4. Assessing the department’s gender equality context
4.1 Culture, inclusion, and belonging We discuss practices, habits, and programmes of work emblematic of a workplace culture where people are restless to improve the department by making it more inclusive, diverse, and equitable. The section begins by analysing staffing, drawing on the culture survey.
4.1.1 WBS Staff
Career development We aim to provide an outstanding environment where staff can develop their careers. Having considered PSS development above, we now turn to academic faculty. Academic career progression at the UoW requires performance across four areas of activity: research, teaching, impact, and leadership. Each non-professorial member of faculty has a mentor, typically a professor. Through interaction and PDR, the mentee is guided towards the next grade. The 2017AP highlighted concerns with PDR, with only 36% agreeing it was useful for their career development. We have simplified the practice, and concerns were less marked in the culture survey (71.2% found it useful). Academic progression is managed by WBS
Staffing Committee, which is gender balanced. The committee considers recommendations from HoGs and reviews data on each staff member. The Pro-Dean (Faculty) works with staff to produce compelling applications. Across the period, female academics have been more likely to apply for and achieve promotion. 30 academic promotion cases were progressed (14 male, 16 female) and 90% were successful (11 male, 16 female). Female academics account for 59% of all promotions.
We have developed many practices to enable academics to develop their teaching. In addition to bespoke events, case-writing workshops, the WBS Teaching Academy, and the annual Teaching and Learning Forum, we have continued to innovate: o The SoTL programme was introduced in 2021/22, offering teaching-focused staff workload to engage in scholarship. Developmental activities and mentoring provide further support. In year one (2021/22), 16 staff were granted workload relief (81% female). In year two, this grew to 23 allocations (70% female). o Six WBS staff have been trained as HEA mentors . Workload relief is given for applicants and guided WBS writing retreats provide further support. Since November 2019, ten staff have received awards (60% female). 14 applications are in progress (64% female).
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