UCL achieves first Gold Athena SWAN award for excellence in gender equality

The award recognises "significant and sustained progression and achievement by the department in promoting gender equality and to address challenges particular to the discipline. Gold departments should be beacons of achievement in gender equality and should champion and promote good practice to the wider community."

Professor Sara Mole and Professor Rob de Bruin (MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology), who have co-led the department's effort on Athena SWAN for the past eight years, said: "We are delighted that our efforts to make the LMCB an excellent place to work and our innovative support of career development have been recognised with this Gold award. We began this journey in 2008 and it has developed year on year, with everyone - group leaders, postdocs, students, support staff - now appreciating and helping to implement our vision of #simplygoodpractice in all that we do. Where something is not fair or can be even better, we work to change it." 

UCL also achieved a number of Bronze awards in this round including its first whole faculty award - for The Bartlett, UCL's Faculty of the Built Environment - as well as Bronze departmental awards for UCL Chemistry, UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, UCL Earth Sciences and UCL Geography.

Overall, the university now has 15 Bronze awards, 16 Silver awards and one Gold award, as well as a university-wide Silver award.

Professor Michael Arthur, UCL President & Provost, said: "I'm very proud of what UCL has achieved with the Athena SWAN Charter and deeply impressed by the sincere commitment of staff across UCL, in both academic and professional services roles, to tackle deeply entrenched gender inequalities. Equality is critical to UCL's continued international success and it can only be achieved by collective effort and the involvement of all staff."

Nigel Waugh, Executive Director of UCL HR, said: "I would like to recognise the work that Athena SWAN leads have made and we are immensely proud of colleagues at UCL who tirelessly continue to push the boundaries to support continuous and positive change."

Sarah Guise, UCL HR Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, affirmed: "My team supports colleagues applying for Athena SWAN awards. We never cease to be amazed at how driven people are about equality and fairness at work and will go above and beyond their usual roles to create a better workplace and studying environment for future generations. I hope Sara, Rob and their colleagues will continue to be an inspiration to others at UCL".

Images

• The Athena SWAN Gold logo
• The Athena SWAN group at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology

Links

• MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology - Athena SWAN
• UCL HR - Athena SWAN
• Athena SWAN Charter - Equality Challenge Unit