View the Department of Mathematical Sciences Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) action plan as we progress towards our goals.
Tables will be regularly updated to reflect the current status of each project.
Athena Swan 1
Support progression of women to senior and leadership roles
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Promotion strategy meeting with Head of Department (HoD) or Deputy Head of Department (HoD) offered to all current women at Grade 9 (SL/R), and all staff promoted to Grade 9 in future. Meetings held to discuss promotion criteria to target for promotion to professor, and identify any barriers, opportunities, and support required. | In progress |
| Research committee to develop and maintain 'large grant target list' of candidates who should be encouraged and supported to apply for fellowships or other prestigious grants, and offer them support in the form of grant mentor, writing retreats, IMI expertise to support in developing applications. | In progress |
| Exec to discuss annually nominations for the University's Strategic Leaders' Programme, Elevate Leadership and Development programme, and other leadership programmes such as Aurora. Invite candidates to apply, connect with former attendees where possible, and support attendance with workload reduction. | In progress |
| Reform membership of Department Executive to include input from a broader cross-section of the Department. | Complete |
Athena Swan 2
Eliminate gendered inequalities in workload for staff
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Staff to be sent workload allocation report, including provisional workload for upcoming year, workload allocation management system (WAMS) guide, and comparison to average department workload for career stage, before start of each academic year. Workload allocation report for last 3 years to be included in staff development performance review (SDPR) paperwork. | In progress |
| Introduce cloud-based 'good citizenship tasks' database to track number of hours. Each member of staff given a spreadsheet to log small jobs (from a curated list with allocated hours), feeding into central sheet managed by Heads of Groups (HoGs). Staff told estimate of good citizenship tasks per FTE required by the department for the year and expected to do approximately that many hours. | In progress |
| HoGs to gather preferences and restrictions annually on which units staff are able / prefer to teach via an online form, with the form indicating approximate workload allocations for each unit. Initial matching performed automatically to maximise fairness. Draft allocation then circulated to staff for feedback. Allocations monitored for gender differences in workload. | In progress |
Athena Swan 3
Reduce awarding gap for Asian and Black male undergraduates and address wider inequalities and intersectionality
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Work with faculty to run (separate) focus groups for Asian and black male undergraduate (UG) students to discuss issues they are facing, then develop new actions to remove barriers to reaching potential. | In progress |
| Produce crib sheets with diverse examples and topics for academic staff to include in lectures and assessment. | In progress |
| Introduce a new publicly available single EDI action plan, incorporating Athena Swan and Race Equality action plans together with further actions to address disability, economic inequality, etc. | In progress |
| Appoint Departmental Equalities & Diversity Committee (DEDC) data champion to gather and analyse data regularly, including UG outcomes and progression year by year broken down by gender and ethnicity. Produce annual data summary to be shared at department meetings. | Complete |
Athena Swan 4
Improve induction and mentoring for staff
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Produce 'Welcome to Bath' advice on moving to the University and city, with checklist (and suggested timescales) of pre/post-arrival activities for new staff (e.g. opening UK bank account, housing information, registering with doctor and dentist, campus nursery). To be sent as soon as appointment is confirmed. | Complete |
| Assign cofactor (see Section 4.2.4), who is at similar career stage and in nearby office, to new staff. | In progress |
| Produce checklist of mentoring good practice for both mentor and mentee with potential topics for discussion, sources of information, and guidelines for frequency, length of meetings etc. Incorporate regular mentoring best practice updates into department meetings. | In progress |
| Assign cofactor (see Section 4.2.4) to anyone taking maternity/adoption/shared parental leave; where possible, someone who has recently been on similar leave. | In progress |
Athena Swan 5
Build on successful recruitment strategies to improve representation of women at PGR and PDRA stages
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Postgraduate Recruitment (PGR) admissions tutor to circulate PhD recruitment guidelines to prospective supervisors at the beginning of academic year and when any specific advert appears, with advice on e.g. reaching diverse applicants, and ensuring an inclusive interview experience. | In progress |
| Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) recruitment checklists sent to PDRA supervisors as they begin the hiring process. Supervisors encouraged to reach out to relevant Centres for Doctoral Training to ask for recommendations for potential applicants, especially from under-represented groups. | In progress |
Athena Swan 6
Identify and correct further gaps in good practice for gender equality
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Improve engagement with Widening Participation office by creating separate academic roles for 'Widening participation and outreach co-ordinator' and 'Media and public engagement co-ordinator', with three-year tenure and annual reports. | In progress |
| Increase engagement with external events (e.g. London Mathematical Society Good Practice days, Advance HE workshops) from a wider range of staff, including senior staff. | In progress |
| Annual open 'action workshop' run by DEDC to develop new actions for the department, with input from staff who have attended external events. | In progress |
| Create and maintain a list of Department Associates. These will be successful researchers and role models outside the department (in academia and industry) including former PhD students and postdocs. Initially this list will primarily include women but could grow to include other under-represented groups. A departmental contact will be assigned to each Associate to maintain regular contact and identify potential opportunities for engagement. | In progress |
Race Equality 1
Data and administration
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Collect data on admissions and degree outcomes by ethnicity. Discuss annually at DEDC and circulate to academic staff as appropriate, keeping in mind sensitivity of data (e.g. possibility of identifying individual students given small numbers) | In progress |
| Work with faculty to run (separate) focus groups for Asian and Black male UG students to discuss issues they are facing, then develop new actions to remove barriers to reaching potential. | In progress |
| Produce crib sheets with diverse examples and topics for academic staff to include in lectures and assessment. | In progress |
| Introduce standing item at Student Staff Liaison Committee on equality and diversity issues. | Complete |
| Produce signposting documents for PGRs and work with Director of Studies team to ensure UG support is clearly signposted. | Complete |
Race Equality 2
Role Models
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Improve engagement with Widening Participation office by creating separate academic roles for 'Widening participation and outreach co-ordinator' and 'Media and public engagement co-ordinator', with three-year tenure and annual reports to Exec. | Complete |
| Engage with existing maths societies and events (e.g. Bath University Maths Society (BUMS), seminar organisers inc. postgraduate seminar, MSc alumni day, Statistical Applied Mathematics at Bath (SAMBa) careers day) via annual email from DEDC chair to e.g. seminar organisers, BUMS chair, etc. | In progress |
| Ensure recruitment of UG tutors is clearly advertised to all, including importance of diversity to provide support and mentorship. All tutors to attend training on appropriate behaviour and unconscious bias. | In progress |
| Request removal of portraits from 4W atrium. Replace with posters around dept to highlight diverse role models (both external and internal - e.g. student posters with photos). | In progress |
Race Equality 3
Department culture
| Start | Progress status |
|---|---|
| Include books about race in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), e.g. 'Superior: The Return of Race Science' by Angela Saini, in UG reading lists, and have copies in staff and PGR common room. | In progress |
| Produce 'Welcome to Bath' advice on moving to the university and city, with checklist (and suggested timescales) of pre/post-arrival activities for new staff (e.g. opening UK bank account, housing information, registering with doctor and dentist, campus nursery). To be sent as soon as appointment is confirmed. | Complete |
| DEDC to collaborate with Landscapes (department colloquium) organisers to ensure diverse cast of speakers, and encourage speakers to give a brief summary of their career path at the start of the talk. Talks should be advertised to final-year UG students. | In progress |
| Two meetings each year for PhD students with cross-section of staff, one of which is specifically for women, providing a safe, dedicated space to discuss experiences and issues. | In progress |