School of Health & Wellbeing

Eleanor Grieve and Jim Lewsey report back on a recent Athena Swan induction session for SHW students and look ahead to their group's important plans to work on "decolonising the curriculum" in SHW.

Our group continues to monitor student numbers by gender on an annual basis to allow us to explore gender sensitive issues within the teaching programmes in SHW and to take any appropriate actions to ensure gender equality.

This includes sending an annual survey to all postgraduate taught students to identify any gender-sensitive issues in each cohort. The recommendations this group has made have ensured that students on all SHW programmes receive the same information regarding the support and opportunities available throughout their studies in SHW.

Going forward, the group would like to do more around "decolonising the curriculum" focusing on SHW teaching and linking into wider university activities in this area. If any students are interested in this activity, please do consider joining our working group.

At the beginning of the academic year, we ran an Athena Swan induction session for SHW students to discuss equality, diversity and inclusion. This was a hybrid event and was attended by approximately 70 students. The session included:

• an introduction to SHW by Prof Jill Pell;
• an introduction to SHW teaching and Athena Swan by Dr Julie Langan-Martin;
• an overview of the Athena Swan working groups by Dr Eleanor Grieve;
• an overview of legal frameworks and UoG Dignity at Work and Study Policy by Dr Sharon Greenwood;

Stéphane Charrier, Student Support Officer for MVLS Postgraduate students, also gave a presentation on how Student Support Officers can help students, such as liaising with disability services, financial aid, reporting caring responsibilities, or support if experiencing bullying or harassment.

All students should already have been sent the recording and slides. If you need the slides and/or recording please do contact your course co-ordinator or email: shwadmin@glasgow.ac.uk 

Finally, can we take this opportunity to highlight again that all Athena Swan working groups are open and welcome to students. This is a great way to get involved in the university's work on equality, diversity and inclusion; it looks great on CVs – and would hopefully provide an enjoyable and rewarding experience. If you would like to chat about the role(s), please do email SHW admin or group chairs whose contact details can be found on their group webpages.

Thank you on behalf of our working group. 

Eleanor Grieve and Jim Lewsey
Chairs of SHW Athena Swan undergraduate and postgraduate taught student working group  

If you would like to join this Athena Swan group, please contact the group chairs – they'd be delighted to hear from you.

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First published: 21 September 2022