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Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Athena Swan at UCLan Cyprus
Our Commitment to Gender Equality
We are proud to announce that UCLan Cyprus has been awarded the Athena Swan Bronze Award, recognising our commitment to advancing gender equality and fostering an inclusive academic environment for staff and students.
The Athena Swan Charter, developed by Advance HE, is an internationally recognised framework that supports universities in identifying and addressing barriers to gender equality in higher education, academic careers, research and institutional culture.
The Athena Swan Cyprus Charter's development began in 2023, driven by the strong commitment of the Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education to advance gender equality across all Cypriot Higher Education institutions. UCLan Cyprus was proud to be one of the first Cypriot universities to join this initiative.
The Athena Swan Cyprus Charter's Framework was officially launched in May 2024, providing the opportunity to its members to apply for the Bronze level Athena Swan Award, which is the only award level available during the first four years of the Athena Swan Cyprus Charter.
Achieving the Bronze Award confirms that our University has undertaken a comprehensive assessment of gender equality across the institution and is committed to driving meaningful and measurable change.
This recognition reflects the work of colleagues across the University who contributed to analysing institutional data, engaging with staff and students, and developing actions that will strengthen equality, diversity and inclusion across our community.
What the Athena Swan Bronze Award Means
The Bronze Award recognises universities that have:
- Conducted a thorough analysis of gender equality across the institution
- Identified key challenges and opportunities for improvement
- Engaged staff and students in the self-assessment process
- Developed a clear and evidence-based action plan
Achieving the Bronze Award marks the beginning of an important journey. We remain committed to building a university where diversity is valued, opportunity is accessible, and everyone can succeed.
Our Key Priorities
Our Athena Swan Action Plan focuses on strengthening equality and inclusion across several areas of university life, including:
- Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion within institutional culture and decision-making
- Supporting staff career development and progression
- Promoting fair and inclusive recruitment practices
- Creating a safe and respectful working environment
- Strengthening equality data to inform institutional policies and actions
These priorities will guide our work over the coming years as we continue to build a university community where everyone can thrive.
Our Athena Swan Action Plan
The Athena Swan Bronze Award reflects the collective effort of staff and students across the University. Our Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee will continue to monitor progress against our action plan and ensure that meaningful improvements are delivered.
Our detailed Athena Swan Action Plan outlines the initiatives, timelines and responsibilities that will guide our work between 2025 and 2028.
Our Commitment to Athena Swan Cyprus Principles
Belonging at UCLan Cyprus
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Ambition to 2028.
At UCLan Cyprus, we believe in helping people to seize every opportunity to flourish in education, at work and for life. This spirit of ‘opportunity for all’ has remained at the heart of our mission since our inception in 2012 as UCLan Cyprus family. We are proud to be a force for positive change, championing equality and enriching the lives of our learners, colleagues and the communities we serve across frontiers. We help people to realise their potential – whoever they are and wherever they are in life, we enable them to achieve their goals and set them on course for a brighter future. To succeed in our life-changing work, we need to continuously foster a culture that is welcoming and open to everyone, ensuring that no-one is excluded or left behind, in line with UN SDGs and other general principles of equality, diversity and inclusion.
We do of course recognise that inequalities exist and are present not only across the HE sector, but also in society. Examples of challenges include under-representation of female learners in some of our STEM areas or award gaps that stubbornly exist for some groups of learners.
You will find various documents in this page that will be regularly updated by our Equality, Diversity and Committee, setting out our ambition in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), ensuring fair treatment and opportunity for all, but also our Plans and Actions towards enhancing Gender Equality (Gender Equality Plan).
It is our collective responsibility across both academic and professional service areas to make sure that everybody is treated equally, has equality of opportunity and feels as though they belong within the University. Enhancing sense of belonging is core to our aspiration to eliminate or significantly narrow disparities and inequalities that are currently present in our staff and learner groups. We will strengthen our efforts to support social mobility across all of our communities.
