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Athena SWAN Silver Department award renewal application Name of institution: Keele University Date of application: April 2016 Department: School of Psychology Contact for application: Dr Sue Sherman Email: [email protected] Telephone: 07870 703419 Departmental website address: http://www.keele.ac.uk/psychology/ Date of previous award: April 2013 (Bronze) Date of university Bronze and/or Silver SWAN award: November 2014 (Bronze renewal) Level of award applied for: Silver Athena SWAN Silver Department award renewals recognise that in addition to university-wide policies the department has made progress in promoting gender equality and addressing challenges particular to the discipline. It is expected that after three years Athena SWAN Bronze Department award holders should be at the stage to make a new application for a Silver Department award. However, in exceptional circumstances a Bronze Department renewal award submission can be made. Not all institutions use the term ‘department’ and there are many equivalent academic groupings with different names, sizes and compositions. The definition of a ‘department’ for SWAN purposes can be found on the Athena SWAN website. Where the department unit that made the original application has changed, it is up to the new unit for submission to decide whether a renewal application is appropriate or whether a new award application should be made. If in doubt, contact the Athena SWAN Charter Coordinator well in advance to check eligibility. It is essential that the contact person for the application is based in the department. At the end of each section state the number of words used. 1. Letter of endorsement from the Head of Department – maximum 500
words
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SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY Head of School: Michael Murray PhD, CPsychol, FBPsS
Professor of Social & Health Psychology
Athena SWAN Silver Award Application April 2016
Letter of endorsement from Head of School of Psychology
I have a strong personal and professional commitment to promoting gender equality
based upon various life experiences. My wife has a full time career and we have
shared many frustrations at the challenges faced by women in the workplace besides
juggling our own childcare and family responsibilities. In my academic life my role
models and research colleagues have usually been women. My PhD supervisor was
one of the first female Professors of Psychology, in the UK, and my first academic
post was working with the President of the Women’s Medical Association who was
awarded a DBE for promoting equal opportunities for women. It was these personal
and professional experiences of the difficulties faced by women in working life that
background my strong support for the Athena Swan Charter.
Since we received the Bronze Award in 2013 I have striven to take forward various
actions to further entrench gender equality throughout the School. This applies to all
aspects of our work from recruitment of students and staff, through our teaching and
research, to ongoing support for students and staff members to genuinely ensure
gender equality in all our activities. The past three years I have been delighted with
the steps that we have taken and recognise that future successes will enhance the
quality of life for all in this School.
Over the past few years we have gone through a very substantial period of renewal
and growth which have required the development of a range of induction, mentoring
and progression strategies which continue to be refined. The Athena Swan team led
by Dr. Sue Sherman have been to the fore in developing these strategies and I
wholeheartedly support the measures introduced ranging from the improvements in
our induction and mentoring processes, the workload allocation model and the
promotion procedures all of which contribute to greater gender equality.
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As the gender balance of the School staff has changed I have been very keen that
the issue of respectful behaviour is reinforced and that deliberate attention is given to
remove any unconscious bias in our procedures. It is my strong belief that the
introduction of all of these processes not only ensures gender equality but improves
the whole working environment of the School.
Currently, the majority of our Senior Management Team is now female including Dr.
Julie Hulme (Director of Learning and Teaching), Professor Nicky Edelstyn (Director
of Research), Ms Anja Rutten (Director of Counselling) and Mrs Ann Ireson (School
Manager) augmented by the Directors of PGT, PGR and Internationalisation, who are
all female. Together they not only collectively drive forward the Athena Swan action
plan but act as role models to other female staff throughout the School.
Overall, I am delighted with the progress that the School has made in the past three
years in promoting even greater gender equality and am committed to continuing to
resource and taking forward our action plan in the next few years.
Professor Michael Murray
Head of School of Psychology
7 April 2016.
(497 words)
Telephone: (+44) 1782 733311 Fax: (01782) 733387 Email: [email protected] Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom
http://www.keele.ac.uk/psychology
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2. The self-assessment process – maximum 1000 words
a. The Self-Assessment Team In line with our 2013 action plan, the self-assessment team (SAT) has expanded
since our Bronze award to ensure a fuller representation of all members of the
School. Specifically, we have recruited a representative from the undergraduate
cohort, a PG student and a member of our Counselling teaching team. Since our
initial award we have also added our School Manager and a senior male academic.
Table 1: Members of School of Psychology Self-Assessment Team
Name Gender Role on team Roles in School (possibly also length of time in School)
Experiences of Work-life balance
Dr Sue Sherman
F School Athena SWAN Champion; sits on University SAT as well as Chairing School SAT.
Senior Lecturer (promoted in 2014) 11 years in the School
Works full-time; partner also an academic. Was a mature student (PhD completed in 2004 at age of 36)
Prof Michael Murray
M Overall responsibility for success of action plan and workload allocation.
Head of School 10 years in the School
Works full-time; married (spouse has a professional career); 2 adult children
Dr Emee Vida Estacio
F As School’s Diversity Officer is able to advise on intersectionality issues.
Lecturer in community/health psychology since 2009.
Works full-time; married; has recently returned from maternity leave (first child). No extended family in the UK (Emee migrated from the Philippines; her husband is from Greece).
Dr Claire Fox: F Runs and analyses annual staff survey and is also heading up the mentoring review.
Senior Lecturer (2010) ; Lecturer (2005); Teaching Fellow (2004)
Works full-time (3 days in School; 2 at home); co-parents 2 young children with ex-husband
Mrs Sarah Stiff F Represents administrative staff
Senior Administrator (since 2012)
Works full-time; married (April 2016) to academic in the
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previously worked in the School of Law (7 yrs)
School
Dr Alexandra Kent
F Responsible for the UG/PGT student survey.
Lecturer (2012) PhD obtained in School (2011) Currently on research leave.
Works full-time; married (husband works away from home; tries to balance work-life to avoid impact on weekends)
Mr Andrew Knipe
M Represents technical staff and is responsible for maintaining AS website.
Computing Technician (since 2001).
Works full-time; married with 4 young children.
Dr Hannah Barjat
F Shares good practice between departments and advises on ECU updates etc.
University Athena SWAN Support Officer
Works part-time; (0.6 FTE) married with 2 children
Dr Lois de Cruz: F Represents Counselling staff
Lecturer in Counselling. Recently completed a PhD in the School (part-time over 6 years)
Works part-time; Married, 2 adult sons, also a carer for her elderly parents.
Mrs Ann Ireson F Line manager for administrative and technical staff. Responsible for advising on developing actions for support staff.
School Manager. Works full-time, married, 2 adult children. Planning to retire at Christmas 2016.
Dr Andrew Rutherford
M Represents male academic staff.
Senior Lecturer. Employed in School since 1999.
Works full-time.
Dr Jenny Taylor
F Represents PG students on the SAT and has run the PGR focus groups and analysed the data.
Teaching Fellow since 2014 and Research Assistant (since 2016) Recently completed a PhD in the School and is making the transition to an academic career
Works 2 part-time posts. Has a career-young perspective.
Victoria F Represents UG Victoria has now Victoria was a peer
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Archibald (2013-2015) Steph Lonsdale (2016-date)
students graduated. Steph is a 2nd year
UG. She returned
to education at the age of 44 via an HE access course. She is a student ambassador.
mentor and Student Rep. Steph is married and her spouse has a full time professional career. She has 2 children, one aged 21 and the other aged 14.
b. The process
Selected successes since the last submission include:
Increased representation across School on SAT
Increased female representation on School strategic decision making
committees
Increase in % female students at UG, PGT and PGR
Increase in % female staff
Increase in staff who understand promotions criteria from 56% to 74%
Evidence of female empowerment e.g., 4 females attending leadership
training, female convened writing workshops, female colleague promoted
to Chair
Training in equality, diversity and respect in the workplace leading to
improvement in culture as evidenced by staff surveys
Published Workload Allocation Model
The full self-assessment team meets twice per semester (4 times a year) as a
minimum, to evaluate the progression of the action plan actions, plan forthcoming
initiatives and discuss any matters arising from School meetings. In addition, Sue
Sherman and Hannah Barjat exchange information between the University SAT and
the School SAT. In between full meetings, group emails and smaller group meetings
take place to co-ordinate specific activities and to avoid unnecessary full meetings.
Athena SWAN is a standing item on the School meeting agenda and this is used to
disseminate information about initiatives to the wider School community. Since
neither UG nor PG students attend School meetings (they attend BSc and MSc
meetings), their representatives on the SAT feed information back to their cohorts
independently.
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Activities and initiatives referred to above are discussed throughout this document.
Those specific to the self-assessment process include those in Table 2 below.
Table 2: SAT data gathering activities.
Activity Year Details Response
rate
Number of
respondents
Gender of
respondents
Staff
survey
2014 Survey questions based on UKRC HE STEM Staff Culture Survey. Covers 4 areas: Participation and promotion practices; Workplace culture; Leadership and management commitment; Institutional reputation and social responsibility
60% 28 21 F
6 M
1 not spec
Staff
survey
2015 62% 29 21 F
3 M
5 not spec
Staff
survey
2016 76% 35 28 F
7 M
PhD
focus
group
2014 Focus group question schedule. Topics covered past and future barriers, concerns and positives
73% 8 6F, 2M
PhD
focus
group
2016 63% 10
Grp 1: 4F,1M
Grp 2: 4F,1M
UG/PGT
survey
2015 Survey builds on Diversity survey run in 2009. Additional gender questions included.
24.3% 160
128 F
30 M
2 not spec
In addition to data gathering there have been some key initiatives instigated by the
SAT either detailed in our 2013 Action Plan or arising from the data from the surveys
and focus groups mentioned above. Examples of these are:
Respect in the Workplace Training (2014) – attended by academic staff and
professional and support staff.
Workplace Training (2016) - attended by academic staff and professional and
support staff.
Publishing the Workload Allocation Model (2016)
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The Athena SWAN champion also has a role on the School’s newly formed School
Research Committee, ensuring that gender issues are kept to the fore in research
planning and in response to the most recent staff survey, the champion also met with
the Senior Management Team to discuss how to tackle emerging issues and these
discussions have helped inform the action plan.
Sue’s role on the University SAT enables her to disseminate good practice and also
to benefit from good practice elsewhere at Keele. She has regular discussions with
Dr Alison Edgeley, the Athena SWAN champion for Social Science and Health at
Nottingham University as well as with members of her Aurora Action Learning Set
(from a range of universities). These meetings enable emerging issues to be
discussed and best practice to be disseminated.
All members of the School (from PhD students through to Professors) have had the
opportunity (over a 3-week period) to read and comment on a draft of this document.
In addition four colleagues from the University SAT have reviewed the document.
c. Future plans.
The SAT will continue to meet 4 times a year (the meetings are formally scheduled in
the School’s meetings calendar). We will supplement full SAT meetings with smaller
working group meetings and group emails to effect change, with extra-ordinary
meetings as the need arises. The team will continue to report back to the School
meeting which meets twice a semester as well as to the University Athena SWAN
committee which also meets 4 times a year.
The roles of Athena SWAN champion and SAT membership are now built into the
School’s new Workload model, which itself was adopted as a result of the 2013
Action Plan, this will foster continued engagement with the SAT so that it can remain
maximally inclusive.
To inform the Action Plan, which we see as an evolving document, various initiatives
put in place above will continue while others will be added. Specifically these include:
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1. Annual staff survey (expanded to include professional and support staff
questions) (Action Point 11)
2. Annual UG/PGT survey (Action Point 1)
3. Biennial PhD focus groups (Action Point 5)
4. Annual Respect training (to focus on different issues, such as raising
awareness of issues experienced by transgender staff and students) (Action Point
28)
5. Discussions with colleagues outside of the School through the University SAT
6. Convening a workshop for Psychology Athena SWAN champions in North
West / Midlands regions to facilitate a wider exchange of good practice. The recent
event hosted by Royal Holloway and Belfast was not accessible to all colleagues
outside the South East with family commitments. (Action Point 38)
To ensure that the Athena SWAN agenda is fully embedded across the School,
whilst our ultimate goal is a Gold award, we will aim to submit for Silver using the
post-2015 paperwork in 3 years’ time.
(851 words, excluding tables and captions)
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3. A picture of the department – maximum 2000 words
a) Provide a pen-picture of the department to set the context for the
application, outlining in particular any significant changes since the original
award.
The School of Psychology is a medium-sized department with around 550 students
(full person equivalent) undergraduates; 100 following postgraduate or professional
training courses. We offer several Masters programmes and have a thriving
Counselling provision including postgraduate certificate and Masters courses. Our 50
academic, technical and administrative staff are split roughly 60 (female):40 (male),
although there are variations between staff types: technical staff are exclusively
male; administrative staff exclusively female and academic staff (67% female). The
Head of School (HoS) has overall responsibility for all School activities. He is advised
by the Senior Management Team (SMT), comprising the Director of Research (F),
Director of Learning and Teaching (F), School Manager (F), and the Programme
Directors of Psychology (M) and Counselling (F).
There has been considerable change in the School since the last submission. In
addition to our dual-honours Psychology Undergraduate Programme, in 2013 we
started a single honours route. We also now offer a degree programme comprising a
mix of distance learning and 2-week intensive teaching blocks at Ludong University,
China and, from 2015, we started recruiting to a franchise programme at SEGi
University, Malaysia. To support this, the School has recruited several new staff,
most of whom are early career. Additionally, from January 2016, the School moved
its research activity from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences to the
Faculty of Natural Sciences. In time, this will streamline the running of the School but
the period of transition is ongoing: PGR students will not transfer faculties until
summer 2016.
A snapshot of the School at the start of this academic year is presented in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Percentage of academic staff and students at each level in the School of Psychology by gender, as of December 2015. The staff and student headcounts and related bar charts are shown in relevant sub-sections below. These data are examined in more detail below, but it can be seen that there are drop
off points for females at the transition from UG and PGT to PGR, from Lecturer to
Senior Lecturer and from Senior Lecturer to Professor. Our 2013 action plan has
delivered measurable improvements at the first of these points and has increased
preparedness for promotion at the other points, as discussed in following
subsections, Our new action plan will build on those improvements. In addition, there
is a drop off from Teaching Fellow to Senior Teaching Fellow. This is partly due a
number of our TFs being PGR students (who go on to postdoc research or
lectureship posts) However, some of our TFs are Counselling staff who are career
teachers. TF career progression is discussed further in Sections 4iv and 5 and Action
Points (19 & 37) focussing on Counselling are included in our action plan.
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b) Provide data and a short analysis for at least the last five years (where possible with clearly labelled graphical illustrations) on the following, commenting on changes and progress made against the original action plan and application, and initiatives intended for the action plan going forward.
Student data Summary of progress:
5% increase in female UGs since last application
6% increase in full time PGT students
3% increase in part time PGT students
5% increase in female full time PGR students (i) Access and foundation male and female numbers Keele’s Psychology foundation course is not run by the School of Psychology and we
do not contribute to any aspect of the administration or teaching and so these data
are not included in this document.
(ii) Undergraduate male and female numbers – full and part-time.
Figure 2. Undergraduate Students by FPE and gender (bar chart). The percentage of these students that are female are plotted on the secondary y-axis together with a
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benchmark (%F Bmk*), which is the Benchmark by FPE based on HESA data for subject C8 (Psychology) in the Heidi database. The Keele benchmarking group is used for UG students. All Psychology undergraduates are full-time, either single or dual honours1. Because
our Dual Honours students spend only half their time in Psychology they are not
‘typical’ Psychology students and benchmarking against Psychology alone is
misleading. This is further demonstrated in Figure 3a and Figure 3b below, which
show students separated into Dual Honours (DH) and Single Honours (SH),
respectively: SH students are representative of the benchmark while DH students are
not.
Figure 3a and Figure 3b. Undergraduate Students by FPE and gender separated into dual honours and single honours students, respectively. The percentage of these students that are female are plotted on the secondary y-axis together with a benchmark (%F Bmk*), which is the Benchmark by FPE based on HESA data for subject C8 (Psychology) in the Heidi database. As per our 2013 action plan, we surveyed our UG students. Despite our best efforts
survey uptake was low (160 participants (24.3%) of whom 128 (80%) were female).
Each question used a 6-point Likert scale (1 = Very strongly disagree, 6 = Very
strongly agree). Questions were divided into 4 areas or subscales as follows:
A. Personal Opinions and Experiences (6 items) – mean = 5.1
B. Support (3 items) – mean = 4.6
C. Teaching and Assessment (5 items) – mean = 4.1
D. Teaching Staff (4 items) – mean = 4.4
1 Dual honours students study Psychology and one other subject from a large selection such as Criminology, English, Mathematics.
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Responses were generally positive indicating good levels of perceived gender
equality across the School indicated by the mean responses being 4.1 or higher for
each scale as indicted above.
Room for improvement exists: Some 13% of respondents (2M, 19F representing 7%
of male and 15% of female respondents) indicated they had experienced harassment
or unwanted attention due to their gender whilst studying in the School although it is
unclear whether the perpetrator(s) were fellow students or staff. Since this survey
was conducted, we have introduced the role of School Early Resolution Officer: a
dedicated member of staff who students can approach to resolve issues around
marking, staff concerns etc. In addition, the University’s Student Support service has
introduced Sexual Violence workshops, developed with input from a colleague, Dr
Kirsty Budds in Psychology and Action Point 3 ensures that 1 staff representative
from each UG year group and PG cohort (Counselling, PGT, PGR) attends these
workshops within 2 years.
We will rerun the survey annually and follow up by inviting students (UG and PGT) to
attend focus groups entailing arms-length facilitation by the Student Union to ensure
openness of response (Action Points 1&2). Should the SU uncover local or
systemic problems, these will be addressed with additions to our action plan.
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(iii) Postgraduate male and female numbers on and completing taught courses – full and part-time.
Figure 4. Student numbers on full-time postgraduate taught courses by gender (bar chart). All full-time PGT students are on Masters Courses. The percentage of these students that are female are plotted on the secondary y-axis together with a benchmark (%F Bmk*), which is the Benchmark by FPE based on HESA data for subject C8 (Psychology) in the Heidi database. Although the Keele benchmarking group is used for UG students, the benchmark used for PG students is all UK HEIs. This is because the benchmarks are very similar to all HEI’s but become more variable where numbers are small. Over the past 6 years, the percentage of PGT students who are women is close to or
higher than the gender benchmark (see figure caption) which may reflect our
relatively new Masters programmes in Social, Health and Child Development.
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Figure 5. Student numbers on part-time postgraduate taught courses by gender (bar chart). The percentage of these students that are female are plotted on the secondary y-axis together with a benchmark (%F Bmk*), which is the Benchmark by FPE based on HESA data for subject C8 (Psychology) in the Heidi database. The majority of part-time PGT student are on taught masters courses, the remainder
take postgraduate certificate or diploma courses. The number of part-time female
PGT students is consistently above benchmark. Most of our part-time students (94%)
study Counselling and the majority are female.
PGT students, both full and part-time, were surveyed alongside our UG students.
Their feedback was positive with no specific PGT issues emerging. Often their scores
were in line with or higher than UG scores, for example they gave a mean response
of 5.4 on the 6-point scale (mean UG response was 4.6) for the question ‘to what
extent do you agree that all students have equal access to support and services
within the School regardless of gender?”
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(iv) Postgraduate male and female numbers on research degrees and completion times – full and part-time.
Figure 6. Student numbers on full-time postgraduate research students studying for a PhD by gender. The percentage of these students that are female are plotted on the secondary y-axis together with a benchmark (%F Bmk*), which is the Benchmark by FPE based on HESA data for subject C8 (Psychology) in the Heidi database. Although the Keele benchmarking group is used for UG students, the benchmark used for PG students is all UK HEIs. This is because the benchmarks are very similar to all HEI’s but are more variable because numbers are small. There is a clear increase in numbers and the percentage of female PhD students
since our last submission is approaching the benchmark value. Since our Masters
courses are our primary source of PhD students, the School decided to broaden the
appeal of our Masters programme by moving from a general Masters course to a
series of named routes. The increase in female students most probably reflects the
successful recruitment to our Masters programmes in Social, Health and Child
Development.
The School has only had 1 male MPhil student starting in 2009/10 and 1 in 2015/16.
The low numbers reflect the fact that MPhil students are usually those who started a
PhD but have failed progression or been awarded a lower degree.
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Figure 7. Student numbers on part-time postgraduate research students studying for a PhD by gender. There were no part-time MPhil students in the time period given above. The percentage of these students that are female are plotted on the secondary y-axis together with a benchmark (%F Bmk*), which is the Benchmark by FPE based on HESA data for subject C8 (Psychology) in the Heidi database. Although the Keele benchmarking group is used for UG students, the benchmark used for PG students is all UK HEIs (benchmarks are very similar to all HEI’s but are more variable as numbers are small, especially for part-time postgraduate research students). The part-time PhD student gender ratio varies around the comparable gender
benchmark. The most recent decrease may relate to the recent increase in full-time
female PhD students or simply reflects a natural fluctuation in such small numbers.
Initiatives in the action plan are aimed at both full and part-time students.
As indicated in our 2013 Action Plan, two rounds of focus groups have been run with
the PGR students, led by our PGR SAT member. The first, in early 2014, revealed
two main areas of concern for students: (1) not feeling fully part of the School and
(2) reporting difficulties in settling into the School and studies. The first issue was
addressed by ensuring that PGRs were included on the photo board of staff, in the
mailing list and on the website. The second issue was addressed by introducing a
new induction procedure (see Section see 5iii). The second round of focus groups,
conducted in early 2016 reported favourably on the improvements and students had
mainly positive feedback for the School. Additional issues raised concerned
employment post-PhD and a feeling of needing to take all offered opportunities
leading to excessive workload. The PGRs suggested solutions such as workshops
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included in the new action plan along with ongoing biennial focus groups (Action
Points 5-10).
(v) Ratio of course applications to offers and acceptances by gender
for undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research degrees
The figures and tables below show the percentage of students by gender during the
application process: initial application, offers, initial acceptance and first year
students.
Undergraduates
Figure 8. Application process for undergraduate students. The new first year students (actual starters) include those who have transitioned from the foundation year and those who arrived through clearing. Proportionally more female students started on the course in 2014/15 compared with those who accepted which suggests that more female students arrived through clearing.
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Year Female Male Total % Female F:M ratio
Applications
2011/2 453 162 615 74% 2.8
2012/3 517.5 193 710.5 73% 2.7
2013/4 682 209.5 891.5 77% 3.3
2014/5 952.5 294 1246.5 76% 3.2
2015/6 867 256 1123 77% 3.4
Offers
2011/2 421.5 141.5 563 75% 3.0
2012/3 457 166 623 73% 2.8
2013/4 577.5 157.5 735 79% 3.7
2014/5 858 243 1101 78% 3.5
2015/6 803.5 224.5 1028 78% 3.6
Acceptances
2011/2 112 41.5 153.5 73% 2.7
2012/3 133 63.5 196.5 68% 2.1
2013/4 129 47 176 73% 2.7
2014/5 212.5 56 268.5 79% 3.8
2015/6 167.5 53.5 221 76% 3.1
New First Year Students (Including Foundation Year Transition)
2011/2 89 30.5 119.5 74% 2.9
2012/3 68 23 91 75% 3.0
2013/4 81 27.5 108.5 75% 2.9
2014/5 139 25 164 85% 5.6
2015/6 140 40 180 78% 3.5
Table 3: The Undergraduate Application Process Student applications, offers, initial acceptances and new first year students based on student FPE (i.e. Dual Honours students count as 0.5) The most recent increase in female representation across all aspects of the process
reflects the introduction of SH which as indicated above attracts a greater percentage
of female students than does the DH course. There is little variation in the gender
ratio of applicants to confirmed students although during the period 2010/11 –
2013/14 there is some indication that fewer female students were initially accepting
places than were offered. This may reflect the rise in tuition fees in 2012 preceded by
the spike in acceptances the year before. While the NUS reported that women were
not more put off by tuition fee increases than men
(http://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/27101/Women%20and%20the%20cuts%20briefing
%20(2).pdf), many of our students are from the local area, an area which is relatively
economically deprived, so it may be that the spike in 2011/12 and drop in 2012/13
reflected some students deciding against deferring their start date.
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PGT
Figure 9. Application process for postgraduate taught students
Year Female Male Total % Female F:M
Applications
2011/2 241 68 309 78% 3.5
2012/3 220 62 282 78% 3.5
2013/4 314 69 383 82% 4.6
2014/5 184 47 231 80% 3.9
2015/6 141 31 172 82% 4.5
Offers
2011/2 210 56 266 79% 3.8
2012/3 173 43 216 80% 4.0
2013/4 244 41 285 86% 6.0
2014/5 156 30 186 84% 5.2
2015/6 94 20 114 82% 4.7
Initial Acceptances
2011/2 157 40 197 80% 3.9
2012/3 124 33 157 79% 3.8
2013/4 178 33 211 84% 5.4
2014/5 116 21 137 85% 5.5
2015/6 56 12 68 82% 4.7
New First Year Students
2011/2 2 0 2 100% 2012/3 4 2 6 67% 2.0
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2013/4 2 3 5 40% 0.7
2014/5 4 1 5 80% 4.0
2015/6 4 3 7 57% 1.3
Table 4: The Postgraduate Taught Course Application Process. Student applications, offers,
initial acceptances and new first year students based on student FPE (equivalent to
headcount in these cases).
It can be seen that whilst there is some fluctuation in PGT applicants by gender there
is no clear trend and little variation in the gender ratio of applicants to confirmed
students.
PGR
Figure 10. Application process for postgraduate research students. The variability in the data reflects the low absolute numbers involved (see following table).
Year Female Male Total % Female F:M ratio
Applications
2011/2 11 8 19 58% 1.4
2012/3 13 8 21 62% 1.6
2013/4 12 8 20 60% 1.5
2014/5 20 9 29 69% 2.2
2015/6 19 9 28 68% 2.1
Offers
2011/2 7 2 9 78% 3.5
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2012/3 7 5 12 58% 1.4
2013/4 7 3 10 70% 2.3
2014/5 15 2 17 88% 7.5
2015/6 8 4 12 67% 2.0
Acceptances
2011/2 5 0 5 100% 2012/3 5 2 7 71% 2.5
2013/4 3 2 5 60% 1.5
2014/5 7 1 8 88% 7.0
2015/6 4 2 6 67% 2.0
New First Year Students
2011/2 5 0 5 100% 2012/3 5 2 7 71% 2.5
2013/4 3 2 5 60% 1.5
2014/5 7 1 8 88% 7.0
2015/6 4 2 6 67% 2.0
Table 5: Postgraduate Research Application Process. Student applications, offers,
initial acceptances and new first year students based on student FPE (equivalent to
headcount in these cases).
The data for the PGR application process shows no obvious discrepancy between
applications, offers or acceptances.
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Staff data
Summary of progress:
2% increase in female academic staff
10% increase in female lecturers
Promotion of female to Professor
(vi) Female:male ratio of academic staff and research staff
Academic Staff FTE
Job Title Gender
Census Date
01/12/10 01/12/11 01/12/12 01/12/13 01/12/14 01/12/15
Researcher F 0 0 0 0 0.6 0.2
M 0 0 0 1 1 0
%F 0% 50% 100%
Teaching Fellow
F 3.3 3.8 2.8 5.4 4.4 4.2
M 0 0 0.2 0 0.5 0.5
%F 100% 100% 90% 100% 90% 89%
Lecturer
F 5 4 5 9 7.8 8
M 4 3 3 3 2 3
%F 56% 57% 63% 75% 80% 73%
Senior Teaching
Fellow
F 0 0 0 0.2 0.2 1.2
M 0 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5
%F 0% 0% 29% 29% 71%
Senior Lecturer
F 3.8 4.8 4.8 2.8 3.8 3.8
M 3 3 3 3 4 4
%F 56% 62% 62% 48% 49% 49%
Professor
F 0 0 0 1 1 1
M 3 3 2.5 2.5 2 1.4
%F 0% 0% 0% 29% 33% 42%
All
F 12.1 12.6 12.6 18.4 17.8 19.2
M 10 9.5 9.2 10 10 9.4
%F 55% 57% 58% 65% 64% 67%
Table 6. Academic staff FTE by job title, census date and gender. This data is plotted in Figure 11 but has separated Senior Lecturer and Senior Teaching Fellows, whilst these are on the same pay scale they have different roles. The bottom row of Table 6 indicates that the School has had increasing numbers of
female staff by FTE over the period from 2010-2015. The benchmark value for
academic staff in non-Professorial roles is 63% female by FPE; which is lower than
25
that at Keele, which on 01/12/15 was 73%. The benchmark figure for Professors
(HESA Heidi database data, cost centre 104 (Psychology), 2013/14) is 31%. Thus
the current ratio of Professorial staff in the School is in line with this benchmark at
29% (following the appointment of a male Professor from 1st April 2016).
The apparent drop in number of female senior lecturers reflects the promotion of one
individual to Professor and the semi-retirement of the second who changed contracts
from full time Senior Lecturer to part time (0.2) Senior Teaching Fellow.
Figure 11. Academic staff headcount by job title, census date and gender.
There is a clear drop off from TF to STF, from L to SL and from SL to Professor. Two
promotion workshops were run in the School for 7 early career staff (3M, 4F) to
encourage strategic career planning and address any issues. Due to the number of
early-career female staff at Lecturer level, it is too early to demonstrate the impact in
terms of promotions. However, impact can be demonstrated in terms of
preparedness (see Section 5). Another workshop is planned specifically for TF
promotion, as discussed in more detail in Section 4iv and 5. We are also currently
26
reviewing the School mentoring procedures and additionally 4 female colleagues
have attended female leadership courses.
(vii) Turnover by grade and gender – where numbers are small, comment why individuals left
Staff Leavers Since 2010
Academic Year 2010/11
2011/12 2012/13
2013/14 2014/15
F M F F M F M F
Professor 0 0 0 0 0 1* 0
Senior Lecturer 0 1 0 0 0 0
Lecturer 0 0 1 0 0 0
Teaching Fellow 0 0 0 0 0 4*
Researcher 0 0 0 0 0 1
Teaching Fellow 3 0 7 2 1 1 0
Table 7. Staff Turnover. No Senior Teaching Fellows left during this time. Those marked with an asterisk include 1 Professor (male) who retired in 2013/14 and one Teaching Fellow (female) who retired in 2014/15. Those lines that are shaded illustrate staff who left at the end of a fixed term contract. Over the entire period it can be seen that 15 women and 2 men have left. Exit interviews carried out by the HoS as part of our action plan do not raise gender-
specific issues. Women are over-represented in terms of leavers, due to the numbers
on fixed term, part-time contracts. The surge in leavers in 2011/12 was due to
temporary Counselling staff employed to teach on the Increasing Access to
Psychological Therapies course that the School won the contract to run for that year.
Other fixed-term Teaching Fellow posts are used to employ PGR students during
their PhD, providing students with valuable teaching experience. We will continue to
monitor the leaver situation via exit interviews. If issues emerge, these will be fed to
the University SAT (Action Point 12).
(1914 words, excluding tables and captions)
27
Supporting and advancing women’s careers – maximum 5000 words Please provide a report covering the following sections 4 – 7. Within each section provide data and a short analysis for at least the last three years (including clearly labelled graphical illustrations where possible) on the data sets listed, commenting on changes and progress made since the original application, and including details of successes and where actions have not worked and planned initiatives going forward. Please also attach the action plan from your last application with an additional column indicating the level of progress achieved (e.g. zero, limited, excellent, completed).
28
SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY ATHENA SWAN ACTION PLAN 2013-2016
(Please note: all initiatives described in this document are targeted at women, however in the interests of fairness to individual staff, they are open to all members unless otherwise stated)
Ac
tio
n
Description of
action
Action
taken
already and
outcome at
April 2013
Further action
planned at
April 2013
Responsibility Timescale Start date Success
Measure
Outcome
1 Recruit a
postgraduate
student and
member of the
Counselling staff
to the SAT
HoS and
Director of
Counselling
Psychology
For next
SAT
meeting
June 2013 Obtain better
representation
from across
the School
COMPLETED
See Table 1 for
membership of SAT.
29
2 Monitor UG, PGT
and PGR
numbers to
ensure they
remain close to
national
benchmark
figures.
Consider further
actions if they
deviate.
Inform School via
Athena SWAN
agenda item at
School meetings
of figures
Update School
Athena SWAN
website with
information (see
item 5)
Initial
monitoring
has taken
place.
Annual
monitoring –
figures to be
reported at
School
meeting.
Discuss
further actions
if deviation
observed.
Work with
focus groups
of relevant
student group
to decide on
actions
needed (e.g.,
incentives to
some to Keele
etc.).
UG year
tutors,
Director of
PG studies
and PGR
coordinator to
feedback to
SAT
Annual
monitoring:
October
2013
October
2014
October
2015
October
2016
October
2013
Maintain
student
numbers with
gender
breakdown in
line with
national
figures.
Take action to
address any
deviation
informed by
focus groups.
COMPLETED –
numbers either in line
with benchmarks (UG,
PGT) or increasing
towards benchmarks
(PGR)
COMPLETED – no
significant deviation.
30
3 Conduct survey
of UGs and
PGTs to
ascertain any
additional
support and also
what they intend
to do on
completion of
degree.
Consider further
actions in light of
support needs
identified
Inform School via
Athena SWAN
agenda item at
School meeting
of survey
outcomes and
actions to be
implemented.
Update School
Athena SWAN
website with
information (see
item 5)
Diversity
Audit
conducted
in 2009.
Teaching
Innovation
application
submitted to
obtain
funding to
support re-
auditing the
students.
Expand
survey to
include
Athena
SWAN
questions
Work with
focus groups
of relevant
student
groups and
staff
volunteers to
develop
additional
support (e.g.,
careers
workshops
etc.).
Diversity
officers to
implement
survey (since
it originated
with them),
encouraging
staff
members to
volunteer for
focus groups
where
appropriate
and feedback
to SAT
Autumn
2013
Repeat bi-
annually
Autumn
2015
Autumn
2013
Instigate and
achieve high
return rate
~60%.
Increase
reported
student
satisfaction on
gender
related
matters
Evaluate
impact of any
new initiatives
implemented
in future
surveys
COMPLETED: survey
conducted Summer
2014
Response rate – poor
despite trying different
formats (paper and
online)
Responses provided
indicate general
satisfaction with gender
related matters
Evaluation to be carried
forward to new action
plan (Action Points 1,
5, 11)
31
4 Conduct focus
groups of PhD
students to
explore support
they might need
and issues
surrounding
future career
plans, potential
obstacles etc.
Consider further
actions in light of
support needs
identified
Inform School via
Athena SWAN
agenda item at
School meeting
of survey
outcomes and
actions to be
implemented.
Update School
Athena SWAN
website with
information (see
item 5)
Develop
question
schedule
Discuss and
implement
additional
support needs
identified
(e.g., more
networking
opportunities
etc.)
Director of
Postgraduate
Studies to
feedback to
SAT
SAT Chair to
report to
School
Computer
Technician to
update
website
November
2013
Repeat bi-
annually:
November
2015
November
2013
Achieve high
attendance
rate
Evaluate
impact of any
new initiatives
implemented
in subsequent
surveys
COMPLETED
Focus groups run in
2014 and 2016 (see
Table 2 for details)
COMPLETED – most
recent focus groups run
separately for existing
and new students. New
students asked
questions around issues
raised previously and
reported favourably.
32
5 Create Athena
SWAN webpage
for Psychology
(in addition to
planned
University
developments) to
promote
objectives, report
initiatives and
increase
awareness
amongst new
student and staff
applicants
Select
materials for
webpage and
design layout.
Learning
Technology &
Programming
Officer to
design
website in
consultation
with SAT
08/2013-
02/2014
August
2013
New webpage
up and
running by
February
2014.
COMPLETED webpage
can be found here:
http://www.keele.ac.uk/p
sychology/athenaswan/
6
Promote Athena
SWAN in job
information packs
Update
materials
HoS, Senior
School
Manager
in conjunction
with HR
Before
next job
advertise-
ment
Spring
2014
Updated
information for
all future job
application
packs
COMPLETED – School
attached Athena SWAN
logo to job information
33
7
Ensure
composition of
recruitment
panels is gender
balanced
If not possible,
due to lack of
trained females,
encourage more
females to
undergo
recruitment
training
University HR
does not
currently have
requirement
for equality of
representation
– report to
University
SAT and
encourage
them to liaise
with HR
HoS, Senior
School
Manager.
SAT Chair to
feed to
University
SAT
On-going:
applicable
at every
recruitmen
t panel
Spring
2014
Gender-
balanced
recruitment
panels
PARTIALLY
COMPLETED as per
Section 4iii panels were
50:50 gender balanced
where possible with a
minimum of 2 female
panel members
34
8
Encourage all
staff (via email,
appraisal
process,
promotion of
events at School
meetings, School
Athena SWAN
website, staff
handbook),
especially
females, to
attend University
promotion
workshops, to
take advantage
of University
Athena SWAN
mentoring
scheme and to
attend grant
workshops
HoS already
addresses
promotion
plans in
appraisal
process.
Circulate
details of
events via
email and
School
meetings and
include in staff
handbook
(see point 11
below).
HoS to
increase
coverage of
promotion
related issues
at appraisal,
proactively
offering
opportunities
to develop
careers.
HoS, Heads
of Research
Groups
On-going
(appraisals
annually in
Summer
2013,
2014,
2015,
2016;
School
meetings
quarterly)
May 2013 Steady
increase in
number of
females
applying for
promotion.
Additional
10% by 2016
Internal promotion
workshops also run for
early career staff to
enable them to be more
strategic in thinking
ahead for promotion.
See Section 5i for
feedback from staff.
NOT ACHIEVED in
retrospect, this was
likely to be hard to
achieve. 3 women were
promoted between 2010
and 2013 (2 to SL and 1
to Chair). 6 staff (4
female) are planning to
apply for promotion to
SL, Reader or Chair in
the near future.
Carried forward to new
Action Points 19-22
35
9
Run session on
transition from
PGT to PGR for
current PGT
students
Develop
session
materials
Director of
Postgraduate
Studies to
liaise with
School to ask
for staff to run
session
Annually
January
2014
January
2015
January
2016
January
2014
Increase in
number of
female
applicants for
PGR
Additional 5%
by 2016
COMPLETED
COMPLETED – 5%
additional female PGR
recruited
1
0
Promote Athena
SWAN in PGR
recruitment
packs
Update
materials
HoS, Senior
School
Manager,
Director of
PG Studies
Before
next PGR
recruitmen
t drive
Spring
2014
Updated
information for
all future PGR
recruitment
packs
COMPLETED
1
1
Develop a staff
handbook for
new members of
staff (both
support and
academic),
include returners
policy for those
on maternity
leave
Very old
version
exists
somewhere
Update
materials,
circulate for
input from
staff and put
online
Working
group
comprising
volunteers
from School;
a mix of
newest and
more
established
staff
Before
new staff
start,
continually
updated
especially
every
September
(2014,
2015,
2016)
September
2013
Working staff
handbook
before new
staff start in
September
2013
COMPLETED – by Feb
2016.
36
1
2
WAM to be
transparent and
issues regarding
workload
imbalance to be
identified and
addressed.
Action includes
preparation time
for new lectures
to be reflected in
WAM to ensure
that ‘reduced
workload’ for new
staff is a reality
Staff on
probation
currently
protected to
some extent
from heavy
teaching
and admin
burdens via
a reduced
load
mechanism
Update WAM
criteria
HoS, Senior
School
Manager
By 2015 June 2013
(when next
round of
appraisals
start)
It is
acknowledged
that this will
require some
time to effect,
so the
success
measures
here are:
1) WAM to be
published to
staff in line
with
University
guidelines by
2015
2) an increase
in the time
allocated to
the
preparation of
new lectures
by 2015
COMPLETED – the
WAM came online in
early 2016. This was
delayed by the purchase
of necessary new
software.
COMPLETED – new
starters are given a
reduced workload
allocation to
accommodate preparing
teaching materials and
establish research. In
addition all staff are
given a double time
allocation for the
preparation of new
lectures (16 hrs per
lecture).
37
1
3
Exit interviews for
staff to identify
why they left and
where they are
headed to next.
Flag any gender-
related issues
e.g., childcare.
Consider further
actions if issues
identified
HoS in
conjunction
with HR
On-going:
every time
a member
of staff
leaves
When next
member of
staff
leaves
Athena
SWAN issues
being
addressed at
exit interviews
Action taken
in response to
issues raised
COMPLETED and
ongoing – added to New
Action Plan (Action
Point 12)
NONE REPORTED
38
1
4
Survey all staff :
What
improvements
have they
noticed?
Examples of
good/bad
practice they
have observed.
Things that have
assisted/hindered
career
path/research
output.
What would they
like to see in
future?
What could have
been improved
regarding
induction/early
weeks of new
post?
Measures of job
satisfaction.
Equality issues.
Consider further
actions in light of
issues identified
Inform School via
Athena SWAN
agenda item at
School meeting
of survey
outcomes and
actions to be
implemented.
Update School
Other
relevant
surveys and
published
scales
identified
Compile
survey
Follow-up
focus groups
with staff to
discuss
appropriate
actions to
implement
SAT
members
(CFo, SS);
whole School
Whole School
Computer
Technician to
update
website
To be
conducted
annually in
order to
track
progress
August
2013
August
2014
August
2015
August
2016
August
2013
Reduction in
gender-
related
problems,
increase in
job
satisfaction
and
awareness of
Athena
SWAN
reflected in
subsequent
surveys
COMPLETED
Illustrative
improvements include:
80% (up from 54%) of
staff agree that “My
School makes it clear
that unsupportive
language and behaviour
are not acceptable”
92% (up from 79%) of
staff agree that
“Inappropriate images
that stereotype women
or men are not
acceptable in my
School”
91% of staff “understand
why positive action may
be required to promote
gender equality”
39
1
5
Survey to monitor
‘hidden cost’ of
being a female
academic (in
terms of extra
pastoral support
etc.)
Consider further
actions in light of
issues identified
Inform School via
Athena SWAN
agenda item at
School meeting
of survey
outcomes and
actions to be
implemented.
Update School
Athena SWAN
website with
information (see
item 5)
Queens
University,
Belfast have
put this in
their Silver
action plan.
We will
contact them
for more info
and adapt
their materials
for our staff
SAT Chair to
contact
Belfast
Discussion of
how best to
proceed at
SAT meeting
Survey
conducted by
Senior
Personal
Tutor and
reported back
to SAT
Conduct
first survey
in Autumn
2014.
Depending
on
outcomes,
consider
repeating
annually in
Autumn
2015 and
Autumn
2016
Summer
2014
(contact
Queens)
Autumn
2014
implement
survey
Concrete
information to
inform
discussion of
an oft-
discussed
issue.
This issue will
need to be
handled
sensitively as
there is
variation of
performance
across all staff
vis a vis
pastoral
support
Queen’s University
Belfast published report
on this topic – this is
now under discussion at
SAT and will be a focus
of next SAT meeting
(Action Point 33)
40
1
6
Ensure that equal
numbers of
female and male
external
speakers are
scheduled in our
external seminar
series
We are
already
doing this
informally
Formalising
process
External
seminar
coordinator
On-going
(speakers
recruited
March
onwards
2014,
2015,
2016)
Summer
2013
Equal
numbers of
male and
female
speakers
scheduled
every year
COMPLETED
See this year’s speaker
schedule in Section 5iii
1
7
Interview female
speakers
regarding career
trajectory and
have section on
School Athena
SWAN webpage
Ask female
speakers if
they are
happy for this
to happen
External
seminar
coordinator,
Director of
PG Studies
On-going
2013-2016
September
2013
Have female
academic
profiles on
School’s
Athena
SWAN
website
COMPLETED
See School Athena
SWAN webpage:
http://www.keele.ac.uk/p
sychology/athenaswan/
41
1
8
Networking lunch
each term,
including PG
students and
RAs, to facilitate
social support
within School and
highlight Athena
SWAN agenda.
Various
formats
discussed
e.g., bring
and share
lunch,
women’s
charity quiz,
event for
International
Women’s
Day
Decide on
format and
date
HoS, Senior
School
Manager,
Director of
PG Studies,
PGR
coordinator,
SAT
Autumn
2013
Spring
2014
Summer
2014
Autumn
2014
Spring
2015
Summer
2015
Autumn
2015
Spring
2016
Autumn
2013
Increase in
reported
satisfaction
via surveys
and focus
groups for
PGs and staff.
Increased
number of
female PGR
applications
and promotion
applications
from female
staff.
COMPLETED PGRs
report feeling part of the
School, whilst staff
PGR numbers are small,
however there has been
an increase in female
PGR students from 64%
(N=7) in 2012/13 to 69%
(N=11) in 2015/16.
As noted under point 8
above, female L staff
are too early career to
apply for promotion
while female SLs had
only recently been
promoted. Despite this 6
staff (4F) are intending
to apply for promotion.
42
The abbreviations used in the Action Plan are as follows: 1. HoS = Head of School 2. UG = undergraduate 3. PG = postgraduate 4. PGT = taught postgraduate 5. PGR = research postgraduate 6. RA= research assistant 7. WAM = workload allocation model 8. SAT = Athena SWAN self-assessment team
43
4. Key career transition points (i) Job application and success rates by gender and grade
Job Applications: All Academic Positions
Academic Year Applicants Shortlist Appointments
F M %F F M %F F M %F
2009-10 39 34 51% 9 3 75% 4 1 80%
2010-11 34 23 59% 10 4 71% 8 0 100%
2011-12 64 45 58% 2 0 100% 2 0 100%
2012-13 51 43 54% 14 4 78% 10 2 83%
2013-14 21 8 72% 7 1 88% 3 1 75%
2014-15 39 30 57% 13 5 72% 5 2 71%
Total 248 183 58% 55 17 76% 32 6 84%
Table 8. Job applications, shortlisting and appointments by gender, for all posts.
Job Applications: Teaching Fellow Positions
Academic
Year
Applications Shortlist Offer
F M %F F M %F F M %F
2009-10 21 15 58% 8 0 100% 4 0 100%
2010-11 34 23 59% 10 4 71% 8 0 100%
2012-13 5 2 71% 5 2 71% 5 2 71%
2013-14 21 8 72% 7 1 88% 3 1 75%
2014-15 15 2 71% 7 1 83% 3 1 75%
2014-15 9 8 53% 3 1 75% 1 0 100%
Total 105 58 64% 40 9 82% 24 4 86%
Table 9. Job applications, shortlisting and appointments by gender, for all Teaching Fellow posts. The shaded line represents a post advertised at a senior level, which attracted proportionately more male candidates.
Job Applications: Lecturer Positions
Academic Year
Applications Shortlist Offer
F M %F F M %F F M %F
2009-10 18 19 44% 1 3 25% 0 1 0%
2011-12 64 45 58% 2 0 100% 2 0 100%
2012-13 46 41 53% 9 2 82% 5 0 100%
2014-15 15 20 43% 3 3 50% 1 1 50%
Total 143 125 53% 15 8 65% 8 2 80%
Table 10. Job applications, shortlisting and appointments by gender, for all Lecturer posts. Despite relatively low numbers of female applicants for academic positions and
lectureships in particular, there is no indication that this is affecting shortlisting or
appointments. We continue to recruit more female than male staff at these entry level
44
jobs. The issues in the School for women emerge at the more senior levels which are
determined primarily by promotion.
We are keen to do more to attract female applicants and so under Action Point 14
future job adverts will include the offer of a Skype interview to women who may
struggle to attend interview in person due to childcare or other family responsibilities.
We will also debrief female candidates to explore their experience of the recruitment
process (Action Point 15).
Until January 2016, only Teaching Fellow, Senior Teaching Fellow and Lectureship
posts have been advertised. In January 2016 we advertised a Chair in Psychology
for the first time since 2006 and the HoS contacted possible female candidates to
encourage them to apply. There were 5 applicants (2F, 3M) of whom 3 were
shortlisted and two were interviewed (1F, 1M). The successful applicant was male.
(ii) Applications for promotion and success rates by gender and grade – comment on whether these differ for men and women and if they do explain what action may be taken. Where the number of women is small applicants may comment on specific examples of where women have been through the promotion process. Explain how potential candidates are identified.
Applications for promotion and success rates by gender and grade
Academic Promotion since 2009
Academic Year
Promotion Level
Female Male
Un-successful Successful
Un-successful Successful
2010/11 Senior Lecturer
0 1 (LRP) 0 1 (RPL)
2012/13 Professor 0 0 0 0
Senior Lecturer
0 0 1(PLR) 0
2013/14 Senior Lecturer
0 1(PLR) 0 1(PLR)
2015/16 Senior Lecturer
0 0 0 1(RLP)
Table 11. Academic promotions since 2009. Senior Lecturer promotion applicants
can base their application on excellence in two of the three categories (Learning &
Teaching (L), Research (R) or Professional Organisational, Managerial and
Administrative (P), with satisfactory or better in the third. The order of initials
45
indicates which criteria candidates chose to apply under. There were no promotions
from TF to STF, or from Research Fellow to Senior Research Fellow during this
period. The promotion application process starts in September of the academic year,
with Professorial promotions being announced in the new year and senior level
promotions announced in spring.
Three men and two women have been promoted to Senior Lecturer. However, one
woman has been promoted to Professor and no men have been represented in
promotion at this level. Furthermore, there is no evidence that women are slower to
gain promotion than men: based on start dates, the 2 women took an average 7
years to reach promotion (SL level) while the three men took 8.3 years.
In addition to the academic promotions shown in Table 11, individual women in 2009
and 2012 applied for accelerated increments and were successful and in 2011 one
woman was unsuccessful in applying for contribution points. No men applied for
increments/contribution points.
Actions to encourage and support career development, including promotion are
detailed in Section 5 below.
(iii) Impact of activities to support the recruitment of staff – how the
department’s recruitment processes ensure that female candidates are encouraged to apply, and how the department ensures its short listing, selection processes and criteria comply with the university’s equal opportunities policies
As per our 2013 action plan, we have taken steps to include the Athena SWAN logo
and information in job advertisements and literature. The current wording used is as
follows:
“Keele University is committed to the principles of the Athena SWAN charter, and
values equality and diversity across our workforce.”
A second sentence is added where there is under-representation (for Professorships
in Psychology): “We strive to ensure that our workforce is representative of broader
society, and therefore, we would actively welcome applications from women for this
role.”
We also have an Athena SWAN section on our webpage and the Athena SWAN logo
is displayed on the front page of the School page.
46
Shortlisting is carried out by colleagues who have been on the University recruitment
course which includes unconscious bias training. In addition unconscious bias
training was run for all staff in the School in March 2014. The shortlisting process
includes a form with codes to indicate why individuals were not shortlisted which has
to be returned to HR for verification.
Our interview panels comprise both female and male panellists. While it is not always
possible to achieve a 50:50 gender split due to the gender of individuals occupying
senior positions outside of the School (e.g. Dean or Deputy VC for Chair
appointments), there is always a minimum of two females. Furthermore, staff are
encouraged to complete recruitment training to ensure that it is not always the same
female staff who sit on the panels.
Due to the importance of recruiting equitably and the number of new staff we have
recruited recently, Action Point 16 is to run another session on unconscious bias
training, which will cover bias in recruitment but also in other areas of our working
relationships (e.g. in: promotions, committees, every-day language, micro-
affirmations etc.).
47
(iv) Impact of activities to support staff at key career transition points – interventions, programmes and activities that support women at the crucial stages, such as personal development training, opportunities for networking, mentoring programmes and leadership training.
A range of activities support staff at key transition points and many of these followed
from the 2013 action plan. Some are available to all staff (e.g., promotion workshops)
while others specifically target females (e.g., Leadership Training courses). Key
transition points in the School have been identified as moving from PGT to PGR, TF
to STF, L to SL and SL to Professor.
The PGT Director runs a career transition talk for PGTs. The PGR focus group
indicated that more could be done to support them at the start of their PhD. This
process has started with an improved induction procedure in which a detailed
checklist and accompanying support session are provided (see section 5iii). PGRs’
also commented about their concerns in seeking employment post-PhD and Action
Points 6-8 will address these concerns.
The transition from TF to STF is an area that has been neglected until recently at
Keele. None of the current STFs in the School achieved their role via promotion (one
was appointed and two converted from SLs to STFs later in their careers). Our
Teaching Fellows divide into two groups –Counselling TFs and PGRs who are TFs
whilst they complete their PhDs. On completion of their PhDs the latter progress to
postdoctoral research or lecturing positions. Of most relevance to this transition stage
are the Counselling TFs who are career teachers alongside their professional
Counselling status. Historically in the School, they held regularly renewed fixed-term
contracts: clearly an unsatisfactory arrangement. Considerable progress has been
made under the current HoS with 4 Counselling staff being moved from temporary to
permanent contracts in 2010. In addition 5 Counselling staff were moved from Grade
7 to Grade 8 in 2013/14. Now that they are on a firmer footing, the new Action Plan
can consider facilitating their transition from TF to STF. Accordingly, in addition to
initiatives that Keele is implementing to more firmly establish a promotion route for
teaching-only roles, the School SAT under direction of the Champion is planning an
in-house promotions workshop specifically for TFs (Action Point 19). This will
supplement the University workshop planned for June which the Athena SWAN
champion has encouraged Counselling staff to consider attending. Part of the new
Director of Counselling’s remit (Action Point 37) is to review career development
and promotion opportunities within the Counselling team.
48
Networking is a valuable opportunity for students and staff both internally whereby
junior and senior colleagues can learn from one another and externally. SAT
members coordinate many of these networking opportunities within the School, for
example, welcome meals for new staff, activities around International Women’s Day,
Away Days for teaching and also for research and our external seminar series. PGR
students are always invited as are administrative and technical staff. PGR students
also host their own conference to which staff are invited. External networking is
facilitated with support to travel to other institutions and is discussed during
appraisals.
Personal development planning (PDP) is well established at Keele, with a range of
courses (PhD supervisor training, Mental Health First Aid, interviewing, etc.) offered
centrally which staff are encouraged to attend. Attendance is encouraged individually
through discussion during appraisals and through emails circulated by the HoS and
Athena SWAN champion. In addition, consultants are invited into the School to offer
training on relevant topics such as using Blackboard effectively. All Lecturers
undertake the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education programme and this is
also offered to all of our PGR Teaching Fellows (one of whom has just been
recognised as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy following completion of this
course, while another is an Associate Fellow, both female students). For those PGR
students who prefer not to do the full course, other opportunities such as shadowing
staff are available (this year 3F and 1M student shadowed staff).
Leadership training is offered to female staff at two levels. One is the Leadership
Foundation’s Aurora Programme which has been (see Case Study 1) attended by
two staff in the School (places are funded centrally and are competitive across the
whole University). The second is an in-house training course (Springboard) aimed at
more junior staff. This has also been attended by two (different) staff and feedback
has been positive, for example:
“I found it to be the most useful workplace training course I've ever done. It's
impacting and improved pretty much every aspect of my attitude and practice at
work. It help build confidence and assertiveness which has made me more willing to
volunteer for opportunities and also to decline requests when I don't have time. [-] It
also really helped reassess personal and professional goals and aspirations so made
career planning more effective.” (Early career female Lecturer, 21/4/2016)
49
The role of mentoring has been brought to the fore in recent years with the influx of
new staff. Staff are allocated a research mentor and a teaching mentor. This is done
in consultation with the HoS so they are able to specify the gender of their mentor
should they so desire. New PhD supervisors are additionally allocated a mentor and
the Aurora course provides an additional senior female mentor. Despite this, the staff
survey revealed some flaws in the system. The number of staff who report that they
are provided with useful mentoring opportunities has risen from 39% in 2014 to 52%
in 2016 but this is still only half of staff. Accordingly one of the SAT members (Dr
Claire Fox) is leading a review of the mentoring system and Action Point 17 will be
to implement a more coherent system while Action Point 18 ensures all staff attend
mentor training over the next 2 years.
5. Career development (i) Impact of activities to support promotion and career development –
appraisal, career development process, promotion criteria. The majority of senior positions in the School (Senior Teaching Fellow, Senior
Lecturer, Professor) are achieved by internal promotion. The University offers annual
promotions workshops and School staff are encouraged by the HoS, by email and
during appraisals, to attend. Two staff have attended since the last application,
including one female who was enabled to attend via Skype. However, the SAT
decided that workshops focussing on early career promotions and development
opportunities specific to psychology would be helpful. The criteria for promotion to
Senior Lecturer require excellence in two of three categories (Teaching, Research
and Professional, Organisational, Managerial and Administration or POMA) with the
third being at least satisfactory. Promotion to Senior Teaching Fellow is based on
teaching and POMA. The in-School promotions workshops were led by one male and
one female academic in the School who had recently been promoted to Senior
Lecturer. One had been promoted on excellence in Teaching and POMA, the other
on POMA and Research. Seven early career staff attended the training in 2015 (3M,
4F). The two workshops were well received as this quote illustrates2:
“Just to say that I got a lot out of your workshop. For me, it demystified the process of
applying for a promotion in the School. It enables early career staff, like myself, to
think about how to be strategic in their activities, yet also to recognise how the work
2 All quotes in this document were received via email and are available on request.
50
you carry out day to day can be documented and useful for a future promotion
application.” (Female colleague, 13/4/2015)
Later in the year one of the attendees applied for promotion and was promoted from
L to SL in March 2016. Because the workshop was aimed primarily at early-career
staff, the full impact will not be measurable in numbers for some time, although 1
female and 1 male colleague are currently thinking about applying for promotion.
However, in our 2014 staff survey, only 54% of staff reported understanding the
promotion process and criteria. By 2016 this had risen to 73%: our initiatives are
bearing fruit.
Impact cannot currently be shown specifically for Counselling Teaching Fellow staff.
Hence, a School promotions workshop focussing on the transition from TF to STF is
planned in May and the new Counselling Programme Director will be reviewing
uptake of PDP and promotion with the Counselling team (Action Point 37).
Professorial promotions require outstanding achievement in research, teaching and
leadership or exceptional achievement in one of research, teaching or academic
achievement in professional practice. Readership promotions require outstanding
achievement in either research or teaching beyond the level expected for SLr. Impact
of female leadership programmes and University promotions workshops is
measurable with an increase in numbers of staff considering higher promotions. Five
colleagues (4F, 1M) are considering applying for promotion to Reader/Chair in the
next 2/3 years and Action Point 22 is for the HoS to run a promotion workshop for
these 5 individuals.
Despite more staff understanding the promotion process (73% up from 54%),
feedback from the staff survey suggests our appraisal system (SPRE) is not always
used effectively to support promotion, with 29% of staff disagreeing that the School
provides them with a helpful annual appraisal. Action Point 21 is an action for the
HoS to send out promotions criteria prior to SPRE meetings so that they can be
explicitly included in SPRE discussions.
The activities in 4iv, above, and throughout this document, mean that the School is
increasingly an environment in which female staff are able to thrive. This is borne out
by the most recent staff survey in which only 3% of staff felt that the School was not a
great place to work for women. A concrete example of this is the recent activities of
51
five early-career female colleagues who have facilitated writing workshops to carve
out dedicated supported time for writing papers and grant applications. The School
has provided resource to enable this to happen (specifically paying for rooms and
lunch as well as blocking the necessary time). As part of the process, the facilitators
kept a running tally of words written during the writing sessions (63,687 words to
date) and the number of outputs in terms of draft papers, conference presentations
and grant applications prepared (8 to date). In addition to leading directly to a
publication being drafted for submission to Higher Education Research &
Development, one of the organisers observed that:
“I think we all gained something different from participating in the writing retreats (and
the subsequent writing days). For me they helped to break a crippling writing block
that had dogged me for the previous 18 months. They transformed my approach, not
just to writing, but to all my work. We have continued to hold 'writing mornings' for the
School's early career researchers every week throughout the 15/16 academic year
and we're planning a new summer programme at the moment.” (Early career female,
28/4/2016).
(ii) Impact of activities to support induction and training – support
provided to new staff at all levels, and any gender equality training. Before our 2013 action plan there was an unwieldy (100-page) and incomplete staff
handbook. The SAT set up a small working group to distil this into a shorter (16-
page) document suitable for new staff. This was launched in early 2016. Whilst it is
recognised that the impact of the new induction document needs time to bed in, our
most recent staff survey shows that our activities are bearing fruit, with 35% (down
from 54% in 2014) disagreeing that there was a clear and comprehensive induction
process for new staff. We are hopeful that the new induction document and Action
Point 23 will reduce this figure further.
New early-career colleagues are given a reduced teaching workload when they start
at Keele, with an extra 10% of their time allocated to research and another 10%
allocated to taking the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education. Their teaching load is then gradually increased as they complete the
PGCert until they are at full load three years later. Gender equality training, including
an introduction to Athena SWAN, is provided to all new starters centrally as part of
the University induction.
52
(iii) Impact of activities that support female students – support (formal and informal) provided for female students to enable them to make the transition to a sustainable academic career, particularly from postgraduate to researcher, such as mentoring, seminars and pastoral support and the right to request a female personal tutor.
From UG to PGR level, all students have access to personal tutors. They have the
right to change this tutor and may choose another by gender; indeed students
occasionally request this. UG students further have year tutors to whom they apply
for consideration of extenuating circumstances for extensions etc. We ensure that at
least one of these is a woman and that students are aware they can speak to any of
the year tutors.
Student satisfaction is evidence by a positive response (mean score 5 on 6 point
scale) from UGs and PGT’s on the survey to the question to what extent do you
agree that “All students have equal access to support and services within the School
of Psychology regardless of their gender”?
Our weekly School seminar series, a mix of internal and external speakers is open to
all students and is required for PGT students. These seminars are recorded and
made available on the Keele teaching platform for those who are unable to attend the
sessions. Table 12 illustrates the even gender balance of speakers and female
speaker biographies are on our Athena SWAN webpage.
Date Speaker Internal/External
7 October 2015
Professor Elizabeth Peel University of Worcester
External - female
21 October 2015
Dr Paul Jenkinson University of Hertfordshire
External - male
4 November 2015
Dr Cristian Tileaga University of Loughborough
External - male
11 November 2015 Dr Sammyh Kahn Internal - male
18 November 2015
Dr Cliodhna O’Connor University College London
External - female
25 November 2015 Dr Helen Williams Internal - female
2 December 2015
Dr Sara da Silva Ramos Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust
External - female
20 January 2016 Professor Pasco Fearon University College London
External - male
27 January 2016 Dr Sue Sherman Internal - female
3 February 2016
Professor Jonathan Smith Birkbeck, University of London
External - male
10 February 2016 Dr Chris Stiff Internal - male
17 February 2016
Dr Nicola Pitchford University of Nottingham
External - female
53
2 March 2016
Dr Judith de Groot University of Bath
External - female
9 March 2016 Dr John Hegarty Internal - male
16 March 2016
Dr Nicholas Hopkins University of Dundee
External - male
13 April 2016
Postgraduate Conference
20 April 2016 Dr Claire Fox Internal - female
27 April 2016
Professor Karen Douglas University of Kent
External - female
Table 12. 2015-16 speaker schedule. There are 6F and 5M external speakers and 3F
and 3M internal speakers.
Our PGT students have a session about career progression and are given
opportunities within the course to start building their research CVs by working as
research apprentices on staff research projects.
Mentoring starts at PGR level with the University mentoring scheme. The PGR focus
groups (2016) appreciated this but felt that within School mentoring would be more
beneficial, especially at the start of the PhD. Action Point 8 has been included in the
plan to ensure this is addressed.
The PGR Director addressed criticism from the 2014 focus group with an induction
sheet for new students and accompanying training session in which students were
introduced to key staff. This has been so well-received that Action Point 23 is to
incorporate the cover sheet into the staff induction process.
Both formal and informal networking opportunities exist for PGR students involving
them fully in the academic and social life of the School. As well as being invited to
School seminars, there is an annual internal PGR conference, organised by the
students, which has gathered momentum over the past 3 years with the most recent
one being well attended by staff, students and colleagues across the university.
In the 2014 focus group PGR students said they would appreciate more teaching
induction/training. Apart from those who have additional roles as Teaching Fellows,
they felt they had little opportunity for gathering teaching experience. Shadowing
opportunities are now offered to all PGRs – this year 4 students are shadowing staff
members (3F, 1M). They are also offered paid marking opportunities. In the most
recent 2016 focus groups, PGRs reported feeling well supported, with teaching
experience considered to be essential in terms of future careers (the caveat, is
54
managing workload and this is addressed in Action Point 9). Students also
requested additional training for School-specific marking and teaching, addressed in
Action Point 10.
PGRs were keen for more contact with early-career colleagues via a grant
writing/next steps workshop and PhD mentoring. This is addressed in Action Points
6-8.
6. Organisation and culture (i) Male and female representation on committees – provide a
breakdown by committee. Committee Chair Composition Change in
gender representation
Senior Management Team
M 4F/2M Yes, 40%F to 67%
Athena SWAN F 10F/3M No change, although more people involved.
School meeting M All staff No change
Research Board F 4F/2M Yes 0%F to 67%F
BSc meeting M All UG teaching staff
No change
PGT meeting M All MSc teaching staff
No change
Counselling programme meeting
F All Counselling staff
No change
School Learning and Teaching Committee
F 4F/2M Yes – from 80%F to 67%F due to loss of two programmes (Clinical and Applied Psychology)
Table 13. Main School committees and composition. In addition, all Committees have a female note-taker in attendance. As can be seen in Table 13 above, there is a roughly equal gender split in the
Chairing of Committees in the School. In addition membership of the committees is
reasonably balanced, with the Senior Management Team composition being a good
55
demonstration of the inclusion of women in strategic decision making (up from 40%F
to 67%F since our last submission).
(ii) Female:male ratio of academic and research staff on fixed-term
contracts and open-ended (permanent) contracts
Fixed-term contracts have been used for the small numbers of research staff in the
School (one male, 2013-2014 and one female, (2014-2015) and for 1 male Professor
who moved from full- to part-time hours (0.5 FTE contract in 2012 and 2013).
Additionally, approximately half of all Teaching Fellows are on fixed-term contracts
and these are mostly women (Section 4iv). On the most recent census date Teaching
Fellows account for all the fixed term posts in the School.
Teaching Fellows by Contract Type
Job Title Gender
Census Date
01/12/10 01/12/11 01/12/12 01/12/13 01/12/14 01/12/15
Female
Fixed term 4 7 4 6 5 6
permanent 5 5 5 7 7 6
% fixed term 44% 58% 44% 46% 42% 50%
Male
Fixed term 0 0 1 0 1 1
permanent 0 0 1 1 1 1
% fixed term 0% 50% 0% 50% 50%
Table 14. Teaching Fellows by contract type.
All Academic Staff by Contract Type
Job Title Gender
Census Date
01/12/10 01/12/11 01/12/12 01/12/13 01/12/14 01/12/15
Female
Fixed term 4.00 7.00 4.00 7.00 6.00 6.00
permanent 14.00 14.00 15.00 19.00 20.00 19.00
% fixed term 22% 33% 21% 27% 23% 24%
Male
Fixed term 0.00 0.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 1.00
permanent 10.00 10.00 9.00 9.00 9.00 10.00
% fixed term 0% 0% 18% 18% 18% 9%
Table 15. All academic jobs by contract type.
(iii) Representation on decision-making committees –evidence of gender equality in the mechanism for selecting representatives.
56
Most decision-making committees within the School either involve all staff (e.g.,
School meeting), staff in specific roles irrespective of gender (e.g., Senior
Management Team) or staff who volunteer (e.g., task-specific working groups).
Exceptions to this include the Athena SWAN SAT which recruited staff interested in
being involved. Key decision-making committees in the School and the gender of
attendees are presented in Table 13 under Section 6i above.
Encouragingly only 8% (decreasing from 14% in 2014) of staff agree that “there are
gender inequalities in terms of the number of men and women who sit on different
committees, e.g. women focused more on teaching/pastoral issues and men on
research” This is also evidenced by improvements shown in Table 13.
(iv) Workload model – describe the systems in place to ensure that workload allocations, including pastoral and administrative responsibilities (including the responsibility for work on women and science) are transparent, fairly applied and are taken into account at appraisal and in promotion criteria.
The workload allocation model (WAM) has long been an issue of contention in the
School, hence, it was a key initiative in our 2013 action plan. Previously, the WAM
was not published and our 2014 survey reflected how staff felt: only 54% of staff
agreed with the statement “work is allocated on a clear and fair basis irrespective of
gender”.
In February 2016, after considerable work by our School Manager to learn software
and transfer data, the WAM was published openly. This has actually led to a
decrease in those who believe work is allocated on a clear and fair basis to 46% in
the latest staff survey. However, this question conflates transparency and fairness. In
the open ended comments section, staff commented positively about transparency
but observed that “while it is clear, it may not necessarily be fair”. Subsequent staff
surveys will separate this into two questions. In addition, there is evidence in the
survey that all work does not seem to be valued equally – only 49% of staff agree
that “the full range of an individual’s skills and experience (e.g. research, pastoral
work, outreach work, teaching, administration and technical support)” is valued when
considering promotions.
Discussions with the SMT suggest that perceptions rather than the process need to
be addressed, since the HoS, School Manager and Programme Directors work
together to allocate workload. Staff are each given a seminar group, a lab class and
57
core module leadership as well as one key administrative role as a starting point.
Clearly, although we have now published the WAM there is still some way to go
before the system is perceived as fair. We have designed several actions to tackle
this (Action Points 24-27). We will continue to monitor the WAM closely and staff
opinion to ensure that it is indeed fair.
(v) Timing of departmental meetings and social gatherings – evidence of consideration for those with family responsibilities, for example what the department considers to be core hours and whether there is a more flexible system in place.
Core meetings are held between 10am and 4pm as are Away Days (in a conference
venue on campus). The only exception to this is some Counselling Team meetings
which are held at their preferred time at the end of the working day (staff only having
one working day in common). The School Seminar programme takes place at
lunchtime. While some social activities do tend to take place in the evenings, such as
the Christmas party, staff are canvassed as to their preferred date, time and venue
for the event. Furthermore, other events such as the summer picnic take place during
the daytime and staff children are welcomed. Leaving events usually start in the
School during core hours enabling staff with caring responsibilities to attend at least
part of the event.
In our staff surveys, the number of staff agreeing that “meetings are completed in
core hours to enable those with caring responsibilities to attend” all the time
increased from 36% in 2014 to 57% in 2016. When we expand this to include those
who agree that this happens all or most of the time, the proportion is 89%.
(vi) Culture –demonstrate how the department is female-friendly and inclusive and ensures visibility of women, for example external speakers. ‘Culture’ refers to the language, behaviours and other informal interactions that characterise the atmosphere of the department, and includes all staff (academic, technical and support) and students.
In our first staff survey in 2014 only 54% agreed that the School “makes it clear that
unsupportive language and behaviour are not acceptable (e.g. condescending or
intimidating language, ridicule, overly familiar behaviour, jokes/banter that stereotype
women or men or focus on their appearance)”. This was clearly not acceptable and
one of the first actions the SAT took following the results of the survey was to
organise two Respect in the Workplace training days facilitated by the external
58
consultants Ioda (http://www.ioda.com/). The impact was immediately discernible in
the atmosphere within the School and demonstrated in the following staff survey
when 90% of staff agreed that unsupportive language and behaviour are not
acceptable. This number dipped a little to 80% in the latest survey and open ended
comments made specific reference to behaviour in meetings, using words such as
‘aggressive tone’, ‘intimidating’ and ‘confrontational’. We therefore decided to run 2
follow-up days, specifically addressing behaviour in meetings which took place in
April. Action Point 28 is for staff training addressing relevant issues to be run every
year.
Various actions included in our 2013 action plan have been taken to ensure the
visibility of women within the School, including:
creating our Athena SWAN webpage
(https://www.keele.ac.uk/psychology/athenaswan/)
50:50 gender split in School seminars
external female speakers profiles on our Athena SWAN webpages
We also celebrate International Women’s and Men’s Days with various activities –
recently these have included a quiz, cake sales, charity collections and male health
awareness posters. Impact is demonstrated in our 2016 staff survey in which 100%
of staff (up from 93% in 2014) agreed that “my School has women as well as men as
visible role models”.
In the 2016 survey, 85% of staff agreed, and nobody disagreed, that “work related
social activities in my School such as staff parties, team building or networking
events, are likely to be welcoming to both women and men”. Examples of social
events include welcome meals for new staff, evenings out, Christmas lunch (for
administrative and technical staff), Christmas dinner for all staff (including
administrative and technical staff) and summer picnics.
PG students are also included in the School’s social and other activities and in the
2016 focus groups, PGR students report feel included in the School, with the
increase in social activities one of the examples that were given as evidence.
(vii) Outreach activities – level of participation by female and male staff in
outreach activities with schools and colleges and other centres, and how the department ensures that this is recognised and rewarded (e.g. in appraisal and promotion).
59
The School has an outreach committee comprising 3 staff (2F, 1M) to coordinate
activities with the University Outreach Team. Many staff within the School engage in
outreach activities, such as speaking at the University Women into Science day,
working with local schools and centres and even conducting one module in
conjunction with an older adult supported living facility. Outreach is actively
encouraged (it is in the WAM) and rewarded in the School with one early career
colleague, Dr Yvonne Skipper, being awarded New Outreach Academic of the Year
2014 in recognition of her innovative projects. These include a scheme known as
White Water Writers in which she and UG students she has trained give young
people the chance to write and publish a novel in a week.
60
A team of young authors and their publications after a week with Dr Skipper and her team.
Flexibility and managing career breaks
(i) Maternity return rate and (ii) Paternity, adoption and parental leave uptake
Year and staff type Gender Maternity Paternity Returned?
Now
2010-11 (non-academic)
M 0 1 Yes
Still at Keele in different School
2012-13 (academic) F 1 0 Yes
Contract ended
following year
2013-14 (academic) F 1 0 End of Fixed term contract
In new job
2014-15 (academic) F 1 0 Yes Still in School
Table 16. Family Leave for all psychology staff.
In addition to the individuals in the table above, an additional member of staff will
start maternity leave in the next few weeks.
61
(iii) Numbers of applications and success rates for flexible working by gender and grade
There have been formal applications for staff to reduce their work hours during the
period. These were senior staff: one female member of staff reducing hours (full-time
to part-time as a senior teaching fellow); one man has done likewise and one male
professor has also reduced to part-time. However, academic staff are able to have
flexibility around their teaching commitments. and furthermore, three academics (2
female, 1 male) have asked for teaching to be arranged to accommodate informal
flexible working and these requests were all met. By contrast, there have been 2
requests for flexible working by administrative staff – both female, grade 7, both
successful.
(iv) Flexible working –numbers of staff working flexibly and their grades and gender, whether there is a formal or informal system, the support and training provided for managers in promoting and managing flexible working arrangements, and how the department raises awareness of the options available.
Currently 1 member of administrative staff (female) and 6 academics (3 female, 3
male) work flexibly. In 3 cases this is to accommodate childcare whilst a 4th is to
accommodate living arrangements. For the academics, full-time flexible working
primarily consists of teaching and meetings being scheduled on some days rather
than others (see Case Study 1).
Although 3 members of academic staff have specifically requested that teaching and
administrative tasks be limited to certain days, flexible working is an intrinsic part of
how the School operates for all academics, with most working from home one or
more days per week.
In order to increase the flexibility of the working day, support staff were offered the
opportunity for each person to take a shorter lunch hour and leave earlier that day
with a rota system such that duties were covered from 09:00 -17:00. The
administrative staff chose to implement this; technical staff did not.
To ensure that flexible working is available to all staff and reflects changes in new
appointments and individual circumstances, Action Point 30 is to conduct an annual
review of flexible working provision across the School.
62
In the staff survey, 23% of staff disagreed that “my School has made it clear to me
what its policies are in relation to gender equality (e.g. on discrimination, parental
leave, carer’s leave, flexible working)”. While this collapses several issues together,
to ensure that all staff are aware of all relevant policies, Action Point 30 includes
circulating the information at the start of each academic year and to place the
information on the School website (already on the University website).
(v) Cover for maternity and adoption leave and support on return – what the department does, beyond the university maternity policy package, to support female staff before they go on maternity leave, arrangements for covering work during absence, and to help them achieve a suitable work-life balance on their return.
The School implements the University family leave policies as appropriate. The most
recent experience in the School has been maternity leave and the University policy
includes ‘keep in touch’ days. In addition the HoS works to arrange cover for work
during the planned absence in good time to facilitate a relaxed hand-over schedule.
Some of this is managed by existing staff covering workload but additionally
replacement staff are recruited. On returning from maternity leave the returning
member of staff has regular meetings with the HoS in order to address any
workload/work-life balance issues.
The SAT has set up a working group to evaluate how effectively the School
implements University policies and what additional actions it can put in place. A
member of the SAT has recently returned from maternity leave and she will have an
advisory role on this committee. Early initiatives include developing a document to
provide guidance and support for staff before, during and after maternity leave as
well as providing a dedicated link person other than the HoS (Action Points 31, 32).
Encouragingly, she has reported receiving considerable support from staff and this
has been echoed during the PGR 2016 focus groups in which it was reported that
there was a “general feeling of reassurance by how supported females have been in
the School in terms of maternity – it is something that is celebrated in the School and
seen as a positive thing. Female staff with children is also very reassuring.”
(4954 words, excluding tables and captions)
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8. Any other comments – maximum 500 words Please comment here on any other elements which are relevant to the application, e.g. other SET-specific initiatives of special interest implemented since the original application that have not been covered in the previous sections. The post-May 2015 Athena SWAN forms require additional information to the present
form. For example, details about intersectionality, career development and transition
points of professional and support staff, support for research grant applications and
the gender issues around submissions to the Research Excellence Framework
(REF). Our next SAT meeting will review the paperwork and evaluate what data
collection questions should be added to surveys and what action points need to be
put in place to ensure that Athena SWAN principles are applied across the whole
School at every level of staff and work activity (Action Points 34-36). We present
preliminary data/comment on three of the above areas:
Professional and Support Staff (POSS)
Staff role Grade Female Male %Female
Managerial &
Specialist
8 1 0 100%
7 1 0 100%
Technical 6 0 1 0%
5 0 1 0%
4 0 1 0%
Administrative 6 1 0 100%
4 4 0 100%
3 1 0 100%
Table 17. Professional and Support Staff by Grade, Role & Gender at
1st December 2015
The School has an inclusive approach to work: POSS are invited to attend the
School Committee meeting. They are included in all School social activities and they
were included in the 2014 and 2016 School Training days. In addition, at the
forthcoming Research Away Day (held on the University campus), POSS are invited
to and will be attending the lunch.
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We anticipate that the SAT review meeting will identify, as a minimum, actions that
will be required around POSS PDP training and progression as well as tailoring the
staff survey to ensure it captures issues specific to POSS. The Action Plan is a
working document and as such actions will be added to it as data analysis sheds light
on areas for improvement.
Research and the REF
For our REF submission in 2014 we submitted 15 members of staff. Of these, 9
(60%) were female. In addition, both of our impact case studies were female. This
represents a considerable improvement from the Research Assessment Exercise
submission in 2008 when we also submitted 15 members of staff with only 5 (33%)
female. Planning is now underway for REF 2020/2021. As a result, meetings take
place every 6 months between the Director of Research and early career staff and
between the HoS and senior staff to ensure that support is provided to all staff to
facilitate research activity (see Case Study 2). We will add survey questions into the
staff survey relating to research support to ensure that we are not overlooking areas
of concern.
Intersectionality
Our Diversity Officer keeps abreast of University and legislation initiatives, briefs the
School under the Diversity agenda item at School Meetings and ensures news
regarding relevant policies is disseminated to staff via email and via a dedicated
notice board. We are sensitive to the fact that we are a small School and that it may
be difficult to monitor intersectionality data without identifying individuals. Hence, we
will be looking towards new Athena SWAN submissions to identify relevant best
practice in this respect. The School has made some structural changes ahead of the
new Charter e.g. assigning a gender neutral toilet. We will additionally look to
sending staff representatives from each UG and PG cohort on appropriate training
within the next 2 years (Action Point 36) as well as seeking further advice from the
University’s Diversity and Equality Lead.
(495 words, excluding tables and captions)
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9. Action plan Provide a new action plan as an appendix. An action plan template is available on the Athena SWAN website. The Action Plan should be a table or a spreadsheet comprising actions to address the priorities identified by the analysis of relevant data presented in this application, success/outcome measures, the post holder responsible for each action and a timeline for completion. The Plan should cover current initiatives and your aspirations for the next three years.
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School of Psychology 2016 Action Plan
Action number
Area to be addressed Planned action Responsible Target/Measureable impact
Time scale/Completion date
1 UG students Run UG/PGT student survey annually to identify any issues and use to inform focus groups Evaluate impact of any new initiatives implemented in future surveys
Alexandra Kent as part of SAT
Students report increased satisfaction in student survey (mean response of 5 out of 6)
Annually in November.
2 UG students Focus groups to follow up on areas of concern to identify emerging issues and determine actions to resolve issues.
SAT to contact SU to facilitate
Students report increased satisfaction in following year survey (mean response of 5 out of 6)
In response to problems identified in student survey
3 UG students 1 staff representative from each UG year group and PG cohort (Counselling, PGT, PGR) to attend University Sexual Violence workshop
HoS and Athena SWAN champion
Students report increased satisfaction in survey (mean response of 5 out of 6)
Staff trained by October 2016 Satisfaction increase by 2018
4 Transition from PGT to PGR
Additional workshop sessions on transition from PGT to PGR
PGT and PGR Director Increase female PhD participation towards UG participation and in line with national student to benchmark (i.e change from 69% Female to 76% Female)
Workshops to be run in March/April Target to be met by 2019
5 PGR concerns Ongoing biennial focus groups PGR representative in Focus groups every 2
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to identify any issues and put actions in place to address them. Evaluate impact of any new initiatives implemented in future surveys
conjunction with SAT PGR students report that issues have been dealt with effectively.
years in December/January; If any more immediate concerns are raised these would be dealt within a shorter timescale as appropriate to the issue.
6 PGR concerns Grant writing workshop PGR Director Students report that they would be confident to apply for grants and have learnt a useful skill.
Annually over summer
7 PGR concerns Next step workshop – to discuss transition from PGR to academic career
PGR Director Students report that they are more confident as to their future careers.
Annually over summer
8 PGR concerns Mentoring (to be explored as part of School review)
PGR Director Increase in levels of support reported
By next staff survey (January 2017)
9 PGR concerns Managing workload PhD supervisors Decrease in reported stress levels
Ongoing
10 PGR concerns In School teaching/marking workshop
DLT Students report that they are better able to complete these roles.
Annually in October
11 Staff concerns Ongoing annual staff survey to identify any issues and put actions in place to address them Evaluate impact of any new
Claire Fox as part of SAT
Staff satisfaction is increased.
Annually in January
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initiatives implemented in future surveys
12 Staff turnover Monitor gender issues in exit interviews to identify any gender related issues contributing to staff turnover, if issues emerge feed up to University SAT
HoS Reduce staff turnover. Ongoing – as required
13 Staff recruitment Continue to monitor gender balance of interview panels
HoS/School Manager Increase appointment of women where they are under-represented (i.e. at Professorial level).
Ongoing. Aim for 50:50 gender split by 2019
14 Staff recruitment Offer Skype interviews to female applicants who may struggle to attend due to family commitments
HoS/School Manager In application paperwork Increase number of female applicants by 10%
For job applications from summer 2016. By 2018
15 Staff recruitment Debrief female applicants as to their experience of the application process
Athena SWAN champion
Identify any issues which might be problematic for recruitment of women
Ongoing
16 Staff recruitment, staff concerns and culture.
Unconscious bias training for all staff
HoS / LPDC/ HR 90% of staff have had training. Staff report increased satisfaction (see 10) Ultimately increase
Training within 12 months Staff satisfaction to be increased as in action 10
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diversity of staff. Increase in reporting of staff diversity data (by 10%) Increase in diversity of staff reported by HR (at least one extra reporting of a minority protected characteristic).
17 Mentoring Review of current mentoring to lead to more coherent mentoring scheme.
Claire Fox & HoS Streamlined mentor system proposed to SAT/SMT. Findings of review to be disseminated Staff report increase in satisfaction of mentoring with 70% of staff saying they have useful mentoring in place.
Within 6 months Within 12 months Within 24 months (although a smaller increase is expected within 12 months)
18 Mentoring All mentors to attend mentor training to increase in understanding of mentoring
HoS/All staff 70% of staff to have had training. Staff report increase in satisfaction of mentoring with 70% of
Mentoring training complete within 12 months Staff survey results within 24 months (although a smaller
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staff saying they have useful mentoring in place.
increase is expected within 12 months)
19 Career development (promotion to STF)
(i) Promotion workshop for counselling staff (female staff only) (ii) Staff encouraged by HoS email to attend University Promotion Workshop
SAT Champion with recently promoted STF from outside the School. HoS and HR
A first application for promotion from TF to STF to be made.
Within 3 years
20 Career development (promotion to Senior Lecturer)
(i) Staff encouraged by HoS email to attend University Promotion Workshop (ii) Staff encouraged by HoS to address gaps in their CV’s
HoS and HR
4 female members of staff attend workshop. 2 female applications for promotion.
Within 3 years
21 Career development (all academic staff)
Promotion criteria circulated before SPRE (appraisal)
HoS Increase in evaluation of SPRE as useful and promotion criteria as understood to 75%
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
22 Career development (to Professor /Reader)
(i) Internal promotion workshop, specific to Psychology (ii) Mentor meetings to prepare for SL to Prof application (iii) Staff encouraged by HoS
(i) HoS (ii)Director of Research/SMT (iii)HoS / HR
3 women to apply for Reader/Chair
Workshop by end of 2016 Applications for promotion within 3 years
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email to attend University Promotion Workshop
23 Induction Develop PGR induction checklist for staff induction
PGR Director/SAT School Manager
Increased staff satisfaction with induction by 30% percent. All new starters give positive feedback
Within 12 months (at next staff survey) Within 3 months of starting.
24 Workload Clear outline of process involved in allocating workload including timeline to be circulated to staff at relevant time of year
HoS Outcome – 20% improvement on relevant questions on staff survey
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
25 Workload As additional workload implications arise during year (eg due to staff leaving) email to be sent to staff to inform them what is happening
School Manager Increased perception of fairness of workload allocation by 20% percent.
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
26 Workload Individual staff to be given chance to reflect on work they are requested to take on to avoid feeling pressured
HoS Fairness perceptions to improve by 20%
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
27 Workload Separate questions re transparency and fairness of workload model on staff survey
Claire Fox with SAT Ability to evaluate WAM issues more effectively
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
28 Culture External consultants to run annual staff training days
Initiated by SAT but led by University Learning
Maintain/increase staff satisfaction and reports
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
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Focussed on most recent needs (e.g. committee meeting etiquette; transgender awareness training)
and Professional Development Centre, together with external consultants.
of supportive environment
29 Culture Clear chain of reporting for harassment, bullying or offensive behaviour to be published on website and made known to all staff, including who to complain to about senior staff/line managers
SMT Staff report greater confidence in reporting of bullying and harassment by 20 %.
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
30 Flexible working (i) Circulate University’s flexible working policies at start of each academic year and place on website to increase awareness of policies (ii) Conduct annual review of flexible working
Athena SWAN champion and SAT
Staff report greater knowledge of policies and uptake of flexible working is increased by at least one person per year.
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
31 Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
Document to be drawn up to provide guidance and support for staff before, during and after maternity leave
Maternity leave working group with recent maternity returner as advisor to group
Staff report greater knowledge of policies
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
32 Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
Dedicated maternity link person other than HoS to be allocated to women on maternity leave
HoS Women on maternity leave to report feeling well supported
Within 12 months (at next staff survey)
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33 Hidden cost of being female academic (carried forward from 2013 action plan)
Identify any areas of good practice/information gathering strategies and implement
Athena SWAN champion to lead SAT
Evaluate if there is a hidden cost to being a female academic in the School Introduce good practice
Next SAT meeting in June
34 May 2015 Athena SWAN documents
Identify actions to address issues around professional and support staff to be added to Action plan Specific focus on training and progression
Athena SWAN champion with School Manager to lead SAT
Add evaluative questions to surveys Add considered actions to Action Plan
Next SAT meeting in June
35 May 2015 Athena SWAN documents
Identify actions to address issues around research to be added to Action plan Anticipated actions include: (1) Looking at grant writing
support (2) Encouraging staff to
attend research writing retreats organised by University Learning and Professional Development Centre
Athena SWAN champion with HoS to lead SAT
Add evaluative questions to surveys and focus groups Add considered actions to Action Plan
Next SAT meeting in June
36 May 2015 Athena SWAN documents
Identify actions to address issues around intersectionality to be added to Action plan
Athena SWAN champion to lead SAT with input from Keele E&D manager
Add evaluative questions to surveys and focus groups
Next SAT meeting in June
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Anticipated actions include: (1) look at possibility of adding to the Human Library initiative http://humanlibrary.org/ and (2) look to see examples of best practice of looking at intersectionality and promotion, in small departments, from post May 2015 submissions (3) ask visiting speakers (regardless of gender) to talk more widely about intersectionality. (4) arrange appropriate staff training
Update good practice Add considered actions to Action Plan
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Counselling Team Review of training needs and promotion (see also item 17 – career development to STF)
Director of Counselling First application for promotion amongst counselling staff.
Training needs identified within 12 months First promotion application within 3 years
38 SAT process Convene Athena SWAN workshop for Psychology Schools across Midlands and North West
Athena SWAN champion and SAT
Sharing of good practice Develop network of contacts
First workshop by 2018
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The abbreviations used in the Action Plan are as follows:
1. HoS = Head of School
2. UG = undergraduate
3. PG = postgraduate
4. PGT = taught postgraduate
5. PGR = research postgraduate
6. RA= research assistant
7. WAM = workload allocation model
8. SAT = Athena SWAN self-assessment team
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