Posted: 7th May 2024

The department is pleased to announce that it has retained its Athena Swan Bronze award, recognising its ongoing work towards advancing gender equality. 

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework to support and transform gender equality within higher education and research, and the award reflects the department’s commitment to evaluating and developing its practices in this area. The Charter provides a framework through which the department can identify its strengths and gaps, and develop actions to drive forward its ethos of inclusivity. The latest Bronze award, first obtained in 2014, will run for five years until 2029. 

The awarding panel commended the department for its ‘effective integration’ of its previous action plan with new data to identify priorities, the ‘clearly articulated’ rationale and overarching success measures for these priorities, and the appointment of an Athena Swan Coordinator (now EDI Facilitator), increasing departmental resource for diversity and inclusion work. The panel provided a number of recommendations for strengthening the department’s proposed action plan for 2024 – 2028, which will be explored this term.  

I am delighted that the department’s Athena Swan Bronze award has been renewed for a further five years. This latest award is a fitting testament to our ongoing commitment to achieving equality across the department, and to enabling and empowering women across computer science. Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg, Head of Department

Throughout the award period, the department’s EDI Committee will review progress on the action plan each term, and a larger annual review of data and progress on success measures will be used to update the plan, incorporating input from Faculty and feedback from the wider department.  

Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Athena Swan Charter is now used to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression for women. For more information see: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters