Two Schools in University College Cork’s College of Medicine & Health have earned  Athena  SWAN awards.

 

The UK-based Higher Education agency AdvanceHE today announced the conferring of the awards on the School of Nursing & Midwifery and the Dental School & Hospital. The announcement follows news earlier this year of the conferring of an award on the School of Public Health, bringing to eight the number of School-level awards in UCC.

Athena  SWAN awards acknowledge efforts made to identify systemic gender inequality in academia. All Irish Higher Education Institutions are signatories to the  Athena  SWAN Charter principles, and UCC recently renewed its bronze accreditation, at institutional level.

 

 

Picture: Staff from UCC's Dental School & Hospital

Interim President Prof. John O’Halloran (Chair of UCC’s  Athena  SWAN Steering Group) congratulated Dr. Cristiane da Mata and Dr. Aine Horgan, team leads in the Dental School & Hospital and School of Nursing & Midwifery, respectively:

 

" Athena  SWAN is a critical part of our strategic vision for UCC, particularly now as we confront the challenges of the global pandemic. Creating inclusive work and learning environments will be key to cultivating the talent and potential of our staff and students, so that we can rise to meet the challenges of this historic moment. I congratulate the Heads of Schools and their teams for their leadership and for their hard work and commitment, which has been recognised today in these awards."

 

The Schools of Nursing & Midwifery and the Dental School & Hospital are now implementing gender equality action plans, aimed at improving workplace practices to benefit everyone. The Schools were supported in developing their applications by the  Athena  SWAN team, who form part of UCC’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Unit.

 

Four further School-level applications are planned for the forthcoming submission round (November 2020) and applications from all UCC Schools are planned over the next 3 year, including 3 at Silver level. UCC plans to apply for Silver institutional accreditation in 2023.

 

[Note: both photographs featured in this article are file pictures taken before the introduction of social distancing guidelines.]