College receives Athena SWAN Bronze Award

The College of Medical and Dental Sciences has been awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze Award for its achievements in assisting the recruitment, retention and progression of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine and to promote good practice.

This is a significant achievement particularly as this round saw a huge increase in the number of institutions and departments applying for awards.

The Bronze Award means that the College is now well placed to apply for the Silver Award. A particular challenge going for Silver will be to ensure that the good practices identified are replicated across all five schools and that the Athena SWAN agenda remains to the forefront of College activity.
The Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) charter was established in June 2005, and encourages the advancement of female academics in UK Higher Educational institutions.

To align with the goals of the Athena SWAN charter, the College of MDS has practices and guidelines in place to support and nurture female academics across all of our disciplines. We aim to encourage the growth and progression of women in medicine and science, creating an establishment of excellence that attracts and retains the brightest women in medicine and science.

The activity underpinning the award came from the programme of events, training sessions and networking opportunities delivered by the Women in Academic Medicine and Science (WAMS) group.

Professor Eric Jenkinson, Head of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, said “ I would like to congratulate Una Martin and colleagues, particularly Kate Crane, Heather Armitage and Sapna Patel, as well as members of the Self Assessment Team, who contributed to this important recognition of what has been achieved in Birmingham. We are all delighted to share this success and look forward to more in the future.”

Find out more about the College Women in Academic Medicine and Science initiative