SCEBE Departmental Silver Award

The School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment (SCEBE) is GCU's first School to be recognised with the Athena Swan Silver Award. The School was presented with the Award in May 2021 in recognition of its significant and sustained progress in promoting gender equality among students and staff.

The successful submission was led by Professor Bob Gilmour. Prof Gilmour said: "This is an excellent achievement for all in our School and confirms how far we have come on our gender equality journey.   We are extremely proud of the work over the last few years and keen to continue to build on this success.”

Feedback from the Athena Swan assessment panel included:

"The School have clearly put a great deal work into fostering a culture of gender equality within the School and into this application and the panel commends them on both aspects.  The data show numerous examples of improvements since the last Athena Swan award including an increase in representation of women on PGR programmes, increase in achievement of female students, positive growth of female staff members particularly in professorial and SMG groups, doubling the number of female honorary undergraduates and the School is to be commended on this progress.  The panel encourages the School to keep up the exemplary work on gender inclusion."

Professor Iain Cameron, Assistant Vice Principal and previous SCEBE Dean , said: "I am delighted that the School's application for this prestigious award has been successful. The Athena Swan ideals are embedded in our planning and in the creation of our strategy and we work hard to ensure that gender equality is at the heart of everything we do. For example, we were the first university to team up with SmartSTEMS to open up our campus to hundreds of girls across the city every year to show them the exciting opportunities offered by careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

"The award is a tribute to the hard work of the staff and students who are devising and implementing plans to support gender equality across the School and Athena Swan has a vital role in promoting the drive for us to further embed equality and diversity."