Athena Swan Charter

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. It is run by Advance HE.

Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now used to address gender equality more broadly across all disciplines and not just barriers to progression that affect women.

The Athena Swan Implementation Group (ASIG) is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Athena Swan action plan and assessing the impact of actions.

ASIG is chaired by Dr Jane Illés.

ASIG is a monitoring and delivery group which reports through the Chair into the University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee.

The group will produce interim reports during the award period which review progress since the award and set out plans for the next year of delivery. ASIG will proactively promote the Athena Swan work to achieve greater awareness of gender equality activity across the University and support sharing of good practice.

In achieving the Silver Athena Swan Award, the University has shown significant progress against its previous Bronze Award five-year action plan (2018 to 2023) and success in addressing gender inequalities.

St Andrews’ successes include:

• Better support for carers, recognising that care continues to fall disproportionately on women. This includes extended leave provision for a wider range of situations including non-emergencies, enhanced maternity leave, and improved policies to support flexible working leading to an uptick in staff taking up flexible working arrangements.
• Enhanced support for women's careers, including changes to the promotion processes and introduction of the Elizabeth Garrett Mentoring Programme, contributing to a marked increase in the proportion of women professors since 2016 (21% to 28%).
• Action on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) resulting in St Andrews becoming the first university in the UK to be awarded the EmilyTest Charter. 

Our Silver Action Plan is focused on five priority areas identified in our application:

• Increasing representation of women in the professoriate and senior roles by increasing transparency of the different journeys to more senior roles, reviewing recruitment, promotion and senior role appointment processes to support the emergence of a diverse cohort of future leaders across different career tracks.
• Supporting professional services staff career pathways by expanding training and mentoring opportunities and developing a competency framework to support progression opportunities and recognise excellent performance.
• Addressing intersectional inequalities by reviewing recruitment processes and increasing support for promotion applications to address areas which may disadvantage black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women.
• Ensuring sustainable workloads by identifying ways to streamline working practices and revising workload allocation guidance to improve staff experience, work-life balance and well-being, particularly for academic women and staff with caring responsibilities.
• Closing the gender pay gap by modelling different interventions and providing greater clarity on salary review processes to reduce the gender pay gap for the university as a whole, and particularly at Grade 9.

To give feedback on the application or proposed actions, or if you have suggestions for gender equality activities, please contact athenaswanchair@st-andrews.ac.uk.

There are a number of things you can do to support the St Andrews Athena Swan work:

• Explore the Athena Swan action plan (below) and reflect on how you and your School, professional services unit, society or network can support delivery of our ambitions to tackle gender-based inequalities.
• Engage with the Diversity Calendar – check out the Learn and Do sections of the Gender Equality page of the Diversity Calendar, share you insights, or contribute details on relevant projects, events or initiatives.
• Promote your gender equality events – email edicomms@st-andrews.ac.uk to share information on any events you are running related to gender equality and EDI to help raise awareness and bring our community together.

You can download the University’s Athena Swan Silver application and current action plan for the Implementation Group.

• Athena Swan Silver application (PDF)
• Athena Swan Silver action plan 2024–2028 (PDF)