Athena Swan
The Athena Swan Charter is a national initiative run by sector body, Advance HE. It acts as a valuable framework in advancing gender equity within higher education institutions. Loughborough University has held Athena Swan awards since 2009, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to the advancement of gender equity for all. Our 2023 submission lays out 7 key priorities which the institution has committed to over a 5-year period.
Athena Swan Key Priorities
1. Diversify the PGR population to address the underrepresentation of PGR women in all engineering Schools and Science.
2. Improve the retention of academic and professional services women in grades 6-9 roles to enhance the proportion of women in academic and management and specialist roles.
3. Decrease incidences of bullying and harassment for women and improve confidence regarding how the university will respond where incidents occur by improving university culture.
4. Create an infrastructure to improve wellbeing, in particular mental wellbeing, for transgender and non-binary staff and students and those with other underrepresented genders.
5. Increase the proportion of applications from women for roles in Technical Services.
6. Increase the proportion of men shortlisted for roles in Operational Services.
7. Improve women staff’s perceptions of the university’s commitment and efforts towards achieving gender equity.
Internal Support
To complement guidance provided by Advance HE, EDI Services has various mechanisms in place to support colleagues who are progressing Athena Swan actions or writing submissions.
Institutional Athena Swan Work
The institutional Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team, which reports to the EDI Operational Board, has responsibility for overseeing the progress of the institutional Athena Swan action plan. To raise a matter with the group, please email edi@lboro.ac.uk.
Athena Swan clinics for action owners and action implementers take place twice a year however you can contact the EDI Officer - Sex, Gender, Sexual Orientation at any time to for support with your actions.
School Athena Swan Work
In addition to institutional Athena Swan work, many of our Schools hold their own ‘departmental’ Athena Swan awards. Their submissions and action plans provide strategic guidance for work that aims to tackle gender inequity at School level.
An internal panel system is in place to provide university support and assurance for School Athena Swan submissions. These are facilitated by EDI Services. The 'Athena Swan - Schools' channel on the EDI Hub MS Team acts as an online forum where colleagues in Schools can converse with each other about their Athena Swan work, share best practice and ask questions. The channel contains internal and external example submissions, as well as various resources to help Schools with writing their Athena Swan submissions. Request to join the Athena Swan - Schools channel on MS Teams.
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School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering |
Bronze, 2023 |
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School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering |
Bronze, 2020 |
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Loughborough University London |
Bronze, 2023 |
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Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering |
Bronze, 2020 |
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School of Science |
Bronze, 2019 |
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School of Social Sciences and Humanities |
Bronze, 2019 |
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School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences |
Silver, 2020 |
Athena Swan submission and action plan
Loughborough's Institutional Athena Swan Submission and Action Plan is available to download. This document has been reviewed to ensure that it is compliant with GDPR law. It has been necessary to remove some data from this document as a result.