Two more Sussex schools receive awards for supporting women’s careers
Two schools of the University of Sussex have received awards for their work in supporting women’s careers.
Megan Rowse (left) and Dr Judith Good (right) of Engineering and Informatics receive the Athena SWAN bronze award from Professor Dame Julia Higgins (centre)
Jenny Holmes (left) and Professor Helen Smith (right) of BSMS receive the Athena SWAN bronze award from Professor Dame Julia Higgins (centre).
The School of Engineering and Informatics and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) were both awarded a bronze award in the Athena SWAN Charter scheme this month.
The scheme, run by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), recognises commitment to advancing women’s careers in higher education and research.
In its strategy, the University pledges to further improve the proportion of women in senior roles, and Sussex already holds institutional bronze accreditation in the Athena SWAN Charter.
After a major self-evaluation exercise, the two schools submitted their applications for bronze awards in November 2014. They heard in May 2015 that they had been successful and attended an awards ceremony on 15 June at the University of Greenwich.
BSMS have continued to take forward the action plan that accompanied their bronze submission, which has included running focus groups for staff and students as well as training and networking events. They are in the midst of their third annual academic and research staff culture survey. All of these will feed into their intended submission for a silver award in November 2015.
The two new bronze departmental awards bring the total at Sussex to five; Engineering and Informatics and BSMS join Life Sciences, Physics and the School of Law, Politics and Sociology (LPS).
Psychology and Mathematics are both awaiting the outcomes of their submissions for departmental bronze awards and the University is working to renew its bronze Athena SWAN accreditation at an institutional level in April 2016.