The School is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the Athena Swan Silver Charter, a global framework promoting gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. It aims to advance women’s careers and address broader gender equality issues worldwide.
Advance HE the organisation behind the Athena Swan framework has conferred the Business School with a Silver Award for its recent submission. The acknowledgement reflects the work the School has undertaken to improve policies and practice in relation to gender equality and builds upon our previous bronze award. The new award runs for five years from the start of April 2024.
The Athena Swan submission was led by Dr Li Ding, supported by Dr Farzana Chowdhury and a team of 27 colleagues and students. The review panel commend the School for its work to progress gender equality to date, including the development of structures and processes that underpin and recognise gender equality and will be able to carry this work forward.
The panel feedback highlighted the focus given by the School and welcomed continued engagement stating “There is a clear endorsement from the Executive Dean and the governance structure for Equality Diversity and Inclusion is well-evidenced. The panel commend the approach taken to reviewing the EDI impact of policies and would be interested to hear in a future submission how the effectiveness of policies is reviewed once they are implemented”.
Executive Dean, Professor Cathy Cassell commented on the success, saying “I am delighted the School has been awarded silver Athena Swan accreditation. This is excellent news. A lot of work has gone into this achievement. I would particularly like to thank Li Ding who led the submission, ably assisted by Farzana Chowdhury. Martyna Sliwa also played an important role as did all of the members of our Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team. Credit should also be given to all colleagues who work across the School on a daily basis to progress equality, diversity and inclusion. This really is a whole School achievement”.
Dr Li Ding added, “EDI holds significant importance for all organisations operating within society across the world. For a business school with a vision to enhance equity and developing the global business leaders of tomorrow, it is even more important we lead the way in this area.”
Confirming the award, Dani Glazzard, Head of Athena Swan said, "We would like to congratulate you on this achievement and look forward to your continued involvement with the Athena Swan Charter.”
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