Reporter

What does Athena Silver SWAN mean for Imperial?

• “The Athena SWAN appeals to the competitive spirit of Imperial’s academics. In order to win a SWAN and compete against other universities, departments need to go back to basics and think about the barriers women encounter within their departments and consider what changes can be made.”
  Professor Dame Julia Higgins, Senior Research Investigator (Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology)







• “As a College, our view is that anything we do to improve the employment situation for women will also improve the employment situation for men, so we have embraced the Athena award as a way to improve being at Imperial for all our academic staff.”
  Professor Dot Griffiths, Deputy Principal and Head of Programmes (Business School)

How has the Athena SWAN scheme benefited your department?

• “The whole Athena exercise was good for staff morale – it made people feel they had a voice and they felt valued at the end of it. Having the silver award is also something we can use to recruit staff – it lets them know there is a level of commitment towards, not only trying to retain the best scientists, but also making it an enjoyable place to work.”
  Clare Lloyd, Professor of Respiratory Immunology (NHLI)




• “We discovered all sorts of things we didn’t know about staff satisfaction. A good thing is to get staff involved at every stage and as soon as possible. Once staff start being consulted about different aspects of your department’s processes and you start reacting to their opinions, then the whole department is a nicer place.”
  Professor Joanna Haigh, Head of the Department of Physics
  




• “We now have a lot more clarity with our procedures – things are written down and they are accessible. It’s not as if they have necessarily changed, it’s just that staff know about them. A tip for those trying to apply to gain an award is to get all the numerical data – from turnover by grade and gender and ratio of course applications to offers and acceptances by gender – it takes a lot longer than you might think!”
  Tom Welton, Head of the Department of Chemistry