Gender Equality Plan
Loughborough University is committed to all forms of equity and inclusion. Further information about our activities is available on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion website.
Our new strategic plan, which was approved by Council in March 2022, puts equity, diversity and inclusion at the heart of all our activities as we strive to become a more diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation.
Although we intend to take an intersectional approach, we recognise that gender equity is vitally important to the success of our organisation. We have ambitious aims and objectives to increase our numbers of female academic staff and to create an environment in which they can thrive.
This webpage provides a summary of our activities which focus on gender equality and also demonstrates our commitment to aligning with the Horizon Europe Gender Equality Plan.
We have set out below how we comply with these requirements.
Professor Nick Jennings
Vice Chancellor
Be a public document
There is no single document which encapsulates all of the work underway to address gender inequality at the University.
The majority of our work is contained in our Athena Swan action plans. Further information on the EC Gender Equality Themes is provided below:
| Theme | Further information |
|---|---|
| Work-life balance and organisational culture | See Athena Swan work |
| Gender balance in leadership and decision-making | See Athena Swan work |
| Gender equality in recruitment and career progression | See Athena Swan work |
| Integration of the gender dimension into research and teaching content |
The gender dimension is essential to our institutional progress in relation to both research and teaching. We continue to support this development through our Athena Swan submissions. Additionally, in research we have comprehensive expertise, including an Inclusive Engineering research cluster, which seeks to develop future leaders in engineering with proficiency in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices. We have awards for EDI including gender including CALIBRE Awards with some specific research groups for gender like Gendered Lives, specialisms like Gender and Security and centres where gender is a prominent factor like WEDC. Further, for example, a significant externally funded project like Research Project to delve into gender inequality in Para sport media. We monitor research data for gender (and other protected characteristics) e.g. PGR intake and completion, and research grant activity (currently emerging from GDPR quarantine) and ensure that gender is prominent on key processes like REF Across teaching and research, we support important student groups such as the Women’s Engineering Society, we celebrate our past 100 years of women engineers at Loughborough University. For our staff, we support the Loughborough University MAIA Women’s Network. |
| Measures against gender-based violence including sexual harassment |
The University has recently developed a sexual violence policy. |
Have dedicated resources
We have an array of resources that are either in full or in part dedicated to progressing our gender equality activity. These include:
- Pro Vice-Chancellor (EDI) – the strategic lead for our EDI activity and a member of the University Executive Leadership;
- Director of Student Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – working with the PVC EDI, as the operational lead for EDI activity and a member of the University Leadership Group;
- Planning EDI Team – including an EDI Manager, a EDI officer with a gender. This team work centrally to facilitate progress on gender equality and other EDI activities across the institution;
- School Athena SWAN or EDI leads - Every academic School has one or more members of staff who lead their gender equality and/or wider EDI work;
- Governance Forums - an EDI committee and EDI Operational Board which oversee and monitor the progression of our gender equality work and implement action plans, respectively.
Include arrangements for data collection and monitoring
In addition to the EDI statutory data additional activity is undertaken on an annual basis to monitor progress against our gender and wider EDI commitments. This activity includes
- Gender pay gap – including an annual equal pay audit
- Race pay gap – including an annual equal pay audit
- Reviewing of gender data relating to recruitment, population, promotion and turnover
- Data monitoring and discussions regarding % of female staff and pay gaps occur between the Provost and Deans on an annual basis.
- Reviewing of rewards by protected characteristic
- Reviewing of student data relating to our Access and Participation Plan obligations
Be supported by training and capacity building
As an institution we are committed to supporting our staff, students and community to understand how they can promote gender equity in their everyday work and lives.
Our institution strives to be an inclusive, welcoming and vibrant culture in which all colleagues and students feel valued, respected and engaged. This means all of us at Loughborough have a responsibility to promote equality, dignity and respect and challenge unfairness and discrimination in order to create and sustain an inclusive and welcoming environment.
To ensure these values and principles are embedded at Loughborough, all new staff to attend our mandatory Belonging and Inclusion course which is run both online and face to face. Other courses such as Workplace Banter, The Inclusive Manager and Unconscious Bias have also been added to our open programme.
In addition, we offer Recruitment and Selection training to recruiting staff, panel members and Chairs with a focus on avoiding discrimination at both the shortlisting and selection stage. More information on training can be found on our Organisational Development website.
Targeted programmes for women include our inaugural TORCH Academy and participation in the WHEN 100 Black Women Professors programme. TORCH Academy is our flagship development programme for Academic women and is the result of existing gender equity work at Loughborough.
Professional Services staff are invited to attend our Springboard, a modular training programme for women who want to take control, become more assertive, increase their confidence and build themselves a more positive attitude in both their work and home lives.
We provide dedicated coaching and mentoring opportunities to all staff and provide funding to attend learning events and conferences for both personal and professional development.
Events such as International Women's Day and National Women in Engineering Day are celebrated with a specially curated programme of talks, knowledge sharing sessions and development activities.