E&D St Andrews

Equality and Diversity Committee

Janet Lovett Director of Equality and Diversity Janet Lovett is a Royal Society University Research Fellow in Photonoics and Condensed Matter. Her work is in the field of applying magnetic resonance spectroscopy for structural biology. She joined the school in 2013 and became a member of the committee in June 2017. She took over as Director of Equality and Diversity in January 2021.
Lucy Hadfield Lucy Hadfield is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School, she coordinates the School’s Widening Access Programme the Gateway to Physics and Astronomy and has been a member of academic staff since 2010. She was a member of the IoPs Diversity and Inclusion committee (2013-2016) and is an currently a member of the FIFE STEM Strategy Group. She joined the committee in September 2016 until June 2017, and has since rejoined. She was Director of Equality and Diversity from July 2019 till January 2021 and is currently one of the School Wellbeing Officers, with a focus on PGR and staff.
Paul Cruickshank Paul Cruickshank is a Teaching Fellow in the School. He was an undergraduate, post-graduate and post-doc in St Andrews, and is now a Teaching Fellow. He was on the committee at its inception in 2010, and rejoined in September 2019. He is currently one of the School Wellbeing Officers, with a focus on undergraduate students.
Ian Bonnell Head of School Ian Bonnell is the Head of School. He is from Quebec and moved to St Andrews when he joined the astronomy group in the School. Ian has been on the committee since September 2019 when he took over as Head of School.
Rose Waugh Rose Waugh is a PhD student in the astronomy group, working on stellar magnetic fields and their evolution. She became a member of the committee in May 2018.
Viktor Nordgren Viktor Nordgren is a PhD student in the Quantum Optics & Quantum Information group, working on Hybrid ancilla-driven quantum computation. He joined the committee in January 2020.
Linda Cousins Linda Cousins is the Teaching secretary within the school. She plays a vital role in the running of the undergraduate degree programme. She has been a member of the committee since June 2018.
Paula De Viveiros Teixeira Paula De Viveiros Teixeira is the postdoc representitive on the committee and joined in September 2019.
Amy Gallacher Amy Gallacher is an undergraduate within the school and was elected School President of Physics and Astronomy for 2019/2020. She joined the committee in September 2019.
Vivienne Wild Juno Champion lead Vivienne Wild chaired the committee since October 2015 and stepped down in July 2019 for research leave. She is a Reader in the astronomy group and works in the field of extragalactic astronomy. She has been a member of the academic staff since January 2012 and is leading the Juno Champion renewal in 2021.
Graham Smith Graham Smith is a Professor in the department, heading the group of mm-waves and epr, and has held a lecturing position within the school since 1998. He joined the committee in August 2018 as research staff liason.
Claudia Cyganowski Claudia Cyganowski is a Reader in the astronomy group, and has held a lecturing position within the school since 2014. She joined the committee in January 2020.
Karen McGregor Karen McGregor is an Equality and Diversity Awards Adviser within Human Resources, responsible for helping Science schools in the EDI journey and Athena Swan/Juno submissions. She joined the University in July 2018 and our committee shortly afterwards.

Equality and Diversity Achievements

Staff Survey

In December 2015/January 2016 we surveyed staff and graduate students in the School to find out about their experiences and perceptions, particularly those that may be affected by equality issues. 119 people responded, including 30 academic staff (75%), 35 research staff (50%), 16 non-academic staff (67%) and 33 post-graduate students (38%). 5 further respondents did not specify their role. A summary of the results was emailed to all students and staff in July 2016: if you would like a copy of this please contact a member of the E&D committee.

Student Survey

In 2015 the student reps on the E&D committee included an additional E&D section in the student-led mid-semester questionnaire. This included questions on equal opportunities and experiences of discrimination, and was distributed to a total of 268 students. The overall results were extremely positive, although it did highlight a need for greater visibility of the E&D committee - one of the reasons for developing this website.

The survey was repeated in 2019/S1, finding no significant changes. We still see that only about 80\% of our students agree or strongly agree that "There are people I could contact about concerns about equality / wellbeing".

Case Studies

We have collected together a number of Case Studies of staff and students in the School who have recently returned from parental leave and/or work flexibly. We hope that by sharing their stories we will promote a healthy work-life balance and a greater uptake of the University's flexible working policy.

Childcare

During the January 2015 Staff Council meeting issues relating to childcare provision in St Andrews were raised by a senior member of staff and prompted other staff members to voice similar concerns about both a lack of childcare provision and the mismatch between University holidays and Fife schools holidays. It was decided at Staff Council that this matter should be followed up by the School’s E&D committee and an informal survey of staff members with young children was carried out. The resulting findings were communicated to the University via several routes, including through the University-level E,D&I forum, the University's annual open fora events, and directly by the Head of School. Communicating the concerns of staff within Physics through the different channels proved to be very effective. We are very pleased to report that a University nursery was opened in 2017, delivering the University’s first day care facility for 50+ Children aged 0 - 5. More information can be found here.

Finally in 2020 we are able to report similar sucess with the mismatch between Fife school holidays and University breaks. Steady pressure over the past 5 years, including carrying out a short staff survey to highlight the problem which was then passed onto other Schools, has led to a full review of the semester timetable and a proposed solution sent to Academic Council. We await final confirmation of its adoption.

Toilets

A symptom of the success of the School in improving gender balance, are the queues outside the few female staff toilets in the building. The E&D committee has been active in trying to alleviate this problem, as well as provide unisex toilets which are preferred by some of the LGBTQ community. With the help of our building manager liasing with Estates, we secured the conversion of the ground floor toilet block by the car park entrance (with shower), into unisex toilets. We are also working to alter the male toilet on the second floor by the labs.

Timeline

2011

Juno committee formed

2013

Awarded Juno Practitioner status

Re-writing of Q6 annual review form for CRS to better match their needs

2014

Roll out of new workload model for staff who teach

2015

Supported the provision of unisex toilets in the School

Asked under-graduates whether they had experienced discrimination in their mid-semester survey

Surveyed staff and graduate students to find out about their experiences and perceptions, particularly those that may be affected by equality issues.

2016

Obtained change to the Caring Fund scheme, increasing maximum single claim to £1000

Adoption of School core meeting hours.

Creation of a Childcare Provision in St Andrews document, to investigate ways in which the University might improve facilities for carers of young children.

Submitted Juno Champion Application in November.

2017

Awarded Project Juno Champion status in January.

University Nursery at East Sands opens in April.

Granted Athena SWAN Silver Award in May.

Carried out Core Meeting Hours survey in December.

2018

University Working group set up on use of student evaluations (MEQ) following staff concerns of bias, chaired by Vivienne Wild, in March.

Carried out Spring Break / Fife School Holidays staff survey, in June.

New staff induction form introduced to ensure new staff easily find out who relevant people are in the school, in October.

The first School of Physics Wellbeing day, with events for undergraduates, postgraduates and early career research staff, in November.

2019

University proposals for how to align ILW and Spring Break with Fife school holidays presented to all Heads of School, in February.

MEQ working group report accepted by Learning and Teaching committee (April), leading to changes in the way MEQ results are reported from Summer 2019

School staff and students work with Physoc to record a mental health podcast (May)

School wellbeing activities for students and staff repeated for the second year running, with a new coffee and cake session for staff (October)

Second wellbeing event of the year for undergraduate students a big success with the introduction of some furry friends from Trossachs Search and Rescue (November)

Proposal relating to changes to the Academic Calendar presented to Academic Council (December)

Leave and Flexibility

Going on Maternity Leave

The Maternity Leave Policy outlines the benefits offered by the university for prospective mothers. All employees are eligible for 52 weeks maternity leave irrespective of their length of service or hours of work. Depending on length of service, prospective mothers may be eligible for the University's enhanced maternity pay package of 16 weeks full salary.

Car parking permits

Parking near the physics building has become increasingly difficult in recent years, especially if you are dropping off another child at school or returning from a medical appointment. During your last trimester, or earlier if needed, please ask the Head of School to request a permit for you to use one of our two disabled spaces, and save your energy for more worthwhile activities than walking across the North Haugh!

Keeping in touch days

These allow you to work for up to 10 days (and be paid for it!) during your maternity leave i.e. they can effectively extend your 16 weeks of additional pay to 18 weeks. In theory, the application is straightforward and detailed half way down the Maternity Leave Policy . However, please be aware that you will not be paid for these additional days should you take them during the 16 week period of additional maternity pay, unless you speak to HR to arrange them first. This is not detailed on their webpages, and learnt only from experience!

Staff on permanent contracts

It should be a straightforward matter to arrange maternity/shared parental leave with HR. If you are in any doubt, please speak to a member of the E&D committee, or the Head of School. If you are currently part-funded by a grant from an external body (e.g. Royal Society, ERC) you should also contact your grant agency to find out what arrangements they have in place. In the case of an ERC grant, a no-cost extension of the length of your maternity/shared-parental leave should be granted. FAS has experience asking for these, please speak to them.

Staff on short-term contracts (e.g. post-docs)

In order to support the careers of contract research staff who take maternity leave while employed on a fixed term contract, the School has developed guidance and procedures for CRS contract extensions following a period of maternity leave.

When the line manager is first notified that a member of contract research staff is pregnant and intends to request maternity leave, the line manager should contact FAS and HR to identify what resources are available within their research grant(s) plus additional financial support from the research funder to accommodate a period of maternity leave. For example, EPSRC and STFC offer additional funds for the maternity leave of CRS and PhD students as detailed here. The line manager should then meet with the Head of School to formulate a funding plan, which should subsequently be clearly explained to the employee.

The School expects that the research staff member’s contract should normally be extended by the duration of the maternity leave, assuming grant funding is available. This extension should be put in place at the time that an application for maternity leave is approved by HR. Where the funding end date does not allow for this length of extension, the grant holder should aim to extend the employment contract end date as far as possible from external funding. The School will underwrite three months of salary to address a shortfall in grant funding in cases where the extended contract is for less than 12 months beyond the end date of the requested maternity leave.

PhD students

The University is committed to accommodating appropriate adjustments to postgraduate research students to support them in their studies due to pregnancy or adoption of a child. To this end, the University allows research students to take parental leave during the course of their PhD, as detailed here. For students whose stipend comes from UK research councils, or from the University, they are entitled to 6 months paid parental leave. Wherever possible, the School will try to match these arrangements for PhD students with other funding sources (see the Case Studies). Please speak to your supervisor and the Head of School, and point them to this information.

Information for RCUK funded students (e.g. STFC, EPSRC, NERC) can be found in the same document as for research staff here

Undergraduates

Please talk to the ASC. Some limited information can be found here

Returning from Maternity Leave

On return to work, the School of Physics and Astronomy provides mini-fridges to store expressed breastmilk. If your line manager does not discuss this with you before you go on leave, please ask in the School office, or ask the E&D committee.

For staff who teach, a reduction in teaching load will automatically be applied once you return from maternity leave and you would not normally be expected to take on new courses. Full details of the workload model are available in the Staff Handbook (Chapter on Teaching).

The University has a “Caring Fund” Scheme to help those with caring responsibilities to attend conferences or training. For example, the fund could be used in order to pay for childminder costs, travel and accommodation costs of dependants etc. The maximum allowance is £1000 per applicant per year. You can apply using the application form found here.

The university participates in the new Tax-Free Childcare scheme, in which parents pay money into an account from their net pay (so it’s taken after tax and National Insurance have been deducted). For every 80p you pay into the childcare account, the government will top up an extra 20p. This equivalent of the tax most people pay (20%), which gives the scheme its name, ‘tax-free’. The government will put in a maximum of £500 every 3 months for each child (or £1000 if your child is disabled). The old Childcare voucher scheme is no longer open to new applicants.

The University has curated a list of available childcare here . You can find out more about the University’s Family Friendly resources here.

Parental Leave gives parents the right to unpaid time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for the child’s welfare. It is available to any member of staff who has parental responsibilities for a child. In order to qualify for parental leave you must have one years’ continuous service with the University. Note that the University also offers 3 days paid leave to care for dependents. Please take a look at the Flexible Working section, should you think a formal flexible working arrangement might work for you.

Shared Parental Leave

In 2015 the government implemented the new Shared Parental Leave scheme. This allows eligible parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave within the first year following birth or adoption. As part of their commitment to supporting working parents, the University provides Enhanced Shared Parental Pay for eligible employees. Full details of the University policy can be found here.

Support for Carers

More information about the University's special leave policies can be found here. A list of Carer's resources is here .

Flexible Working

It is accepted that many members of the School work flexibly and the University is committed to providing equality of opportunity and developing work practices and policies that support work-life balance. The University's Flexible Working policy has been developed to support flexible working arrangements to help employees achieve more balance between their working and non-working lives. If you wish to apply for reduced hours, you should discuss this first with your line manager and the Head of School. Obtaining their support first will greatly ease the formal HR process. Several members of the School work part time, varied hours or compressed hours, including academic, professional, research staff and graduate students. In the last 5 years no application for formal flexible working arrangements has been turned down in the School. To help both staff and students to navigate the University flexible working policies, we have created a School Flexible working guide.

The School has had a core meeting hours policy since November 2016. During Summer 2017 this was brought into line with the new University policy, effective from August 2017. Full details of the policy can be found here.

The University has an extensive Career Break policy, allowing staff to take breaks for e.g. caring responsibilies, personal development or voluntary work. For academic staff taking career breaks of a year for caring responsibilities or health reasons the School applies the reduced workload arrangements equivalent to a return from one year of maternity leave. For a longer break the teaching and admin workload would ramp up over 2-3 years in the same as for a new employee.

Wellbeing and Community

Coffee and tea

The Staff Common Room is a comfortable space dedicated for academic staff, research staff and PGR students, providing refreshments at 11 AM and 4 PM daily. This room provides a networking space for staff to meet and discuss school issues and life in general. In recent years it has been widely used by research staff and PGRs at lunch time (from about 12.45) and for some research group meetings. Facilities available for use within the common room are a coffee machine, water boiler, cold water dispenser and microwave oven.

There is a morning and afternoon coffee/tea service in the Staff Common Room from 10.45 – 11.30am and 15.45 – 16.30pm. During these times fresh brewed tea and coffee and a selection of biscuits are available for purchase. Prices are extremely reasonable and are advertised in the common room.

Events

The School aims to engage all staff inclusively in the School’s activities, but recognises that there can be some barriers, particularly for junior members of staff and research staff. The school supports various activities and facilities to promote an inclusive culture in the school, which include:

Lunchtime discussion for for early career researchers: informing and engaging junior academic staff and advanced fellows in various aspects of school processes procedures and practices
Lunchtime teaching fora: open fora in which staff informally discuss best practice in learning and teaching and can input opinions and advice to policies being developed by teaching committee
Research staff events: including research staff lunches, social events and careers events
Social activities: various events organised though the year by the Astronomy and Physics Societies, the SPIE PGR Student Chapter, research staff reps. For staff, this includes the School annual golf competition (all staff), Christmas lunch (all academic, admin and technical staff), Burns Supper (students and teaching staff), the Astronomy Christmas dinner/ceilidh (all members of the astronomy group).

One-off School events and the weekly colloquia (10am Fridays) are widely advertised by posters on doors around the School.

WISSA (Women in science at St Andrews) is a group that hosts 10 events every year to bring together women and non-binary people from across departments within the sciences. Emphasis is placed on creating a community from postdocs to professors, though anyone who feels they may benefit is welcome to attend. Their website and list of events can be found here. The school's champion is Christiane Helling, who can contacted for more information.

Wellbeing

The University has a team dedicated to improving the wellbeing of its staff and students, hosting various activities and events to encourage a healthy work-life balance. More information can be found here. Email wellgrp@st-andrews.ac.uk to join the University Well Now mailing list for information, events and special offers.

For staff

The University wellbeing team have put together a collection of resources and apps, which may be useful for promoting wellbeing.

For support when experiencing the symptoms of stress or other forms of mental wellbeing issues, staff are encouraged to contact their line manager, human resources, or occupational health. The University's policy on stress can be found here, and a broader document about employee stress reduction (including details of interal and external support contacts) can be found here.

For students

The ASC runs wellbeing workshops for students covering e.g. Imposter syndrome, grief, eating well, living away from home. Students also have access to the broader support mechanisms for wellbeing and mental health, which are provided by the ASC.

LGBTIQ+

LGBTIQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer. The '+' refers to the other ways people chose to identify their own gender identity or sexual orientation. The University provides resources and information for staff and students who identify as LGBTIQ+, or members of the St Andrews community who would like more about issues surrounding LGBTIQ+ people. Those pages can be found here. A history of LGBTIQ+ life in St Andrews can be found here.

The university has an LGBTIQ+ staff network, which meets every other month. The group have presented a series of stories from LGBTIQ+ staff role models at this university, which can be found here. Students are represented by Saints LGBT+, which is a sub-committee of the Students' Association providing social events as well as welfare support for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

The IOP and RAS (Royal Astronomical Society) have set up a network for Physicists and Astronomers who identify as LGBT+, and the mailing list can be signed up for here. Across all STEM subjects, an LGBTSTEMinar is held at the beginning of each year at locations around the UK, with the aim being to bring together scientists and engineers who identify as LGBT+.

Harassment and Bullying

The University of St Andrews and the School of Physics and Astronomy is committed to equality of opportunity and will not tolerate harassment and/or bullying of one individual or group in the University community by another. All members of the University community have the right to work and study in an environment that encourages harmonious relationships; all individuals should be treated with dignity and respect so that they can fulfil their personal potential in a professional working and learning environment. The University policy and procedures for dealing with harassment and bullying can be found here for staff and here for students. The School Code of Conduct can be found here.

The University also has a policy for dealing with grievances, which relates to the procedure for staff to raise concerns about their work or relationships with colleagues, and to have them addressed. The policy can be found here (PDF, 234 KB).

What is harassment and bullying?

Harassment is defined in the Equality Act 2010 as "unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual". The University policy states that "Often harassment is targeted at a particular individual; however a workplace culture that allows the telling of biphobic, homophobic, transphobic, racist or sexist jokes or that excludes some cultures in certain work-related activities can also constitute harassment." Note that employees have the right to complain of behaviour that they find offensive even if it is not directed at them.

The University staff policy defines bullying as "offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means that undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient." Please see the links above for further details and examples of conduct that the University considers to be unacceptable.

What to do if you have been or are being harassed or bullied at work?

Please speak to the Head of School or a member of the School's E&D committee. Alternatively, if you would rather speak to someone outwith the school, details of who to contact can be found here in Appendix B of the Grievance policy.

Useful resources can be found from the 1752 group, here. This is a group that is working to end sexual misconduct in higher education.

External Links

Here are some more University and external links that you might find useful:

Life in Academia

"Parent, Carer, Scientist": A very informative booklet published by the Royal Society attempting to dispel the myths around perceptions of how to succeed in academia.
American Astronomical Society resources, including on sexual harassment, unconcious bias, work-life balance etc.
Young Academy of Scotland, Academic Women Now booklet featuring researchers in St Andrews.
PhD comics might help you to know you're not alone in how you feel, with a humorous twist.
Imposter syndrome resources.

Inclusive teaching and supporting students

An IOP report on supporting Students in STEM with Colour Vision Deficiency can be found here
"Building momentum towards inclusive teaching and learning": report from the IOP.
An IOP report on "Improving Gender Balance - Reflections on the impact of interventions in schools" can be found here
Wellbeing workshops for students, run by the ASC, covering e.g. Imposter syndrome, grief, eating well, living away from home.

Other

Archive of committee members
The University E,D&I webpage has University events, as well as lots of information on Equality and Diversity. You can also follow them on Twitter @equalityuni.
The link here, is helpful for those within the school organising conferences, as it provides guidance for ensuring equality and inclusivity.
This resource, compiled by academics at the University of Oxford, has many suggestions for good conference practice as informed by their survey of multiple HE institutions. It includes information on many topics from event set up to dealing with discrimination. Their guide can be found here and their conference code of conduct here.

Equality and Diversity