UCL publishes its renewed Institutional Silver Award

As part of the commitment to transparency and accountability UCL has published the Submission and Action Plan (2021-2026).

Key highlights from the submission are:

• Continued impact of the reformed Senior Academic Promotions framework, with over 30% of Professors now female.
• The launch of the Teacher Concordat.
• An increase to 30% (2019) (15.9% in 2014) in female Heads of Departments.
• 78.9% (53.5% in 2015) of departmental staff now work in Athena Swan award-holding departments, with a figure of 93.1% in STEMM departments (from 31.5%).

The submission and 2021-26 Action Plan identified the following priorities:

• Embed intersectional gender and race analysis into UCL gender equality work
• Embed measures to support the promotion of Lecturers to Associate Professors or equivalent.
• Develop interventions to support existing BAME women and men make competitive applications (positive action and mentoring/sponsorship) for Professional Services roles and reduce bias in recruitment processes for all BAME applicants.
• Address male student recruitment decline at undergraduate level, especially in SLMS, and develop measures to support progression in those subjects with male under-representation.
• Develop initiatives to support the careers of Professional Services staff.
• Support the career development of teaching staff by embedding career pathways to ensure parity of esteem.
• Engage central function areas (e.g. HR, Estates, Finance etc.) in EDI and gender equality work.

The latest Silver award complements the 41 awards currently held by departments (the highest in the country), including three at Gold level.