Athena Swan

The University of Warwick holds a Silver Athena Swan Charter award.

The Athena Swan CharterLink opens in a new window is a framework to support and transform gender equality within higher education and research.

We are proud to have retained our Silver Athena Swan award in 2024. This is an important indicator of our continued work to address gender inequalities at Warwick. We will hold this award for a further five year cycle until 2029.

We'll be sharing more information from this renewal soon, including a copy of our full and complete 2024 submission. In the meantime, you can read our 2024 -2028 Athena Swan Action Plan and our Gender Equality Plan.

Oversight of University-wide activities towards gender equality and the institutional Athena Swan application is taken by the Institutional Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT). You can read more about the SAT hereLink opens in a new window.

Get in touch - If you have any items/issues that you feel need be raised and tackled at an Institutional level, or if are working on an initiative that might support our goals, please get in touch with the Athena Swan Institutional SAT.

“I am delighted that our silver Athena-Swan award has been renewed until 2029. We are very proud of our progress so far, recognising that there is still a lot more to do.

It was a real team effort to prepare our submission, but the hard work doesn’t stop on receipt of the Award. The team will continue to work in collaboration with the Gender Taskforce, Social Inclusion and the wider University to deliver our 2024-2028 action plan over the next five years.

I would like to thank colleagues on the institutional Self-Assessment Team for their hard work and support and, likewise, those on their departmental SATs.”

Professor Kate Seers (Chair of the Athena Swan SAT for the 2024 submission).

Departmental award holders

Our Social Inclusion Strategy includes an aim to have all departments hold an Athena Swan award.

The following departments currently hold Athena Swan awards (follow the links to see more on what each department is doing on gender equality):

🥉 Bronze is awarded to departments that demonstrate structures and processes which underpin and recognise gender equality work, evidence-based recognition of the key issues facing the department, an action plan to address identified key issues, and - for Bronze Renewals - progress against the applicant’s previously identified priorities.

Centre of Applied Linguistics, Economics, Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR, Centre for Education Studies, Computer Science, Cross-Faculty Studies, Institute for Employment Research (IER), Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), Mathematics Institute, Philosophy, Warwick Foundation Studies (WFS).

🥇 Gold is awarded to departments who meet all of the Bronze and Silver requirements and can provide evidence of sector-leading gender equality practice and supporting others to improve.

We are very pleased and proud that in 2024, Warwick Business School (WBS) became not only Warwick's first Gold departmental award holder, but also the first Business School in the UK to get a gold Athena Swan award. This is a great achievement!

Our gender equality work

Find out more about Athena Swan work at departmental and institutional level using the links below:

🏆 Excellence in Gender Equality Award

The Warwick Institutional Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team and the Gender Taskforce continue to run these awards to recognise Individual staff, students and team's commitment to gender equality, and to share best practice.

Excellence Award

Athena knowledge hub

If you have any questions about Athena Swan, please contact us or contact Advance HE directly on athena.swan@advance-he.ac.uk.

Please note: The Knowledge Hub is currently being updated, some sections may not yet have the latest links and information. Please bear with us while we work through the updates. Thank you.

🏁 Getting started

Conducting a self-assessment of gender equality.
Details of the transformed Athena Swan Charter.
Athena Swan FAQs.
Good practice initiatives database.
The Advance HE Knowledge Hub houses a wide range of reports and resources. Use the keyword search function.

📊 Data

You can access staff and student data on the SPA Athena Swan webpageLink opens in a new window.
If you have any questions about the data or trouble accessing it, contact the Analytics SupportLink opens in a new window.
You can obtain benchmark data from the HESA websiteLink opens in a new window.
Equality in higher education: statistical reports.

✍ Applying

To access Athena Swan Charter application guidance, forms, templates, and other resources, log in or join the Athena Swan Member Network Group on Advance HE ConnectLink opens in a new window.
In advance of your application, don't forget to complete the intention to submit formLink opens in a new window.
When you do make your submission, please ensure you follow the GDPR compliant submission process.

GDPR compliant submission process

In order to be GDPR compliant Athena Swan submissions must be sent to Advance HE with password protection via a secure file sharing tool.

To make your submission, follow the steps set out below:

Add a password to the submission document (there are step-by-step instructions on how to password protect a pdf here).
Access Files.Warwick (there are step-by-step instructions on how to access your personal files space here).
Upload the submission document to Files.Warwick (there are step-by-step instructions on how to upload a file to Files.Warwick here).
Send the submission document to Advance HE by selecting to send to ‘Any email address’ and inputting athenaswan@ecu.ac.uk (there are step-by-step instructions on how to send a file with Files.Warwick here). You may also want to select to receive an email when the document has been downloaded, in order to have confirmation that your submission has been received.
Provide the password for the submission document to Advance HE in a separate communication (preferably over the phone).

Do not send any Athena Swan submissions via email - although this is advised in Advance HE's guidance, Warwick's Legal and Compliance Services team have specified that the above process must be used.

🆙 Enhancing practice

Creating an inclusive environment.
EDI and leadership and the critical governance role.
Unconscious bias in higher education: Literature Review. Plus, literature reviews on bias in the curriculum and bias in assessment.
Embedding EDI in the curriculum and in assessment and feedback.
Tackling underrepresentation of protected student groups in higher education.
What Works: Supporting Women’s Careers.
Enhancing practice to support Athena Swan Charter achievement – webinar recording.

💬 Connecting with others working on Athena Swan

To connect with other people working on Athena Swan awards at Warwick join the Athena Swan Network Teams team.

You can also connect with others submitting for Athena Swan awards on Advance HE Connect, there is a dedicated Athena Swan Network Group (if you are new to Connect, you can set up an account here).

To access the group, log in to Advance HE Connect, click on the 'Connect' tab and scroll down for the relevant Charter network group where you can request to join.

😷 COVID-19

Read the Social Inclusion Annual Report for more about social inclusion at Warwick and the action we're taking.

The Social Inclusion Annual Report highlights the work that has been taking place across the University over the last year, and how it is helping us to meet our Social Inclusion Strategy objectives to increase the diversity of our staff and student communities, develop an inclusive culture, and become an internationally recognised leader in inclusion.