UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Athena SWAN Action Plan Group
Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday 13 th
September 2011
Present : Sandra Beaufoy (HR), Sara Kalvala (Comp Sci), Theo Gibbs
(Engineering), Martin Lees (Physics), Richard Moffatt (WMG), Alison
Rodger (Chair of Group), Molly Rogers (Psychology), James Smith
(RSS), Julia Smith (WMS) Margaret Thorogood (WMS), Peter
Winstanley (WMS)
In Attendance:
Anne O’Rourke (HR) and Julie Gallimore (Careers)
Apologies : Sue Burrows (Physics), Georgina Copeland (Maths), Emma Anderson
(Life Sciences), Vanessa Goodship (WMG)
Minutes
1.
Anne O’Rourke was in attendance to address any staff data issues
:
Warwick Medical School deliberated on how they wished their departmental data to be split between staff on FA grades and staff on clinical grades.
It was decided that it would look neater to have separate data recorded in separate graphs with an introductory explanation why this was the case.
Action: AO’R to produce data separately and forward to WMS asap.
2. Peter Winstanley (WMS) explained to the group that Professor Dame Sally
Davies had announced that all medical schools who wish to apply for NIHR
Biomedical Research Centres and Units funding will be required to have achieved an Athena Silver Award to be eligible for funding. Peter explained that whilst it was always on the agenda for the Medical School to submit an application for an Athena award, this announcement had spurred them on to start work on an application.
3. Members were asked for progress on their Departmental submissions:
Psychology
– had failed in its bid for Silver in the April round. The department would be approaching Athena to see if their application qualified for a Bronze award and would up-date the group on their intentions once this was known.
WMG
– would be aiming to submit a Bronze application for the November deadline

WMS
– would be aiming to submit a Bronze application for the November deadline.
Computer Science – would be aiming to submit a Bronze application for the
November deadline.
Maths – Alison Roger would be meeting with Colin Sparrow, Head of Maths, and would discuss if Maths would be ready to submit for November deadline.
Engineering
– would not be ready for a November submission.
Physics will be working on renewing their IoP Juno Championship award which expires in 2012.
Action: SB encouraged departments to arrange Forum Group meetings as soon as possible and to ensure that the meetings were noted – there will be a need to record the number of meetings on submissions.
4. Discussions took place about the career destinations of PhD students and
PDRA’s. It was noted that often PhD students in WMS are already employed and their companies sponsor them to come to Warwick to take their degrees, but afterwards they return to work for their original employer, and therefore do not have any intention of remaining in academia.
SK noted that often the female PhD students in Computer Science are from overseas and are funded as such, with part of their funding requirement to be for them to return to their home country for employment.
Julie Gallimore commented that often our graduates do not wish to stay in academia, but leave Warwick with fantastic qualifications and experience, which enables them to gain very exciting employment. Departments should ensure that they include career destination data in their submissions.
5. Departments were told that Alison and Sandra would be happy to read through their submissions once they were drafted and if anyone had any issues they wished to discuss at another meeting to let Sandra know.
Date of Next Meeting to be arranged