Athena SWAN
The School of Engineering and Informatics is committed to promoting gender equality and enabling all staff to achieve their maximum potential. This commitment is recognised by Athena SWAN Charter awards.
The Athena SWAN Charter was developed to combat under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics (STEMM) in higher education and research. It covers:
- representation in academic roles
- progression of students into academia
- journey through career milestones
- working environment for all staff
The University of Sussex holds a bronze Athena SWAN institutional award, in recognition of its commitment to promoting gender equality for women in STEMM disciplines.
The School of Engineering and Informatics holds a bronze Athena SWAN departmental award, which recognises that the School is working to promote gender equality, has identified particular challenges and is taking action to address these. The School initially gained a bronze award in 2015, and successfully renewed it in the April 2018 award round (Engineering and Informatics Athena SWAN bronze [PDF 1.08MB]). The award was initially valid for 3 years. An extension in the renewal process due to the disruption Covid-19 pandemic was granted, and we are currently intending to renew in June 2024.
Current activities
Athena SWAN is relevant to the whole School of Engineering and Informatics, and is a standing agenda item for School committees. The process itself is managed by the self-assessment team (SAT) whose members represent a cross-section of the School. Academic and administrative staff members are:
- Dr Spyros Skarvelis-Kazakos (lead)
- Ms Ferheen Ayaz
- Dr Emeline Brulé
- Prof John Carroll
- Dr Grecia Garcia Garcia
- Dr Romeo Glovnea
- Dr Kate Howland
- Dr Ian Mackie
- Ms Lucy Macpherson
- Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales
- Mr Luke Scott
- Ms Margarita Steinberg
- Prof Ian Wakeman
- Dr Julie Weeds
The SAT is responsible for implementing the action plan in our Athena SWAN application. A sample of the actions are:
- Monitoring timings of School meetings and social gatherings to ensure they are held within core hours unless a different timing is unavoidable.
- Making staff aware of changes to equality and diversity policies.
- Encouraging staff to attend equality and diversity training, particularly on unconscious bias.
- Encouraging female staff to attend the academic promotions workshop, and monitoring its impact via a focus group.
- Contacting female staff about career support initiatives which are relevant to them and encouraging them to take part.
- Running a focus group to understand what types of networking opportunities would be most beneficial to staff.
- Encouraging female students to consider further study, and if appropriate providing mentoring.
- Conducting staff and student surveys to monitor the effects of Athena SWAN initiatives.