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UCC's School of Applied Psychology on its Athena Swan journey from Bronze to Silver
The school is the fourth in UCC to achieve a Silver Athena Swan award.
The School of Applied Psychology achieved its first Silver Athena Swan Award, becoming the first College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences (CACSSS) School to reach Silver. Led by Professor Carol Linehan (pictured above with the Self-Assessment Team), the application built on the School's first Bronze Award in 2022 and highlighted some of the changes made since then, including:
- embedding EDI Champion roles across all key School committees
- increased representation of women at senior academic grades, supported by local career-development and promotion supports
- the conversion of all academic posts that were on fixed-term contracts in 2020 to permanent posts by 2023
Why did the school decide to try for the Silver?
Since we were awarded the Bronze, the school worked very hard to embed EDI as an active and meaningful part of our school governance, structures and culture and to make it a day to day consideration across our activities. So we thought there were some impacts that we could show evidence on and also that going for the Silver would push us to develop our EDI actions even more across the next four years
What have you learned through the process?
The importance of active engaged champions to lead on important actions and initiatives. As a school we are lucky to have colleagues and students who really want to see improvements and are willing to work collaboratively and creatively to make the changes happen.
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UCC had further success with this Athena Swan round. The School of Education, led by Professor Deirdre Horgan and Dr Aoife Neary achieved its first Bronze Award. Tyndall National Institute, led by Dr. Aidan Quinn, also successfully renewed its bronze award.
In the School of Education, assessors highlighted:
- its highly participative self-assessment process, which achieved a 93% consultation participation rate among core staff
- the Student Voice Committee, recognised as good practice for embedding student perspectives in EDI decision-making
- widening-participation initiatives, including New Avenues to Teaching and supports for students undertaking school placements
Tyndall National Institute was commended for:
- Centrally funded maternity leave provision for researchers on externally funded contracts without project-funded maternity leave cover, an improved maternity leave process, and the Maternity Connections peer group
- a Right to Request Flexible Working Policy extending eligibility to staff with a range of caring responsibilities
- its accessible “Good to Know” internal communications campaign
These achievements reinforce UCC’s position as a national leader in EDI and highlight the collective effort required to create lasting institutional change. UCC has held institutional Athena Swan accreditation since 2016, at Silver level since 2025.