UWE Bristol receives Silver Athena Swan Institutional award

UWE Bristol has received the Silver Athena Swan Institutional Award for gender equality. 

Athena Swan, an Advance Higher Education equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme, recognises and celebrates good practices in higher education and research institutions towards the advancement of gender equality.  

UWE Bristol has held the Athena Swan Bronze Award since 2013, and this year’s Award marks the first Silver Award achieved at an institutional level. Two UWE Bristol schools, Social Sciences and Applied Sciences, currently also hold Silver Athena Swan awards.  

UWE Bristol has seen taken significant steps to foster gender equality including the launch of the inclusive recruitment toolkit and the launch of the Trans and Non-Binary policy – associated guidance referring to trans and non-binary students and staff, and inclusion of trans inclusivity in staff mandatory EDI training. 

Professor Clare Wilkinson, who led the application process, said:  

“The conferment of a Silver award is to be celebrated. The application process provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the significant steps forwards we are taking regarding gender equality at UWE Bristol and offered us an opportunity to better understand actions we need to continue to take. 

“In the next five years we will be focusing further on intersectional issues and will continue to embed gender equality in our processes and practices.” 

The application supports UWE’s five-year gender equality action plan, which aims for a further reduction of the gender pay gap, increasing appointments of Black Asian and minority ethnic women to Professor, Associate Professor and the senior management team, and a listening event for all staff on gender equality. 

More information about Athena Swan at UWE Bristol is available on UWE Bristol’s website.