Geography renews its Athena Swan Silver Award

Geography Exeter is delighted to announce that its work towards promoting gender equality and tackling the root causes of inequalities has been recognised by Advance HE with the renewal of their Athena Swan Silver award. The Geography department first achieved the Athena Swan Silver award in April 2016 and since then they have continued to work as a community, to implement a number of significant steps towards promoting gender equality. 

The awarding panel commended Geography’s actions around career development, including the excellent writing retreats and the strategic alignment of research and education. Together with support for promotion applications, it recognises that the actions continue to have a direct and positive impact on the number of women at a senior level.

Considered effort continues to be made to grow powerful new leadership for transformative change within the department, through clear progression routes, mentoring, and improved staff participation and representation in decision making.

Head of Geography, Professor Nicola Thomas, said:  

“I am delighted to share that Geography has retained its Athena Swan Silver Award status as a result of the renewal process. I would like to mark the tremendous leadership that Prof. Jo Little has shown in building an equity facing culture in the department. This is a fantastic legacy and recognition of years of commitment and work and is exactly the platform we needed to launch our next phase of work, which will be led by incoming Directors of EDI, Prof Dunia Urrego, and Prof Saffron O’Neill. 

“Exeter Geography has been on a deep and committed transition towards a culture of equity across intersectional positions. We are now in a place where we know our challenges and areas for further work, but we also have mature practices. We are no longer ‘reactive’ but feel brave and confident in creating innovative cultures of transformation which are rapidly changing our department, and are increasingly recognised as leading within the wider Geography community.”

You can view the University of Exeter Silver Athena SWAN Action Plan 2018 here: University of Exeter Silver Athena SWAN Action Plan 2018

The Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy (ESE) currently holds 7 Athena Swan Awards:

• Business School - Bronze Award (April 2021)
• Mathematics and Computer Science  – Bronze Award (April 2020)
• Physics and Astronomy  - Silver Award (April 2023)
• Engineering - Bronze Award (April 2019)
• Ecology and Conservation  and Earth and Environmental Science (formerly CLES Cornwall) - Silver Award (2018)
• Geography  - Silver Award (July 2023)

The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences currently holds 3 Athena Swan Silver awards:

• Biosciences (November 2022)
• Medical School
• Psychology  (April 2020)

In May 2021, the History department became the first Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences discipline at Exeter to receive an  Athena SWAN  Bronze award in recognition of their work towards gender equality. Their submission was commended for its creation of ‘Parental Leave Advocates’ within the department to provide information and support for staff on issues relating to pregnancy and parenting independently from line-managers. The History Athena Swan team is already pushing ahead with further actions relating to improving the PDR process and support for promotions, introducing a code of conduct between staff and examining ways to reduce the unequal impact of heavy workloads.