The School, which is part of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences at Queen’s, is the only School of Pharmacy within the UK and the island of Ireland to currently hold a Gold Award.

The application was led by Swan Co-champions, Dr Deirdre Gilpin and Prof Wafa-Al Jamal.  Dr Gilpin welcomed the news of the Award:

“We are delighted to have received this wonderful award, which recognises the School’s commitment to gender equality, over many years.  The School received its first Athena Swan Award in 2010 and, since then, we have been working to embed gender equality in the working life of the School.

“We were the first School of Pharmacy in the UK and within the island of Ireland to be awarded a Silver Award in 2014 and are delighted now to translate that to Gold in 2024. This award is an acknowledgement of how far we as a School have come, and that the principles of fairness and inclusion are embedded firmly within our department.”

This significant achievement for the School is announced just one year after the University was named the first university on the island of Ireland and only the second in the UK to achieve the gold level of a prestigious higher education award for its work improving gender equality.

Prof Wafa Al-Jamal added:

“In order to secure the Gold, we have delivered an ambitious action plan including provision of mentoring opportunities, supporting career progression for female academics, ensuring distribution of academic housework and embedding the of principles of equality, diversity and inclusion across the School. 

“We have supported others to improve by sharing best practice across the sector and, we aim to provide a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere for all our staff and students and have committed to continue to deliver excellence in the field going forward.”

Queen’s relationship with the Athena Swan programme to promote gender equality in higher education started more than 20 years ago in 2003, when the University achieved the Royal Society Athena Award. Two years later, Queen’s was one of 10 founding members of the Athena Swan Charter, holding an Institutional Silver Award since 2007.

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used across the world to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. It was established in 2005 to help remove barriers faced by women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine. The initiative has since grown to tackle gender inequality more broadly across the world.

For more information about Queen’s work with Athena Swan, please visit: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/QueensGenderInitiative/AthenaSwan/

Media

For media enquiries please contact Grace White at Queen’s Communications Office via email:g.white@qub.ac.uk