Research Students policy outlines the procedures and support mechanisms available for postgraduate research students.
Staff
The School Planning for Leave document provides details on the procedures to be followed when applying for a period of family-related leave and outlines what support can be expected from the School before, during and after the leave. Staff have the option to meet with the BEDI director before going on leave, in addition to the Head of School, Director of Teaching and Director of Research (if relevant). Staff can also meet with the BEDI Director on their return from leave to provide feedback.
Core hours have been established within the School of Biology to offer a more family friendly environment and in order that part-time workers or those with particular caring needs will not be disadvantaged by their inability to attend events. If possible, events such as external seminar speakers or management/departmental meetings should not be held prior to 9am or after 3pm (these are hours of primary school attendance in Fife). Core hours in the School have been approved by management group and are currently 9.15am to 2.45pm.
Flexible working: we encourage flexible working when possible. A recent university discussion on this is available at: Flexible Working Forum recording – MS Stream (University Login required) (25mins). The University’s Flexible Working Policy can be found in the policy hub.
Caring fund: The University of St Andrews has established a Caring Fund to help those with caring responsibilities claim additional costs incurred when attending pre-approved work events such as conferences, training or career development. The university also provides a webpage for carers.
Further resources
