03/28/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/28/2024 16:00
The University of St Andrews has received a prestigious institutional Silver Athena Swan Award in recognition of its continued efforts to advance gender equality across the University.
This achievement marks a further step toward the University's strategic vision to become a beacon of inclusivity, placing diversity and equality at the heart of everything we do.
In achieving the Silver Athena Swan institutional Award, the University demonstrated significant progress against its previous five-year action plan and success in addressing gender inequalities in at least two priority areas.
St Andrews' successes include:
Vice-Principal (People and Diversity) Dr Rebekah Widdowfield, who led the Award application, said: "I am absolutely delighted by the outcome, which is testament to the sustained commitment of the Athena Swan self-assessment team, the hard work of the core project team and, most importantly, to the work that the University has been taking forward over the last five years to advance gender equality. The progress that has been made reflects the work of a great many people right across the University and the award is an acknowledgement of their efforts."
Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Sally Mapstone FRSE, who sponsored the application, said: "As a career-long advocate for gender equality, I am very pleased by the University's achievement of an Athena Swan Silver Award. It represents a tangible demonstration of all that the University has done and our unwavering commitment to advancing gender equality.
"While we are very proud of the progress we have made, we are ambitious to do more and have identified a number of key priorities for the coming years. These form part of wider work to enhance equality, and include actions to advance race equality - as part of our submissions for the Race Equality Charter - and to enable all our staff to contribute, thrive and perform at their best."
Key priorities for the next five years include:
In addition to the institutional Award, all 18 Schools now hold Athena Swan Awards with five at Silver - including, most recently, the School of Maths and Statistics - and Biology holds a Gold award.
The Athena Swan Charter, run by Advance HE, is a framework which is used across the world to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now used to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.
Issued by the University of St Andrews Communications Office.