Equality and Diversity Working Group

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester adheres to the University's Single Equality Scheme, and is fully committed to achieving all the equality objectives defined by this scheme.

Further information about the Single Equality Scheme can be found here:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/equalities-unit/equalities-resources/single-equality-scheme

In 2009 the Department formed the Equality and Diversity Working Group. The Equality and Diversity Working Group consists of individuals representing all types of staff (administrative, technical, research and academic) and students in the Department. The members range from PhD students through to senior academic staff.

The current membership of the Equality and Diversity Working Group can be found here.

The function of the WG is to identify areas where improvements in working practices could be made and then make recommendations on how these improvements can be made through the usual Departmental procedures. The WG may also be required by the Head of Department to help implement any changes. The WG is supporting women in physics, through the IoP Project Juno and the Athena Swan schemes.

The WG promotes Equality and Diversity in the working environment by:

increasing staff awareness of related issues
making Departmental and University policy more transparent
increasing communication within the Department
encouraging the continuous professional development of its staff and students
acting in confidence on information received from staff
providing a culture of participation and inclusiveness

Project Juno and Athena SWAN

by gp31 — last modified Aug 24, 2011 10:58 PM

Athena Swan

The University of Leicester was awarded an Athena Swan Bronze award in 2008. The Athena Swan Charter recognises good employment practice for women working in science, engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research. The Department has applied for an Athena Swan Silver in November 2011.

Further information about the Athena Swan Charter can be found at:

http://www.athenaswan.org.uk/html/athena-swan/

http://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/athena-swan

Project Juno

The Department has signed up to the Institute of Physics' Project Juno. The aim of Juno is to recognise and reward departments that can demonstrate they have taken action to address the under-representation of women in university physics and to encourage better practice for both women and men.

There are three levels of Juno awards: Supporter, Practitioner and Champion. Currently we are a Supporter of Juno. An important role of the Equality and Diversity Working Group is to prepare the application to Practitioner status, which we hope to re-submit in 2011.

Further information on Project Juno can be found on:

http://www.iop.org/News/news_22703.html http://www.iop.org/activity/diversity/Academia/Juno/page_27807.html

Further information on our current application for Project Juno Practicioner status, and past applications, can be found here:

UoL-practitioner-action-plan-July2010.pdf

UoL-practitioner-checklist-July2010.pdf

UoL-Juno-Discussion-2.pdf

Appx4-UoL-Juno-stats-July2010.xlsx

Department statistics and survey

by mjs76 — last modified Feb 08, 2011 12:59 PM

The first task for the Equality and Diversity Working Group has been to collect statistics, providing quantitative baseline information on the department with particular focus on employment, promotion and retention. To gather more qualitative data it was decided to survey the members of the department to assess their perception of the working environment. It is hoped to run regular surveys to assess whether there is any improvement.

The 2010 Departmental Survey can be found here:2010 Dept Survey - questionnaire.pdf

Results of the 2010 Survey can soon be found here:Report on 2010 Survey.pdf

Fellowship Opportunities

There are many bodies which annually offer opportunities to fund research fellowships both in the UK and overseas. These can provide individuals with an important step in furthering their careers. These include sources of funding which aim to promote women in physics and to support individuals who are returning from career breaks or those who prefer flexible or part-time working arrangements.

To view an uptodate table of opportunities to apply for fellowships click here.