UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Notes from the Athena Network Group
Held on
Tuesday 8 October 2013
Present:
Sandra Beaufoy, Sue Burrows, Oliver Cooper, Sophie Clohessy, Alexandra Cristea,
Wilfrid Kendal, Mia Khan, Sharon Neal, Alison Rodgers, Annie Young
Apologies:
Laura Green, Nav Patel, Julia Smith, Leonie Walls
1.
Matters arising
REPORTED: (S Beaufoy)
(i)
WMG
That the Equality Challenge Unit have requested that WMG make some changes to their
Action Plan, in order for their submission to be considered for a Bronze Award.
(ii) GEM
That Oliver Cooper (WBS) attended a workshop in September 2013 to ascertain the
requirements of the Gender Equality Charter Mark. WBS taking part in the pilot of the
scheme and will submit in April 2014. The full launch of the scheme will be in October 2014.
2.
Outcome of recent Athena submissions
REPORTED: (S Beaufoy)
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
3.
That Warwick has achieved a Silver Athena award, making it the fourth institution to
receive this award, and the only institution in this round of submissions.
That the Department of Statistics were awarded a Bronze award.
That Computer Science did not achieve an award, and would be re-submitting in
April 2014.
That the Athena Awards Ceremony will take place on 7 November 2013 at Imperial
College.
Progress on Departmental Action Plans
(i)
Physics
REPORTED BY: (Sue Burrows)
That Physics will be submitting to renew their Silver at the same time as their
Institute of Physics JUNO Championship award.
(ii)
Psychology
REPORTED: (by Mia Khan)
That Psychology are progressing well.
The Department’s Welfare and
Communication Group met recently to consolidate their action plan. They will be
focussing on being ready to submit for a Silver Award in April 2014.
(iii)
Warwick Medical School
REPORTED: (by Annie Young)
(a) That the pilot car parking scheme for parents with children in the University
nursery was proving successful and that WMS recommended that it be
implemented throughout the University.
(b) That WMS Faculty Advisory Board had requested an annual report on their
Athena work.
4.
Creating the pipeline for women
REPORTED: (by Alison Rodgers)
(a) That efforts should be made to encourage female staff to apply for roles in senior
management.
REPORTED: (by Sharon Neal)
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
5.
That everyone should have a career progression discussion as part of their Annual
Review.
The HR Director is currently investigating a Talent Management Programme.
That the University will be sending two female members of staff, one academic and
one professional on a national leadership course for women called ‘Aurora’. This is a
new course, so not tried and tested, but if feedback is good, more places will
become available to female staff next year.
Based on a programme run at Monash University, Warwick is considering a
shadowing programme, so that staff have an opportunity to see what a senior
management role entails.
Any Other Business
REPORTED: (by A Rodger)
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
That it is important for early career females to gain advice for how to benefit most
from research collaborations.
That the Women In Science event held in September was successful and that there
had been a number of very useful career talks from female associate professors on
how they progressed their careers.
That bullying and harassment issues were difficult to report without the individuals
feeling that they may be implications for their careers.
RESOLVED:
That it would be useful if the bullying and harassment questions in the PULSE Staff Survey could
be amended in order that departments gain more specific awareness of incidents.
6.
Date for next meeting
The date of the next meeting to be arranged.