Faculty reinforces commitment to gender equality with Athena Swan Silver
The Faculty of Biological Sciences has successfully renewed its prestigious Athena Swan Silver Award in recognition of its ongoing commitment to gender equality.
The award from Advance HE, which governs the charter, recognises the faculty's efforts to create an inclusive working environment through initiatives that attract, support and develop staff across academic, professional, and support roles.
The Athena Swan Charter was created to assist institutions like Leeds to meet both equality legislation and the expectations of research funders by using a rigorous self-assessment framework. It helps higher education establishments to identify areas for improvement, implement meaningful change, and share examples of good practice.
The renewed Silver Award, valid until November 2030, supports the University's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy to be a place where every person is accepted as equal, inspired to participate and empowered to succeed.
Key achievements
The faculty demonstrated significant progress against the action plan set out in its initial Silver Award, which was received in 2019. Notable successes include:
- improved wellbeing room and baby change facilities
- increased representation of women in faculty seminars
- successful engagement with PDRA events such as Coffee & Careers meetings, with non-academic guest speakers.
The faculty has also seen an increase in the percentage of female grade 8 academics and increasing numbers of academic staff across all grades applying for promotion.
Looking ahead: Priorities for 2025-2030
The faculty will now work through its Athena Swan Silver Action Plan 2025-30, which focuses on key priorities identified through data analysis and consultation with colleagues.
The plan includes establishing a data subgroup to develop standard operating protocols for rolling data collection and analysis, engaging with staff to better understand mental health support needs, and examining career development pathways to support more women to apply for promotion at higher grades.
The plan also addresses student education, exploring ways to encourage more male students to engage with year abroad and placement opportunities, and working to close the gap in First-Class degree awards between genders.
This has been a truly collective effort across the faculty. A huge thank you to everyone who has participated in all the work on our submission, given feedback and taken part in case studies.
Dr Alison Divine, Athena Swan Academic Lead and School of Biomedical Sciences EDI Lead
Achieving the Athena Swan Silver Award for a second time reaffirms our faculty's values and our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. This isn’t a stand-alone initiative – it is integral to our pursuit of excellence in research and teaching, and to creating a supportive environment where talented people can succeed.
Professor Aysha Divan, Faculty of Biological Sciences Dean
Further information
The faculty is seeking representatives from across its schools to join the Self-Assessment team. Those interested should contact their School EDI lead: Alison Divine (School of Biomedical Sciences), Erica Wilson (School of Molecular and Cellular Biology) or Alison Dunn (School of Biology).
