Liverpool John Moores University awarded Athena Swan Silver

LJMU has been recognised with the Athena Swan Silver Award for the university's commitment to promoting gender equality.

LJMU is now one of just 30 universities within the UK to achieve silver, with only one university being recognised by Advance HE as gold.

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework used worldwide to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. Institutions can apply for the charter mark awards of bronze, silver or gold.

Athena Swan Silver five-year action plan

LJMU was awarded the Athena Swan: Bronze in both 2014 and 2017 and since then has been working towards institutional silver.

As part of the submission, LJMU shared a five-year action plan which reflected the university’s unwavering commitment and ambition to continually progress in gender equality. This includes increased resourcing and enhanced monitoring, facilitated by the University Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team and the Diversity and Inclusion Team.

"A huge cross-institutional effort"

Associate Director, Diversity and Inclusion, Moni Akinsanya and Pro-Vice Chancellor, Student Experience, Professor Phil Vickerman, who led the self-assessment team, said:

“We are delighted that we have been successful in gaining Athena Swan Silver accreditation. This has been a huge cross-institutional effort to highlight our commitment to gender equality, diversity and inclusion.

“We’d like to thank everyone involved within our LJMU community, who share our passion and commitment to gender equality, the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team who helped create such a compelling submission and our students who have played a big part in getting us to where we are now. This is about them, as they remain at the heart of everything we do, as well as our staff and local communities.”

In addition to the institutional silver award, the university holds five departmental awards, with many other departments working towards their respective awards.

As part of LJMU’s strategy, the university plans for 90% of departments to apply for Athena Swan accreditation within the next five years, with the expectation of achieving two further silver departmental applications by 2025.