Athena Swan

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

Advance HE's Athena Swan Charter is a robust framework through which institutions and departments work to identify and address barriers to gender equality. It is a globally recognised framework that supports universities and research organisations to advance gender equality, transform culture and create inclusive environments.

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.

Read more about this work below...

“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).

Institutional award

We are proud to have retained our institutional Silver Athena Swan award in 2024.

You can read our 2024 -2028 Athena Swan Action Plan and our Gender Equality Plan for more information on our plans over the coming years.

The institutional Athena Swan application was undertaken by the Institutional Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT). You can read more about the SAT hereLink opens in a new window and get in touch if you have any items/issues that you feel need be raised and tackled at an Institutional level, or if you are working on an initiative that might support our goals: Contact the Athena Swan Institutional SAT using this form.

Our gender equality work

Find out more about Athena Swan work using the links below:

Excellence in Gender Equality Award: The Institutional SAT and the Gender Engagement Group run these awards to recognise staff, student, and team commitments to gender equality, and to share best practice.

Conference Support Awards: Staff can access up to £200 to cover extra care costs incurred to attend any conference/workshop/training event that is essential to the effective performance of their role.

Successes and best practice: Read more about the work we've been doing towards gender equality, success stories of women at Warwick, reports of Warwick’s Athena work, and best practice initiatives.

Departmental awards

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

Bronze demonstrates that structures and processes underpin and recognise gender equality work, there is 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).

Silver is awarded to departments who meet all of the Bronze requirements and can provide evidence of success in addressing gender inequality.

Chemistry, Law, Life Sciences, Physics, Politics and International Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Statistics, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Warwick Medical School (WMS).

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 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.

Following this, the School of Engineering were awarded a Gold award in 2025. We are very proud of the amazing achievement from both departments.

Knowledge hub

If you have any questions about Athena Swan, please contact us or contact Advance HE directly on .

Getting started

The latest guidance from Advance HE is available via the Athena Swan Members UK - Connect Group. You will need to create an account to access.

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

Analysing your 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.

Submitting the application

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:

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.
literature reviews on bias in the curriculum and bias in assessment.
Embedding EDI in the curriculum and in assessment and feedback.
What Works: Supporting Women’s Careers.
Enhancing practice to support Athena Swan Charter achievement – webinar recording.

These links maybe useful if you are assessing progress over the period which included the COVID-19 pandemic and following years:

Connecting with others

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.

^{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.}

Read the Social Inclusion Annual Report for more about 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.