Athena SWAN Silver department award application

Name of university: The University of Nottingham

Department: School of Mathematical Sciences

Date of application: April 2014

Date of previous department award: April 2011

Level of award applied for: Silver SWAN award

Date of university Silver Athena SWAN award: April 2013

Contact for application: Professor Ian Dryden

Email: ian.dryden@nottingham.ac.uk

Telephone: 0115 846 7412

Departmental website address: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics

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Contents

Glossary _______________________________________________________________________ 2

1. Letter of endorsement from the head of department ___________________________________ 3

2. The self-assessment process _______________________________________________________ 5 a) The self-assessment team _________________________________________________________________ 5 b) An account of the self-assessment process ___________________________________________________ 6 c) Plans for the future ______________________________________________________________________ 7

3. A picture of the School ____________________________________________________________ 7 a) Portrait of the School _____________________________________________________________________ 7 b) Data __________________________________________________________________________________ 8

4. Supporting and advancing women’s careers __________________________________________ 19 a) Key career transition points - three years’ data _______________________________________________ 19 b) Key career transition points - key issues and steps taken _______________________________________ 21 c) Career development - key issues and steps taken _____________________________________________ 24 d) Organisation and culture - three years’ data _________________________________________________ 27 e) Organisation and culture - key issues and steps taken__________________________________________ 28 f) Flexibility and managing career breaks - three years’ data ______________________________________ 34 g) Flexibility and managing career breaks - key issues and steps taken ______________________________ 34

5. Other comments ________________________________________________________________ 36

6. Case Study _____________________________________________________________________ 37 a) Case Study I ___________________________________________________________________________ 37 b) Case Study II ___________________________________________________________________________ 38

Appendix ______________________________________________________________________ 1

I. Action Plan 2014 – 2017 ___________________________________________________________ 1 1. General Issues __________________________________________________________________________ 1 2. Students _______________________________________________________________________________ 2 3. Supporting and advancing female staff ______________________________________________________ 3 4. Culture ________________________________________________________________________________ 4

II. Review of 2011 Athena SWAN Action Plan ____________________________________________ 5 1. Baseline data and supporting evidence ______________________________________________________ 5 2. UG and PG students ______________________________________________________________________ 6 3. Key career transition points, appointments and promotions _____________________________________ 7 4. Career advice and support_________________________________________________________________ 8 5. Culture, communications and departmental organisation _______________________________________ 9 6. Career breaks and flexible working _________________________________________________________ 11

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Glossary

Acronym Full Name

ASG Athena SWAN Group

UoN University of Nottingham

SoMS School of Mathematical Sciences

WinSET Women in Science, Engineering and Technology

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

MathSoc University of Nottingham Mathematics Society

HoS Head of School

HoRG Head of Research Group

PGR Postgraduate research student

PGT Postgraduate taught student

AWM ``Advancing Women in Mathematics: Good Practice in UK University Departments'', LMS Report, 2013.

PDPR Personal Development and Performance Review

CES University of Nottingham's Careers and Employability Services

APPLE Academics and Administrators Professional Personal and Leadership Experience

WAND Women’s Advancement Networking and Development

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1. Letter of endorsement from the head of department

Athena SWAN Manager Faculty of Science

Equality Challenge Unit School of Mathematical Sciences

7th floor, Queens House The University of Nottingham

55/56 Lincoln’s Inn Fields University Park

London Nottingham

WC2 A3LJ NG7 2RD

t: +44 (0)115 846 7412

f: +44 (0)115 951 3925

e: ian.dryden@nottingham.ac.uk

www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics

www.maths.nottingham.ac.uk/~ild

23 April 2014

Dear Sir/Madam

I wish to give my strongest possible support for the application for a Silver Athena SWAN award. I was appointed to the role of Head of School in January 2014, and I am very keen to continue our excellent work in relation to the Athena SWAN charter.

We are striving hard to increase the number of female academic staff and to provide a very supportive environment for all staff, and especially female staff.

Mathematical Sciences has traditionally been dominated by men, and we are very disappointed that we still have such a low number of female academic staff in the School. However, the outlook is much more positive with a number of initiatives in place that are designed to increase the female/male ratio.

We are building a strong sense of academic community in our School, which was given a step change in enhancement by locating all staff to a single, modern, well-equipped building in 2011. There are excellent communal spaces for both staff and students, which help provide an outstanding collegiate atmosphere, and social events are held regularly for staff and students.

A very important issue is that very few women apply for our job vacancies. It is of extremely high priority that we change this depressing fact and so we have put in a number of actions to address this issue. On each appointment panel in the School at lecturer level and above we will appoint an Athena SWAN champion (usually the Head of School). The champion will ensure that pro-active approaches to encourage applications will be made to women as well as men, and that any gender specific issues are addressed fairly for all candidates. We are very supportive to dual career couples and several new members of female staff have benefited from University housing, which has been invaluable when arriving with their families.

The University of Nottingham itself is one of only four universities to hold a Silver award, and is a very active leader in gender equality in STEM by holding events through its WinSET group. The School is a member of the LMS Good Practice Scheme and has a prominent link on its front

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page, and there are a number of regular events in the School which address equality issues, for example a `Women and Men: Careers in Academia' workshop including a very successful panel discussion. We also worked with the student society MathSoc to arrange an event to attract female students to research and PhD studies. The University also runs schemes called APPLE and WAND which are aimed at women's professional development for levels 4,5 and 6,7 respectively.

The School Athena SWAN committee will continue to meet regularly and ensure ongoing and new actions are completed. We will also appoint an additional Professor to the committee to reinforce our strong commitment.

In summary, I am very strongly in support of the School's application for a Silver Award.

Yours faithfully

I L Dryden Professor of Statistics Head of School

[487 words]

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2. The self-assessment process

a) The self-assessment team

In the following, actions in the old (2011-14) and new (2014-17) Action Plans (see Appendices I and II) are referenced as O1, resp. N1 etc.

There are nine members of the self-assessment team, called the Athena SWAN group (ASG), five females and four males. The team was selected to reflect a range of personal and professional experiences within the School (O5.3). It includes key decision makers, representatives across all levels, and staff who arrived from overseas to take up a post in the UK, thus facing additional challenges.

The University of Nottingham's (UoN's) Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WinSET) representative Dr Tony Stevens left in December 2013. The School's Head changed in January 2014 from Professor David Riley to Professor Ian Dryden.

Mrs Andrea Blackbourn is the School Manager. She joined the School in 1999 and thoroughly enjoys her hugely varied role. She is a married working mum with two children aged 19 (so no longer a child!) and 12.

Dr Reuben O'Dea is a lecturer in the School of Mathematical Sciences (SoMS). He joined the University as a permanent member of staff in 2013, having previously held a PDRA position (2008-2010), completed a PhD (2004-2007) and studied for MMath (2000-2004) all within the University of Nottingham. As such, he has experienced working within the School at a wide range of levels. Currently, he is Staff Development Officer. He is married with one very young daughter and took paternity leave in 2013.

Professor Ian Dryden is a Professor of Statistics and, since January 2014, Head of School (HoS). He is married with a 14 year old daughter, who was six months old when he first started at Nottingham.

Athena SWAN group photograph

(Back row L to R: Prof Ian Dryden, Mrs Andrea Blackbourn, Dr Reuben O’Dea, Mrs Jane Mason (minuting secretary),

Dr Daniel Nicks; Front row L to R: Dr Huiling Le, Ms Lisa Mott, Dr Susanne Pumpluen, Dr Ivette Fuentes)

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Dr Ivette Fuentes is an Associate Professor and EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow in relativistic quantum information, leading a group consisting of three postdoctoral assistants and three PhD students. Ivette is Mexican and a single mother of an eight year old boy she takes care of without any kind of family support since she arrived in Nottingham in 2009 as a lecturer when he was three years old.

Dr Huiling Le is an Associate Professor and Reader in Probability and Director of MSc courses in statistics. She joined the University of Nottingham in 1991 as a Lecturer and has one grown-up son.

Ms Lisa Mott is currently a third year mathematics PhD student at the University of Nottingham, having previously completed her undergraduate degree there. She received the East Midland’s Science and Technology Award (EMSTA), the University's “First in the family bursary” and BP's Ambition Award. Since 2013, she has taken over as coordinator of the women's lunch, funded by the School of Mathematical Sciences.

Dr Daniel Nicks has been a Lecturer at the University of Nottingham since January 2012. He was previously a PhD student at Nottingham (2006-10) before working at the Open University as a postdoc and then a lecturer. He is married to another mathematician who is a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Susanne Pumpluen (Chair) came to the University of Nottingham as a Lecturer in 2004, after finishing her Habilitation in Germany. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008 and currently is the School's Careers Advisor, Tutor to Women, and represents the School on the University's WinSET group. She has 13 year old twins, whom she is raising in the absence of any family support network; her partner is an Associate Professor in Mathematics at an Italian university.

Professor David Riley is Professor of Theoretical Mechanics and was HoS until January 2014. He joined the University in 1994 as professor and has two grown-up children.

Dr Tony Stevens was the Athena SWAN Project Officer and also coordinated the WinSET group at University of Nottingham until December 2013.

Two members of the team greatly benefitted from having their children in one of the University of Nottingham nurseries which are situated on the same campus as the School.

b) An account of the self-assessment process

The self-assessment process commenced in September 2013. Since September 2013, the ASG has met six times.

An initial consultation with a group of (mostly female) postgraduate research students (PGRs), postdoctoral researchers (PDs), and early career staff was carried out in September 2013, in order to determine any particular issues to be addressed within the School. Together with the results from the 2012 UoN Staff Satisfaction Survey, this feedback was used to develop a new questionnaire which addressed relevant work-life balance and career support issues. The questionnaire was sent to all PGRs, postdoctoral researchers and academic staff (see references to 2013 Survey throughout this document).

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In addition, the team sought input on the new Action Plan from members of staff, and consulted colleagues involved in similar activities in the US, Germany and Switzerland, to gain insight into how the lack of female mathematicians in HE institutions is already successfully addressed at universities overseas.

The feedback obtained through these various channels was employed in developing the new Action Plan. Additional input on the School's application was also received from the University's WinSET group.

c) Plans for the future

The ASG will continue to meet on a regular basis, a minimum of four times per year (O5.1). It will report to all School Meetings, both to create an ongoing awareness within the School about its work and to facilitate the exchange of ideas/interaction between its members and the rest of the School. This ensures that progress on the action plan can be monitored and adjusted, should the need arise. The Chair will meet with the responsible post holder named for each action once per term, to check time-lines and progress. Feedback from members of the School on progress, issues arising or room for improvement will be sought on a regular basis via focus groups, questionnaires or similar. The Chair of the ASG is a member of the University's WinSET group, which will monitor progress of the new Action Plan.

[977 words]

3. A picture of the School

a) Portrait of the School

The School of Mathematical Sciences belongs to the Faculty of Science. It is an international centre of excellence in Mathematics, with over 60 full-time academic staff, drawn from all over the world (including Austria, China, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine and Switzerland).

The School therefore provides a multi-national and diverse research and teaching environment that connects with mathematics communities worldwide; this international stance is reflected by the Times Good University Guide 2013's assessment of UoN as “the nearest Britain has to a truly global university''.

Currently, the School hosts one female Anne McLaren Fellow, one female Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, and one female Nottingham Research Fellow who also holds a Royal Society

University Research Fellowship. We have around 20

Mathematical Sciences Atrium

The Mathematical Sciences Building

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postdocs and around 900 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The School also teaches mathematics to around 1000 students from other schools, the majority from the Science and Engineering Faculties.

Since 2011 the School has been located in a dedicated and specially designed building with state of the art facilities, providing lots of opportunities for social and academic interaction between staff and students, e.g. our common room. Our Masters students have a dedicated computer room, and all research students have a share of a furnished office.

The School's research spans a broad spectrum of pure and applied mathematics and statistics. Inter-disciplinary collaborations exist between the School of Mathematical Sciences and, for instance:

• the Rolls-Royce Centre for Gas Turbine Technology; • Unilever; • the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology; • the Veterinary Medicine and Science School; • the Science, Social Sciences, Arts, Medicine and Health Sciences and Engineering

Faculties.

The quality of teaching and research is very high, more than 60 per cent of its research was ranked ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

b) Data

Student data

(i) Numbers of males and females on access or foundation courses

The School contributes to the University's foundation year programmes in Science and Engineering and the Natural Sciences degree, but does not run any access or foundation courses.

We aim instead to attract female students by a range of tailored outreach activities (O2.1), such as by giving inspirational talks to school children and the general public, both in the local area and at national/international events (for example, the Senior Student Ambassador visited his old School in Lincolnshire 2012/3; a member of staff participated in a question and answer session on quantum theory with members of the public in Italy, 2012). Our School’s involvement in the University of Nottingham's community outreach day involves many female undergraduate helpers and features non-competitive activities like mathematically related games and puzzles.

A female staff member is Area Co-ordinator for the Further Mathematics Support Programme, regularly running events including: Problem Solving for 6th form students (and teachers), a day-long event for Year 13 students to enhance their problem solving skills, an Oxford Mathematics Admissions Test Preparation Course, a GCSE A/A* Revision day for GCSE pupils, a Year 10 and a UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge, and an engaging and inspirational STEM day for Year 10/11

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students and their teachers. University taster days for girls in secondary school are planned, starting in 2014 (N1.8). In a new initiative, the UoN Mathematics Society (MathSoc) sent 14 students (4 male, 10 female) on weekly visits to five different primary and secondary schools around Nottingham (N1.2).

Female members of the School are represented online in more than a dozen videos (e.g. www.numberphile.com, www.mathsinspiration.com, core topics YouTube videos www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL518B6A3C31834278). A female member of our School conducted the question-answer session on Spooner's play “Ethics of Progress” (Cambridge) and was featured in three articles in the New Scientist.

(ii) Undergraduate male and female numbers – full and part-time

Figure 1: School of Mathematical Sciences undergraduate percentages (full and part-time) by

gender and year

Figure 2: School of Mathematical Sciences total undergraduate numbers (full and part-time)

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After rising to a peak of 40% in 2010/11, the percentage of female full and part-time students has remained between 37-39% in the subsequent three academic years, see Figure 1. This is comparable with the national average of 42% (cf. LMS Gender Statistics 2011 in “Advancing Women in Mathematics: Good Practice in UK University Departments”); however, despite considerable and ongoing effort to target females in our outreach (see Section 3(b)(i) and elsewhere), these statistics indicate that our recruitment of female mathematicians still requires improvement (see also Figure 2).

(iii) Postgraduate male and female numbers completing taught courses – full and part-time

Figure 3: School of Mathematical Sciences taught postgraduate percentages (full and part-time)

by gender and year

Figure 4: School of Mathematical Sciences total taught postgraduate numbers (full and part-time)

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The number of students taking one of our ten postgraduate taught (PGT) courses, see Figure 4, has broadly increased over the last 3 years (O2.2). During this time, the proportion of female PGT students has compared favourably with the UK average of 32% (LMS Gender Statistics 2011), in general: apart from a dip to 24% in 2011/12, the proportion has stabilised at 39% - 43%.

To help achieve this success, the School undertakes a wide range of initiatives (O2.1, O2.2). In addition to general outreach described elsewhere, the School produces a Postgraduate Newsletter (including an article by a female PGT in 2013 and a profile of a female member of staff), and a Postgraduate Study Brochure, the latter also containing information on support for students with children, and mature applicants. Both contain many pictures of women to provide positive role models in academia.

The School has a female Tutor to Women who advises and helps both female PGR and PGT students (O2.2.2).

Extract from Postgraduate Newsletter (2013) http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/documents/brochures/web-pdf-pg-maths-newsletter-2013.pdf

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Extract from Postgraduate Newsletter (2013) http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/documents/brochures/web-pdf-pg-maths-newsletter-2013.pdf

Extract from Undergraduate brochure (2013) http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/documents/brochures/web-pdf-maths-brochure-update-may-13.pdf

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(iv) Postgraduate male and female numbers on research degrees – full and part-time

Figure 5: School of Mathematical Sciences research student percentages (full and part-time)

by gender and year

Figure 6: School of Mathematical Sciences research students numbers

(full and part-time)

The proportion of female PGRs commencing study during the last 3 years is in the

range 22‒29%, consistently exceeding the UK average of 19%, see Figure 5 (LMS Gender Statistics 2011).

A range of initiatives has been undertaken to achieve this success, and to drive future improvements:

Role models (O2.1, N2.3, N2.6): Success stories from our staff are featured on the School's home page, frequently including women. Additionally, one female staff member features in a series of online videos at the Perimeter Institute Recorded

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Seminar Archive (http://www.pirsa.org) and another one in online video interviews, including:

• Emptiness by B. Haran;

• Being a woman in science by J. Perivolaris, Retratos de Independencia: Bicentennial Portraits of Latin American Women in England (http://retratosdeindependencia.weebly.com), which was in the exhibition shown at New Art Exchange and Night of Festivals, Nottingham;

• outreach video on relativistic quantum information on YouTube;

• interview to promote the Framework status of the University of Nottingham with EPSRC, to be shown during the launch of the Manufacturing Institute.

Summer bursaries (O2.2.1, N2.1): This successful scheme attracts female students each year (2011, 3 out of 9; 2012, 5 out of 13; 2013, 2 out of 11 students were female), and provides experience of the process of research. A female PhD student says:

“I did a summer internship at the University of Nottingham in statistics which was funded by EPSRC between my second and third year of my undergraduate degree, which let me see what doing a PhD was like and encouraged me to do a PhD.''

In the last three years, four of these students (two male, two female) became PGRs at the School.

Commencing in 2014, the School will offer two externally funded summer research internships exclusively for female undergraduates (Dr Margaret Jackson Bursary) for the next five years, to further increase female participation.

Social activities (O5.6, N2.8, N2.9): Initiated in 2012, there is a weekly lunch for female School members, sponsored by the School. These events encourage female PhD students, postdocs and academic staff to get to know each other and exchange advice and experiences, to encourage them to pursue an academic career. Weekly reminders are sent out by email and advertised via a facebook group. Since 2013, there is a BBQ for all first year students and their tutors during freshers’ week. From 2014, there will be a women's lunch in the autumn semester for first and final year undergraduate students and PGRs, and a leavers’ event for students and staff.

(v) Ratio of course applications to offers and acceptances by gender for undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research degrees

The acceptances of UG applications show no significant change over the last years see Figure 7.

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Figure 7: Percentages of acceptances of UG applications by gender for Mathematics courses

at the University of Nottingham

There is a large number of overseas students applying for PGT and PGR courses which distorts the application and offers data and makes it hard to look for any trends. It seems better to look at applications and registrations instead, see Figures 8 and 9.

Figure 8: Percentages of acceptances of PGR applications by gender for Mathematics courses at the

University of Nottingham

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Figure 9: Percentages of acceptances of PGT applications by gender for Mathematics courses

at the University of Nottingham

To attract more female PGT and PGR students, since autumn 2013 the School has a Women in Mathematics page linked to its homepage (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/about/women-in-science.aspx, N1.1).

(vi) Degree classification by gender Female students performed better than males in achieving 1st and 2.1 degrees, see Figure 11, which is in line with the national picture: By HESA, in 2012/13, 70% of female students on all degree courses (not just mathematics) achieved a first or upper second degree versus 65% of male students.

Figure 10: School of Mathematical Sciences undergraduate degree class by gender (totals)

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Figure 11: School of Mathematical Sciences undergraduate degree class by gender (percentage)

Staff data

(vii) Female:male ratio of academic staff and research staff – researcher, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor (or equivalent)

Staff data for the period 2011 - 2014 is summarised in Table 1.

Staff data 2011 – 2014

Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F

2011/12 12 5 17 29.4 24 1 25 4.0 18 2 20 10.0 15 0 15 0.0

2012/13 13 6 19 31.6 22 1 23 4.3 16 3 19 15.8 16 0 16 0.0

2013/14 13 3 16 18.8 25 3 28 10.7 20 3 23 13.0 17 0 17(+1) 0.0

Table 1: Staff data highlighting female / male representation at each level (Level 7: Professor, Level 6:

Associate Professor, Level 5: Lecturer, Level 4: Research Fellow) over the period 2011 – 2014. The (+1) at Level 7 is a vacancy

There are fewer female mathematicians at each stage of the careers ladder, which is in line with the national picture: currently, the School's female staff comprises three associate professors (of whom one also holds an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship), one part-time lecturer (on a New Investigator Research Grant), one Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow (in a shared post with Biosciences) and one lecturer holding both a Nottingham Research Fellowship and a Royal Society URF grant.

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Since Helen Byrne took up a post at Oxford in 2011, the School does not have a female professor. In 2013, it appointed two new female members of staff at Level 5.

The School is seeking to address the imbalance both by recruitment (into both Level 4/5, and more senior appointments to remedy the lack of female representation at Level 7) and through career development initiatives. Specifically, the following actions are being taken:

• Action on recruitment, see Sections 4, 6 (N3.3, N3.4, N3.6, N3.12).

• Stronger publicity regarding our policies (O4.4, O6.1, N3.8).

• Action via fellowships, see Section 4 below and N3.2.

• A revamping of the University's recruitment process to ensure greater transparency and improved vigilance that recruiters are properly trained, for example on equality and diversity issues (O1.5, O5.2).

• Action through career development. A range of activities have been instituted, including:

o an improved Personal Development and Performance Review (PDPR) process, in which encouragement to seek promotion and relevant training is emphasised; and

o a pro-active approach to promotion and progression via CV review by the School promotion group (N3.4).

The improved PDPR process is viewed as a valuable resource to enhance career progression, according to the 2013 Staff survey (19/30 respondents).

The School is looking for ways to recruit more female members of staff into all levels.

(viii) Turnover by grade and gender

Since 2011 (the year of the Athena SWAN Bronze award), there has been a turnover of 14 (7 UK, 7 international) academic staff. They either resigned to move for career advancement in the UK or overseas (7), for family reasons (4), retired (1) or sadly died in service (2); of these 14 leavers one was female. In exit interviews staff stated that they were happy with the University or the School but, for example, REF2014 recruitment by other institutions offered opportunities that were too good to ignore.

In the same period, the School has recruited 21 staff of whom three are female. Thus there has been a small, but very welcome, improvement in the balance of female to male staff. With regard to promoting the position of women, we have found that our most effective route thus far has been to concentrate on retaining our talented women in academia. We welcome our success in attracting three female mathematicians to Nottingham through pro-actively supporting them through the fellowship route into tenure-track lectureships.

[1865 words]

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4. Supporting and advancing women’s careers

a) Key career transition points - three years’ data

(i) Job application and success rates by gender and grade

The School receives the data on the gender of applicants from HR. Table 2 summarises the data for the period 2010 - 2013.

June 2012 – May 2013

Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F

Applications 58 11 69 15.9 57 8 65 12.3 49 6 55 10.9 19 0 19 0.0

Shortlist 20 4 24 16.7 9 0 9 0.0 6 1 7 14.3 4 0 4 0.0

Offers 7 1 8 12.5 3 0 3 0.0 2 0 2 0.0 1 0 1 0.0

June 2011 – May 2012

Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F

Applications 179 35 214 16.4 121 30 151 19.9 0 0 0 - 18 1 19 5.3

Shortlist 29 7 36 19.4 13 2 15 13.3 0 0 0 - 2 0 2 0.0

Offers 7 2 9 22.2 2 0 2 0.0 0 0 0 - 1 0 1 0.0

June 2010 – May 2011

Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F M F Total %F

Applications 51 9 60 15.0 38 5 43 11.6 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 -

Shortlist 10 5 15 33.3 12 0 12 0.0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 -

Offers 6 1 7 14.3 4 0 4 0.0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 -

Table 2: Job application and success rate by gender and grade for the years 2010 – 2013. N.B. These data disregard the small number of applications that did not specify gender

Overall percentages of women 2010 - 2013

Level 4/5 Level 6/7

Applicants 16.3% 7.5%

Shortlist 16.2% 7.7%

Offer 12.1% 0%

Table 3: Percentage of women combined over the years 2010 – 2013 for levels 4/5 or levels 6/7 jobs

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The overall percentage of women who are shortlisted is in very close agreement with the percentage of female applicants. Although the number of offers looks lower, there were only four offers made at levels 6/7 in this period and for levels 4/5 there were 4 out of 33 offers made to females, see Table 3. The clear messages from these data are that the percentage of females applying to our posts is too small (N3.6), but that the percentages of females shortlisted or given job offers are not unduly out of line with the number of applications.

In seeking to fill vacancies, the School has taken an active approach in contacting female mathematicians at other universities to advertise vacancies, but this approach has not yet paid dividends (we have suggested to the LMS that they might re-institute the directory of mathematicians to help in this regard). The School has, however, been pro-active in using fellowships with associated tenure-track lectureships as a means of attracting more women. This has proved particularly effective and we have successfully appointed three female fellows by this route, one each via the University's Anne McLaren Fellowship and Nottingham Research Fellowship scheme, another via a Leverhulme Fellowship. The UoN Fellowships are targeted towards outstanding early career female researchers, providing additional funding for research costs up to £25k p.a. and, inter alia, additional childcare costs of up to £5k p.a. This approach will continue via the new actions N3.2, N3.3.

In addition to the three female fellows on tenure-track lectureships at SoMS, since 2011, three of our female PGRs went on to permanent academic positions overseas and three of our female PDRAs have gone on to secure permanent academic posts elsewhere in the UK.

One female member of staff turned down a permanent academic position overseas because she felt that she would have a better work-life balance at SoMS.

(ii) Applications for promotion and success rates by gender and grade

Table 4 shows promotion applications. The disparity in female representation within the academic staff detailed in Section 3(vii) is echoed here. However, it is noteworthy that the disparity in candidates put forward for promotion is significantly reduced, reflecting the School's commitment to retention and advancement of talented female academics. Indeed, the overall success rates are 100% for female applicants, and 50% for males.

Promotion data 2010 – 2014

Candidates Outcome % Success rate

M F M F M F

2010/11 2(5), 2(6) 1(4) 1(5) 1(4) 25 100

2011/12 2(5,6) 2(4,5) 1(6) 2(4,5) 50 100

2012/13 2(5,6) 0 2(5,6) - 100 -

2013/14 3(5), 1(6) 0 2(5) - 50 -

Table 4: Staff data indicating the number of applications for promotion, and success rates over the period 2010 – 2014. Numbers in brackets indicate the staff grade at the time of application

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Potential candidates are identified via PDPR; the guidance to reviewers includes a request that particular attention be paid to promotion prospects.

b) Key career transition points - key issues and steps taken

(i) Recruitment of staff

All job advertisements are worded gender neutrally. University and School policies in relation to flexible working and child care availability are clearly stated. The Athena SWAN logo will be featured on our advertisement to show our commitment to best working practices.

Given our number of female staff, the School cannot currently ensure that interview panels are gender balanced. However, the University stipulates that recruitment and selection training is mandatory for all Chairs to help direct a fair decision making process and limit any potential biases (the Chair is always from outside the School). Furthermore, all members of the School are regularly invited to undergo online equality and diversity training by the university (O5.2).

All staff are invited to attend the presentations of the short-listed candidates, to meet them informally over a buffet-style lunch, and subsequently to provide their input to the interview panel.

From 2011 - 2013, advertisements for posts in the research and teaching family contained the sentence “Though the appointment will be made purely on merit, we particularly encourage applications from women as part of our commitment to promoting diversity.” From Autumn 2013 our advertisements have featured the sentence “In recognition of its commitment to promoting women in science, The University of Nottingham is one of four universities to hold a Silver Athena Scientific Women’s Advancement Network SWAN Award”(N3.5).

As noted above, the School has recently started a pro-active approach to recruitment: as part of this, openings are advertised directly to female academics working in the relevant research area (N3.3). The School also invited a female academic to give a research seminar at the same time as a permanent job was advertised in order to encourage her application.

(ii) Support for staff at key career transition points

In view of the academic staff data presented in Section 3 b)(vii), two career transition (pipeline) issues can be identified:

• advancement of female staff into senior roles;

• recruitment of more female staff, and promotion of lower level staff.

To address these issues, the following actions have been instituted.

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Career advancement of female staff into senior academic roles.

• Since 2012 the School has an improved study leave scheme: permanent staff in full-time or part-time research and teaching level 5 - 7 posts are entitled to apply for study leave after six teaching semesters since the start of contract or last sabbatical, provided they meet expectations at activity review. Applicants are asked to submit a plan with proposed outcomes, against which performance will be monitored. This scheme allows greater numbers of staff to apply for study leave than before. Study leave is encouraged at key transition points, e.g. if it enhances an application for promotion (O6.1).

• Staff who are seeking promotion are invited to participate in a promotion exercise, see Career development 4 c)(i) below. Additionally, staff are invited to submit their CV to the HoS for informal feedback on their chances for promotion each Spring. Staff who have not been promoted in 5 years are particularly encouraged to apply (N3.4).

• In order to support research grant submissions, from 2014, the University has implemented a formal internal peer review process prior to submission (N3.10) for grants and fellowships with a value of £100k or greater, to provide support and mentoring of academic staff in the preparation of such grants, and to increase success rates. This initiative has the potential to aid in development of senior female academics within the School.

• The School's Research Facilitator mentors staff on grant submissions and management and regularly promotes opportunities for research and knowledge transfer funding via email. Academic mentoring is given by colleagues in the corresponding research area.

• The UoN's WinSET group organizes a yearly event, where HoSs from STEM disciplines nominate their most promising female member of staff to present a poster, to raise their profile and to provide them with networking opportunities across disciplines.

Recruitment of more women, and promotion of staff into and within academic posts.

• The recruitment initiatives described elsewhere aim to increase the influx of female academics to the School (see Section 4(a)(i) and N3.3, N3.4, N3.6). In particular, the tenure-track fellowships (together with internal support/peer review for fellowship preparation) provide an effective method to advance research staff to permanent Academic Staff (N3.2).

• The Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education is delivered by the UoN. Unless they demonstrate substantial previous teaching experience, newly appointed staff are required to undertake the corresponding accredited training, during which their teaching workload is reduced.

• All members of staff are given some administrative responsibility, in order to acquire management and organisation skills.

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• Female staff are encouraged to attend the UoN's two key training programmes (APPLE, WAND) designed to help women in their career progression and offering mentoring across disciplines. One female member of staff attended the WAND programme during the last three years (O3.2).

In addition, UoN runs career workshops for researchers as well as workshops on subjects like mindfulness and work-life balance.

More generally, the School's Academic Mentoring Scheme and annual PDPR process serve to support academic development, and to monitor performance and to put new annual goals in place; see Career development 4 c)(i) below for details. Since 2013, research and teaching staff have a yearly personal allowance of currently £2000 which can be used to attend conferences etc.

Poster of our workshop

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c) Career development - key issues and steps taken

(i) Promotion and career development

All staff undergo an annual appraisal (PDPR) process, which has been recently updated university-wide to recognise broader skills and competencies and to offer a more continuous line of support. This provides an opportunity to discuss future career plans, to analyse performance over the last 12 months, and set goals for the following 12 months and beyond; PDPR also serves to highlight suitable training and career development opportunities, where appropriate.

In addition to this formal procedure, an informal Academic Mentoring scheme is in place; see (ii), below. There certainly is an emphasis on quality of work; however, quantity is important, too.

The 2013 Survey indicates that a majority of both Staff and PGR/PDs are aware of UoN training courses (90% and 85%, respectively), and value the PDPR and mentoring/support mechanisms (as appropriate) as an aid to career development (63% and 73%).

Each September all staff are invited to apply for a promotion by the University. Aspiring staff are first asked to obtain advice from their Head of Research Group (HoRG), the Directors of Teaching and Learning, and Research, and if desired, also from the HoS, and then to participate in a School-based promotion exercise. This approach provides important guidance through the process, and allows applicants to receive important feedback on their application before submission.

The criteria for a promotion to Associate Professor have been streamlined and clarified by removing the second option to apply for “Associate Professor and Reader” university wide from 2013 onwards. The criteria for getting the latter title were more research than teaching focused.

(ii) Induction and training

• The School runs two Mentoring Schemes: one for academic staff, including Anne McLaren Fellows and Nottingham Research Fellows, and one for postdoctoral research assistants. Their principal aims are to provide support with goal setting and career management and to share knowledge and expertise (O3.1, O3.3, O4.1). This is particularly important for early-career or newly appointed members of staff, but also staff arriving from overseas may face particular challenges with both the British culture and the procedures used in the School. For postdoctoral research assistants, there is a more informal ‘buddy’ system in place. Both pair the mentee with a more senior and experienced member of staff. The School holds a record of all mentors and mentees.

• New staff receive a Staff Handbook containing information on School policies and rules, as well as on flexible working etc. (O6.1). They receive additional support by administrative staff, e.g. staff arriving from overseas get help with opening a bank account.

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• All staff receive mathematics-specific grant writing support, advice on where to apply for conference funding, and weekly emails from the Research Facilitator (employed by the School) on grant opportunities and schemes.

• Networking opportunities are provided via the School's common room and at regularly organized socials (O5.6). The latter include external events (e.g. at restaurants), and those taking place within core hours (such as the staff Christmas lunch), to allow those with caring responsibilities to attend (see additionally Organisation and Culture (b)(iii)).

• Staff participate in UoN's Equality and Diversity Training (O1.5, O5.2), and other training courses as appropriate. The 2013 Staff survey indicates that staff are aware of relevant courses to support career development offered by UoN (29/32 respondents), but uptake is low, hence we plan to encourage this more in the future (N3.1).

(iii) Support for female students

• Our undergraduate students have the right to request a female personal tutor. Although the School holds no official records of how often this occurs, it is aware of at least one case where this was requested within the last six years (O2.2.2).

• Maternity Leave for PGR students:

o For University-funded PGR students, the University's policy is to fund four months of maternity leave. However, the School of Mathematical Sciences has adopted an enhanced policy, in line with that of the Research Councils: All Research Council funded students are entitled to take 6 months of maternity leave on full stipend and a further six months of unpaid maternity leave (N2.10). This policy has been adopted in 2013 to ensure equity across all our students in receipt of stipends paid through the University, rather than offering different terms to different students depending on their funding sources. Regardless of the stipend rate normally paid, during a period of maternity leave this rate will be capped at the standard RCUK rate.

o All PGR students, regardless of funding, are able to take up to 12 months away as an ‘interruption of study’ for maternity purposes.

o In addition to the standard six weeks of paid annual leave PGR students receive per year, PGR students are allowed up to two weeks unpaid paternity leave to support their partners on the birth of a child.

• The School logs meetings between supervisors and postgraduate research students (PGRs), set at a minimum of 10 per academic year, and encourages and logs attendance at conferences and workshops, viewing it as an important part of the PhD training.

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• PGRs are assigned two supervisors, to balance career advice and to assure continuous supervision should the principal supervisor become unavailable due to maternity leave or other circumstances.

• All PGRs have travel funds allocated to them to enable them to attend conferences or other research events.

• PGRs are offered a wide range of courses by the University's Graduate School, ranging from how to do a poster presentation and time management through to specific training on marking coursework.

• Undergraduate, postgraduate students and staff have access to the University's Employability Services, which give advice on career planning, CV writing and other skills. In addition, the School has a female Careers Advisor who regularly organizes careers events jointly with the UoN's Careers and Employability Service (CES) and advertises careers in mathematics both inside and outside of academia. Since 2013, the CES holds weekly drop-in sessions in the School's Atrium, giving career advice to students and checking CV's (N2.12).

• Since 2011, the School has a female Tutor to Women. Her role is to support and advise undergraduate and postgraduate students (O2.2.2). PGRs can ask for a change in their allocated work desk, if they prefer another neighbour.

• The School plans to strengthen the links between outreach and careers, highlighting the wide diversity of careers available to mathematics graduates, many of which are creative, well-paid and family-friendly. The aim of this is both to aid with career progression, and to challenge the stereotype that such a degree is relevant only to research, teaching or finance. Mathematical knowledge and the transferable skills acquired during a degree do not age and hence are well-suited to career breaks (e.g. to raise children). In addition to the development of the School's webpages (N1.1), a leaflet with related information will be distributed to staff/students who undertake outreach activities (N2.4).

• The School actively encourages women to attend UK Resource Centre for Women (UKRC) events and courses, and to become members of relevant societies/associations, such as the European Women in Mathematics association through the ‘Women in Mathematics’ webpage (linked from the School's homepage, (N2.3) and a Facebook group for female PGRs (23 members)).

The roles of Careers Advisor and Tutor to Women (both of whom are female) are recognised formally by the School via their inclusion as tariffed activities within the School's new workload model.

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d) Organisation and culture - three years’ data

(i) Male and female representation on committees

Committee membership data 2011 - 2014

2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014

M F M F M F

Executive group 5 0+1 5 0+1 5 0+1

Research board 10+1 1 9+1 1 8+1 1

School meeting All All All All All All

Teaching & learning board 6 0 7 0 6 0

Programmes & modules committee - - - - 4 0+1

PG affairs committee 3 0 3 0 3 0

Quality, enhancement & standards 6 0 6 0 6 0

UG Learning Community Forum 4 0+2 4 0+2 4 0+2

PG Learning Community Forum 2 0+2 2 0+2 2 0+2

Resources committee 4 0+2 3 0+2 3 0+2

Outreach group 1 0+1 2 0+1 2 0+2

Athena SWAN group 1 3+2 1 3+1 3+1 3+1

Table 5: Staff data indicating male and female representation on committees. Where data is absent, the committee did not exist; `+1' indicates additional members from non-eligible job families (viz. School

Manager, Research Facilitator, Secretary or Teaching Officer)

The School is not one that is run by large committees, preferring to delegate responsibilities to individuals wherever feasible. Apart from some exceptions (technical and support staff, School Manager), School committees are dominated by academic staff.

Table 5 shows the male and female representation on the various committees within the School. It is clear that the gender imbalance within the School is reflected in the committee membership. The School committee arrangements are a pragmatic response to ensuring broad participation in decision-making given the gender imbalance that currently exists. The School does not want to overburden its female members and this arrangement protects their research time.

Wherever possible the School strives to achieve consensus on important matters. The main forum for staff to discuss matters is the School Meeting which meets 3 times per year. To make this process as effective and efficient as possible, sub- committees generally consider large and complex issues first and bring considered views to the Meeting. All staff are members of the School Meeting (support staff meet separately with the HoS to discuss matters of mutual importance).

Membership of committees is negotiated by the HoS, and informed by individual staff members' PDPR forms and workload data.

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It is noteworthy that there are currently more female than male (10 female versus 7 male in 2013) student representatives at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Learning Community Forums (O5.5).

(ii) Female:male ratio of academic and research staff on fixed-term contracts and open-ended (permanent) contracts

All Level 4 staff members in Table 1 are on fixed term contracts as they are funded by research grants. In 2011/2012, one of these (male) had a permanent contract in place to start immediately after. One female member of staff at Level 5 has held concurrent permanent and fixed term part-time contracts for the last three years.

In 2011/12, the School had five fixed-term male staff at Level 5 and in 2012/13, four fixed-term male staff at Level 5, covering vacancies/long term illness.

2013/14, there is one fixed-term male staff member at Level 7, one at Level 6, and one at Level 5. Two female members at Level 5 and one at Level 4 are on tenure-track fixed-term contracts.

A key issue in the School is the retention of talented (female) PDs and their progression to permanent roles. The enhanced PDPR process (N3.8), and mentor/buddy scheme (O3.1, O3.3, O4.1), together with a more pro-active approach to career advancement, improved provision of grant-writing and career development support via the Research Facilitator and internal peer review (N2.11, N3.1, N3.4, N3.9, N3.10) provide a means to address this.

The changes to the recruitment processes used by the School are described in Section 3(vii).

e) Organisation and culture - key issues and steps taken

(i) Representation on decision-making committees

As stated in d)(i), the School has adopted the pragmatic approach of sharing responsibilities among individual staff rather than committees, so that committee overload is avoided and decisions are taken through the School Meetings where all staff have a voice.

(ii) Workload model

The School has operated an informal workload model for several years. Since 2013, it has been testing a more formal workload model developed along the guidelines drawn up by UoN. Its aim is to give a fair reflection in broad terms of the work conducted by academic staff involved with research and teaching in the School (O5.4). The Workload model is designed for use as a tool to itemize and reflect the workload of individual staff, and is a broad barometer for fairly reflecting how the work of the School is shared in an approximately even manner. The model contains both tariffed and non-tariffed activities, where the non-tariffed activities are largely self-directed. The tariffs provide a useful comparator for the potentially flexible contributions of the different roles and activities of research and teaching staff in

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the School. Pastoral and administrative responsibilities (e.g., chairing the Athena SWAN group, being Tutor to Women) are tariffed activities (N4.2).

This new scheme is designed to be fair and transparent workload data is available online via the School workspace, accessible by all staff. Over time, responsibilities are rotated in line with the skills and experience of staff.

(iii) Timing of departmental meetings and social gatherings

Core hours are considered to be 10:00am - 4:00pm. All dates and times for School Meetings, exam board meetings etc are circulated at the beginning of the academic year, allowing staff to plan ahead.

Apart from in exceptional circumstances, meetings are held during core hours; School Meetings usually take place at 1 or 2pm (O1.1).

Currently, one annual Exam Board Meeting still commences at 9:00am, due to time pressures associated with entering results onto a central repository. However, staff with family responsibilities may attend late, if they designate a replacement during their absence. Furthermore, by streamlining procedures, from 2015 this meeting will commence at 9:30am (N4.4). Research seminars are usually scheduled within core hours, and take place at a time agreed with all members of the relevant research group.

School social events take place both within core hours (to maximise attendance of those with family responsibilities), as well as evening events; see O5.6 and also (iv), below.

The flexibility of the School is recognised in the 2013 Staff survey, with a majority (90%) responding that their carer/family responsibilities do not impact on their School role.

(iv) Culture

Women within the School feel very positive about the environment. A female member of staff:

“The support given by the School of Mathematical Sciences has been essential in my academic growth”;

a female PhD student comments:

“The School, although currently under-representing females, feels welcoming towards them. Experiences in other Schools, where the ratio is closer to 50/50, have not been so friendly.''

This view is reflected more widely, as evidenced in the 2013 Survey, in which a clear majority of academic staff rate the atmosphere/working relationships in the School as `good' or `very good' (81%), and ‘feel valued by the School’ (90%).

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Extract from the Undergraduate brochure 2014

Members of the School meet at both formal and informal social functions: individual research groups organize regular seminars, work groups, and social events (O5.6). The common room is also a valuable social space. Our PGRs are running a cake club, and several PGRs and staff regularly go jogging at lunch times.

External speakers are usually invited to lunch or for drinks at the staff club in order to socialise and network with members of the School. Postgraduate students organise welcoming evenings for new PGRs and staff starting with drinks in the common room. Women's lunches take place each Monday during term time.

The School organizes annual “Away Days” used for staff development topics (see N1.5), an annual well-attended Christmas lunch, and regular after-work socials. Since 2013, the School hosts a BBQ for all first year students and their tutors during freshers’ week and a leavers’ event for students and staff (N2.8).

Since November 2013, there have been anonymous suggestion boxes in the Staff/PGR common room and undergraduate study room, and a dedicated email address, to collect feedback and ideas on how the School can improve its provision, reflecting the School's flexible and responsive approach (N4.3).

(v) Outreach activities

To address the undergraduate statistics in Figure 1, and in addition to the outreach already mentioned in Section 3(b)(i), the School aims to provide positive role models for prospective female students (O2.1), through its online presence, and marketing materials. The School's undergraduate page links to a page containing student profiles of undergraduate students, the majority of them female. Both online and in our Undergraduate Study Brochure many images of female students are displayed.

The School Newsletter frequently profiles female graduates and undergraduates (2013 edition features two successful female MMath Mathematics graduates: one employed by Deloitte, and a 2012 Olympic medal-winner; and an interview with a current female student on study abroad).

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Extract from the School Newsletter 2013

Extract from the School Newsletter 2012

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Extract from the School Newsletter 2014

The School's website www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics will be developed to make it even more attractive to prospective female students, and to showcase the opportunities that studying mathematics affords, by presenting profiles of mathematicians' careers (both academic, and elsewhere), and including video interviews/profiles of our female staff (N1.1, N2.3).

Extract from the Maths Undergraduate web pages

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/prospective/undergraduate/studentprofiles.aspx

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Our Undergraduate Ambassador Scheme gives students the chance to work in local classrooms as classroom assistants and gets great reviews from prospective students and parents. Since the majority of its participants are female, this provides valuable mathematical role models for girls (O2.1). Furthermore, staff and students participate in a variety of outreach aimed at schools, see Section 3(i).

The East Midlands' Further Mathematics Support Programme is hosted by our School, its coordinator is female. The School regularly participates in outreach activities like the Maths Master classes (Ambition Nottingham programme), the Sutton Trust Summer School (an enrichment and widening participation event for bright, disadvantaged A-level students) and the Nottingham Potential Summer School. In 2012, the School was involved in the Teach First mentoring scheme.

Due to the small number of female staff, it is not always possible to have a woman participate in all the outreach activities run by the School. To compensate for this, female members are represented in numerous online videos (O2.1, N1.1).

Non-traditional outreach is also well-represented in the School. A female member of our School conducted the question-answer session on Jon Spooner's play Ethics of Progress, Cambridge, was featured in two articles in the New Scientist, and co-authored a script for a short movie by Lion Cannes Nominee photographer, film-maker and scientist Dragan (“Hierarchy Lost”); see 3.b)(i) and N1.6.

The Outreach Officer's role is recognized in the new workload model (O5.4).

Moreover, the School employs two Teaching Officers: one to help first year students with the transition to university, the other supports the foundation year.

Extract from the Maths Undergraduate web pages http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/prospective/undergraduate/studentprofiles.aspx

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f) Flexibility and managing career breaks - three years’ data

(i) Maternity return rate

During the last three years, one Anne McLaren Fellow and one Leverhulme Early Career Fellow on a shared post with Biosciences have taken maternity leave. Both are still on leave at the time of writing this proposal, and plan to return to work.

In the last ten years, one other academic staff member took maternity leave and returned to work, choosing to work 0.8 FTE.

(ii) Paternity, adoption and parental leave uptake

Over the last few years, requests for formal paternity leave have increased: during the last three years, six lecturers took paternity leave. The previous three years, three lecturers took paternity leave and a few more members of staff made informal arrangements like working from home. All returned to work. No parental and adoption leaves were requested in the last six years.

(iii) Numbers of applications and success rates for flexible working by gender and grade

The University's Flexible Working Arrangement Policy allows staff with children aged 16 or under and other caring responsibilities to request flexible working arrangements. Under this policy, two male lecturers requested to work four days a week for one semester, and one academic year, respectively, to fit work around childcare issues. Both applications were approved.

Flexible working arrangements are also supported when staff are coming back after a long period of ill health.

g) Flexibility and managing career breaks - key issues and steps taken

(i) Flexible working

Staff have the right to request flexible working according to the University's Flexible Working Arrangement Policy. There were two applications under this policy in the last two years, see a) (iii), and none in the previous six years.

All staff are allowed to work from home one day per week during term time, unless teaching, administrative or supervision duties interfere. Timetables are drawn up with the aim of providing staff with at least one day a week free of lectures. These at home days are entered in an online diary accessible to all, where other absences (conference attendances etc.) are also recorded, to help the School run smoothly.

In addition, where possible, teaching allocation and timetables accommodate family/caring commitments - the School Manager maintains this information, and feeds it into the central timetabling system.

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All these options are explained in the staff handbook which is available online. The 2013 Staff Survey indicates that the majority of staff are aware of the relevant flexible working policies and where to find them (O6.1).

(ii) Cover for maternity and adoption leave and support on return

Recently, the maternity and adoption leave policies that the School has operated for many years have been updated to reflect best practice within the University and the mathematics HE community; additionally, steps have been taken to publicise these schemes more effectively (O6.1, N3.7).

The standard UoN maternity leave, parental support (including paternity leave) and adoption leave policies are supplemented by the following procedures for academic staff with teaching and research duties who are absent for 16 weeks or more:

• If practical, a meeting with the HoS is arranged prior to the period of leave to establish timescales for taking leave, bearing in mind the flexibility built into University policies. The purpose of the meeting is to identify teaching and administrative roles that need covering during the period of leave and beyond and where appropriate to identify suitable stand-in academic staff to cover roles and to aid hand-over of responsibilities. The meeting will also establish appropriate cover of research responsibilities during the period of absence.

• Just before the return to work, a meeting will again be held with the HoS. This meeting will agree a return-to-work plan which will include details of a staged return of duties during the first three months. The plan will take into account individual needs to best support the reinvigoration of research activities and/or quality teaching.

• The School offers funding each year to all academic staff to support their research (currently £2000). Staff who have returned to work after a break are encouraged to apply for additional funding from the School's Strategy and Steering Conferences Fund to enhance their research activity.

• Research Fellows: When the School is informed about a request for maternity leave, the Research Facilitator liaises with the funding body responsible for the grant in order to establish the maternity provision for the fellow in question. If maternity pay is not covered by the grant funder, and if the researcher is not eligible for payment under the University scheme, the School Manager will be consulted to see if any School support is available. The School fully supports research fellows in flexible and part time working both before their maternity leave and on their return. Requests should be discussed initially with the School Manager.

In addition to improved maternity provision for PGRs (see Career Development (a)(iii) and N2.10), each PhD student has two supervisors, so that the absence of a supervisor does not create any disadvantages for the student or supervisory staff.

[4812 words]

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5. Other comments

As part of our outreach activities, female staff seek to act as a visible role model to encourage women to pursue a career in academia. The majority of the School's female staff decided that the best way to reach out is to employ social media and have inspirational talks, interviews and portraits recorded and put online, see action (N2.3, N1.1), as well as to use non-traditional ways to reach a broader audience. For example:

• We will apply for funding for an arts-and-mathematics project aimed at raising the profile of women in mathematics (N1.1), to have an artist make portraits of female mathematicians and make an exhibition to show and tour, similar to the work by J. Perivolaris, Retratos de Independencia: Bicentennial Portraits of Latin American Women in England, see http://www.retratosdeindependencia.weebly.com/ (exhibition shown at Night of Festivals, Nottingham).

The portraits would come along with a text about the person's most important life experience and later on we would turn this into a little book.

• A female member of our School obtained funding to make another short film with A. Dragan (N2.5 http://www.andrzejdragan.com/).

“I want to create a moving portrait, a live portrait that inspires and raises the profile of women scientists. The portrait would include aspects of her research, her personality, her life and the emotions involved in her work. We would emphasise the creative processes involved in science research. The film would not be a documentary but rather a short inspirational piece consisting of a sequence of beautiful images demonstrating what a scientist is. This project provides a unique way for me to collaborate with the artistic community and reach out to the general public through art and science.''

• In 2013, two female members of the School initiated the Facebook group “Women in STEM at UoN” which has attracted 97 members so far (N1.7).

[304 words]

Advertisement for an event with MathSoc, designed by MathSoc (N1.2)

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6. Case Study

a) Case Study I

(i) Background

I have been based in the School of Mathematical Sciences since October 2012, when I moved to Nottingham for my husband to take up a lectureship within the University. When I arrived I was in the final year of my first postdoc, funded by a University of Melbourne McKenzie fellowship, and the School granted me visitor status until the completion of my fellowship in July 2013. This allowed me to continue my research with colleagues in Melbourne and provided a base for forming new collaborations within the UK. The School also provided detailed advice on relevant fellowship schemes before moving to Nottingham and support in preparing these both before and after my move to Nottingham. The School's generosity in these respects was an important consideration when deciding whether to relocate to Nottingham. Facilitated by this support I was awarded an Anne McLaren Fellowship, a tenure-track position targeted toward women in science that is funded by the University of Nottingham, which I took up in August 2013.

(ii) Working practice

I was pregnant when my Anne McLaren Fellowship began, and the School has permitted informal flexible working arrangements that allowed me to continue working while coping with the demands of pregnancy. Additionally, the School has not placed any teaching or additional administrative demands on me during the initial stages of my fellowship to allow me to focus on my research. I am considering returning to work part time following my maternity leave and increasing my FTE load incrementally, and both the School and the Research Office are supportive of this plan. I have received formal and informal mentoring support from within School which has been useful in planning my fellowship and maternity leave.

(iii) Inclusive culture

The School has been supportive of my aims to undertake interdisciplinary applied mathematical research. For example, during my time within the School, I have fostered a productive collaboration with the School of Community Health Sciences. The School's willingness to accommodate my research goals has made me feel welcome and positive about my future within the University.

The School runs weekly lunches for women which have helped me settle in and provided a forum for discussing issues facing women in maths/science. The School has also been supportive of my decision to start a family while on the Anne McLaren Fellowship, emphasising the family friendly culture and the flexibility that this working environment provides for combining a career in science with a family life.

[401 words]

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b) Case Study II

(i) Background

In 2009 I joined the University of Nottingham as a Lecturer and EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow. I moved to Nottingham with my three year old son. My then husband, who is also a mathematician, was at the time a postdoctoral assistant in Germany. A few months after my move to Nottingham our relationship broke down. Since then I have been taking care of our son on my own as I have no family in the UK. He is now eight years old and his father remains in Germany. An important source of stress in my marriage was due to the difficulty of finding academic positions for both of us in the same geographic area. In 2012 I was promoted to Associate Professor and received extra research funding from EPSRC though a New Directions Award. The research funding provided by EPSRC allowed me to create and lead a research group consisting of three research assistants and three PhD students.

Our group is considered to be leading at an international level, as evidenced by the 20 invitations I have received since 2012 to present my work at prestigious international conferences. Thanks to the support I received at the School of Mathematical Sciences I have been able to be a good parent while having a successful career.

(ii) Working practices

Since my appointment in 2009, I have been excused from teaching and most other School duties so that I can focus on research, supervision of students, organisation of scientific events and other duties related to my EPRSC Fellowship and New Directions Award. This is thanks to a special School policy that allows fellows to focus on their research. This policy has played an important role in my success as a researcher allowing me to find a good balance between work and family life. I am also aware that I would be able to reduce my working hours under the University's flexible working scheme. It gives me peace of mind to have the scheme in place if needed.

(iii) Inclusive culture

I find the atmosphere in the School very friendly and supportive. I am an early career representative at the School's Research Board which has allowed me to participate in decision making and develop leadership and management skills. I have felt encouraged and supported by senior staff and I have received very positive feedback at annual reviews. Feeling appreciated and supported by my colleagues has contributed greatly to my success.

[400 words]

1

Appendix

I. Action Plan 2014 – 2017

1. General Issues

Action Responsibility Timescale How will we measure success?

1.1 Develop School's webpages: Include `Women in Mathematics' webpage, and staff profiles, including videos highlighting female mathematicians' careers in and out of academia.

Outreach officer, Marketing Officer, monitored by ASG.

Since 2013, ongoing.

More applications from female UG/PGR/ PGTs/potential staff.

1.2 Work with Math Society, send students to primary and secondary schools, organize events with female UG / PGRs and staff geared towards female UG students.

ASG, MathSoc. Autumn 2013 onwards.

Higher visibility of female staff and PGRs, more female PGRs.

1.3 Encourage seminar organisers to invite female speakers and keep records.

Seminar Organizers, Research Board.

Autumn 2014 onwards.

More female guest speakers.

1.4 Collect data on UG summer research bursaries leading to PhD research.

School Manager. 2014 onwards Increased numbers of female students going to do a PhD.

1.5 Regularly include equality and diversity issues (e.g. unconscious bias) in staff development activities, like the annual Staff Development Away Day.

Staff Development Officer, HoS, School Manager.

2014 onwards. Increased incidence of such activities, higher awareness of staff of AS related issues.

1.6 Explore funding for non-traditional outreach (e.g. projects linking art and maths, including videos, posters, with short profiles / interviews of women in maths).

ASG 2014 onwards. More female applicants / students.

1.7 Maintain and develop Facebook group for women at UoN in STEM disciplines as a platform to exchange ideas and promote activities.

ASG Autumn 2013 onwards.

Membership numbers (97 at time of submission) and posts; uptake of relevant activities.

1.8 Yearly university taster days for girls in secondary school. ASG 2014 onwards. More female applicants / students.

1.9 LMS Good Practice Scheme Supporter, logo on homepage. HoS January 2014. More female applicants.

2

2. Students Action Responsibility Timescale How will we measure success?

2.1 Margaret Jackson bursaries to support female UG research.

Internship Officer. 2014 – 2019. More female students become PGRs.

2.2 Include more information on Athena SWAN in future brochures.

Marketing manager. Now onwards. Higher visibility of actions concerning Athena SWAN.

2.3 Link ‘Women in Maths’ and ‘Equality and Diversity’ webpages to the School homepage to attract female PGT / PGR students and ECRs.

Marketing Manager. From December 2013.

More female PGT / PGR students and ECRs.

2.4 Link careers and outreach via online materials and maths careers leaflet.

Careers Officer, Outreach Officer.

Now onwards. Increased female UG / PG applications.

2.5 Short film with Lion Cannes Nominee photographer, film-maker and scientist A. Dragan.

Member of ASG. 2014 – 1015. Number of views.

2.6 Media and communication skills training of staff (e.g. the course offered by the Royal Society), to improve on skills necessary for outreach.

Staff Development Officer, individual staff.

Now onwards. Better outreach on social media, videos, etc.

2.7 Involve female UGs / PGRs / postdocs in outreach activities.

Outreach Officer, Careers Advisor.

Now onwards. Increased involvement; larger pool of visible female role models. Increased UG / PG applications.

2.8 BBQ for all first year students and their tutors during freshers’ week, leavers’ event.

School Manager. Since 2013. Inclusive atmosphere in School. Student feedback.

2.9 Women’s lunches for first year and final year undergraduate students and PGRs.

School Manager and PGRs. From 2014 onwards. Attendance at lunches. More UG / PGRs staying in academia.

2.10 Extended maternity leave for PGRs. School Manager. From November 2013.

Fewer PGRs leaving academia.

2.11 o Provide training to PGRs to aid future PD or faculty positions.

o Offer a course to PGRs, giving advice on best approaches to applying for positions in academia.

Research Facilitator, PGR Student Advisor, CES.

From 2014 onwards. Fewer PGRs leaving academia.

2.12 Weekly drop-in sessions by CES in the School’s atrium. CES, Careers Officer. From 2013 onwards. Improved awareness of students how / where to apply for jobs, how to write a CV.

2.13 Explore how to make the School’s Postgraduate Day more attractive.

HoRGs. 2014 More PGRs.

2.14 Explore greater involvement of year 3 and 4 students with teaching first year students, trying to have balanced selection of male / female students.

Director of Teaching and Learning.

2014 – 2015. First year students have more visible role models, the higher year students feel they belong to the School, more female PGRs.

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3. Supporting and advancing female staff

Action Responsibility Timescale How will we measure success?

3.1 Encourage postdocs / fellows and research staff to attend careers workshops from Professional Development Unit and Graduate School.

Staff Development Officer.

From 2014. Higher numbers attending courses, more postdocs remaining in academia.

3.2 Pro-active approach to increase female research staff appointments via fellowships. HoS, HoRGs. Ongoing. More female staff at Level 4.

3.3 Pro-active approach to recruitment: openings are advertised directly to female academics working in the relevant research area: HoS monitors shortlists.

HoS. Ongoing. Increased numbers of applications from females.

3.4 Pro-active approach to promotions: Annual CV review for all staff; encourage staff who have been on the same grade for several years to submit CV for consideration / feedback by School Promotions Group (SPG).

HoS, SPG. From 2014. Promotion of female staff.

3.5 Include the following in advertisements for R & T posts: “In recognition of its commitment to promoting women in science, The University of Nottingham is one of four universities to hold a Silver Athena Scientific Women’s Advancement Network SWAN Award”.

School Manager. Autumn 2013 onwards.

More female applicants.

3.6 Advertise future jobs more broadly, e.g. on European Mathematical Society, AMS, European Women in Mathematics pages.

School Manager, HoS, PI.

From 2014 onwards.

Broader pool of applicants; more female applicants.

3.7 Written school policy on maternity leave and return to work arrangements for staff. School Manager. Since November 2013.

Increased transparency of maternity policy; measured by 2014 Staff survey.

3.8 Stronger encouragement to seek promotion through PDPR process. HoRGs, HoS. From now onwards.

Promotion of female staff.

3.9 Improve publicity of promotions process within staff to enhance career progression. HoS, Staff Development Officer.

From now onwards.

Promotion of female staff.

3.10 Further improve support and mentoring of academic staff in preparing grant / fellowship applications, increased use of internal peer reviews.

HoS, HoRGs, Research Board.

From now onwards.

Improved success rates.

3.11 Encourage staff to ask to give a virtual talk if one is not able to attend a conference because of family responsibilities or similar.

ASG Ongoing. Possibility to accept invitations for talks staff might not be able to honour otherwise.

3.12 Appointment panels in School at lecturer level and above will have designated Athena Swan Champion as member.

HoS From now onwards.

More female applicants.

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4. Culture

Action Responsibility Timescale How will we measure success?

4.1 Review recognition of all outreach activities by staff in the new workload model.

HoS 2014 Activities tariffed in Workload model.

4.2 Increase / review recognition of Athena SWAN activities within workload model.

HoS From 2014 onwards.

Activities tariffed in Workload model.

4.3 Two suggestion boxes, one in the UG study room and one in the staff common room, and a dedicated email address, to collect feedback anonymously.

School Manager. Autumn 2013. Number of suggestions; adoption of reasonable requests into School policy.

4.4 Move external exam board meeting to 09:30 am. School Manager. 2015 Amended schedule.

4.5 Explore possibility to organize family-friendly conferences at UoN. ASG 2014 onwards. More female participants.

4.6 Budget for ASG for Athena SWAN related initiatives / activities. ASG 2014 onwards. More activities, higher profile for ASG.

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II. Review of 2011 Athena SWAN Action Plan

1. Baseline data and supporting evidence

The 2011 Action Plan says… What has happened?

1.1 School meetings to be held in ‘core’ hours. Core hours are considered 10:00am – 4pm. School meetings are held at 1pm or 2pm (only June 2013 meeting at 9.30am).

1.2 Timetabling to take into account post-school child care etc.

Timetabling takes into account childcare issues: the School Manager sends an email enquiry out in February – for 2013/14 12 requests were made, representing a slight increase. These are fed in to the timetabling process.

1.3 Monitor applications/offers/acceptances for UG, PGT and PGR by gender. Monitor PGR data against national trends. PGT and PGR data to be monitored for achievement.

Data are held and monitored centrally by Planning and Management. They are routinely gathered and made available to School, which is now in a position to establish trends and act on them as appropriate.

1.4 Improve collection of UG destination data. Introduce end-of-year tutorial meeting to discuss career progression. Increase in female transition from UG to PG.

End-of-year meetings with tutors take place. Destination data for both UG and PGT students are collected at this meeting, and also shared with the University’s Careers and Employability Services (CES) if students allow it (data held by Careers Advisor). UG to PG transition data other than that collected at these meetings or shared by CES are not known (but see §2 on bursaries). The School is in the process of building and using a strong database of alumni (e.g., two female alumni working in private industry were featured in the last two School's newsletters). The Director of Careers Service will undertake detailed analysis of graduate destination data in 2014.

1.5 Encourage uptake of Equality and Diversity training (re: staff appointments).

A member of the Athena SWAN Committee also had the role of Staff Development Officer during the autumn of 2013, to understand how awareness on Equality and Diversity issues throughout the School can be improved. See §5 below as well.

1.6 Monitor numbers of applications and success rates for flexible working by gender and grade. Collate records.

There were three official requests in the last 18 months to reduce hours (1 female support staff for health reasons, 2 male lecturers for family reasons). All were approved.

1.7 Monitor APR (now PDPR) recommendations and promotions data by gender. HoS to collate records.

HoS collates records, see main submission document.

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2. UG and PG students

The 2011 Action Plan says…

What has happened?

2.1 Use outreach activities to promote female role models.

Male and female staff, including the Further Mathematics Area Coordinator, were involved in a large amount of both traditional and non-traditional outreach activity, see main submission document.

2.2 Develop a holistic plan to promote the progression of female UGs through to academic posts (UG to level 7). By:

2.2.1 Summer bursary strategy;

Our summer bursaries keep attracting female students, and from 2014 there will be two additional bursaries exclusively for women. The male:female breakdown for Summer bursaries was 9:2 in 2013, 8:5 in 2012 and 6:3 in 2011. The number progressing to a PhD at Nottingham was: 1 female from the 2012 cohort; 2 males and 1 female from the 2011 cohort. Since 2010, four female students previously on a bursary went on to do a PhD at our School.

2.2.2 Development of UG tutoring system;

We now have a Tutor to Women Students (also available to PGT and PGR students). Female students can request a female tutor (one case in the last six years).

2.2.3 Development of PGT programmes; The School’s PGT programmes are now well established and advertised through the School’s homepage (featuring many images of female students).

2.2.4 School-based Women-in-maths days;

A workshop, “Women and Men: Careers in HE” was held on 12 March 2014. It included a panel discussion on “Finding a balance between a career and family life.” Guest speaker Professor Fay Dowker (Imperial College London) gave a talk with title: In search of lost time….in quantum gravity. The panel discussion was filmed and will be made available to our PGR and PGT students via the School’s Moodle pages.

2.2.5 Inviting Alumni to address students.

A presentation by a female alumna in private industry was given to 2nd

year students on the School’s Professional Skills Module in October 2013. The Director of External Relations also reports this is on a to-do list for the current academic year.

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3. Key career transition points, appointments and promotions

The 2011 Action Plan says…

What has happened?

3.1 Improve induction and mentoring system and extend to include postdocs and all academic staff (not just teaching staff).

The School has a well-established mentoring and induction system for research and teaching staff, in place for many years, and an informal buddy system for its PGRs and postdoctoral research assistants (explained in the main submission document). The mentoring scheme was revised and more care is now taken over the selection of appropriate mentors (improved guidance documents are on the staff development intranet page). The new mentoring scheme applies to all academic staff, but not to most PDRAs, who are supported by a less formal buddy scheme. The new and improved PDPR process offers career support for PDRAs. The Research Facilitator runs career development sessions (twice-yearly from2013) aimed at ECRs and new staff (“How to win grants and influence people”, May 2012; “Grants and grant-writing: an introduction for new staff and ECRs”, December 2013).

3.2 Develop stronger participation of supportive networks. By: More actively encouraging participation in UoN women’s development programmes – APPLE, WAND. Establishing a research-staff forum.

One woman took part in WAND in 2011 and then advertised it to the other female members of staff. No research-staff forum has been developed. The Heads of Research groups sit on the Research Board (chaired by the Director of Research) - and act as a voice for their group, including all research assistants in it, at these meetings (5 per year).

3.3 Buddy system for PGRs set up in 2010/11. This is still running: Supervisors are asked to nominate a suitable buddy for new PGRs, who are then put in contact. About half of PGRs have a buddy over their whole period of study, those without are encouraged to talk to others in their office. Lots of support and induction is provided for all PGRs.

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4. Career advice and support

The 2011 Action Plan says…

What has happened?

4.1 Improve mentoring and induction. See §3 above. The Peer Observation of Teaching Scheme was discontinued in 2012 in favour of staff development via small group meetings about topics like innovative teaching. This in turn was replaced by staff development seminars each term on topics like peer assisted learning and development, grant applications and developments in the A Level mathematics syllabus. An induction process both for research-and-teaching and for teaching-only staff is in place.

4.2 Extend support and training structures to provide more teaching opportunities for postdocs.

Several postdocs are running the new 2nd

year tutorials established in 2013. (Arrangements are still a bit ad hoc as the School currently cannot pay postdocs extra for teaching.)

4.3 Establish a research-staff forum. See §3 above.

4.4 Advertise more strongly the services of the Central Career Development Unit.

In 2011, the School became one of six schools at UoN to pilot a new careers initiative and signed an Employability Partnership Agreement with the University's Careers and Employability Services (CES, formerly Central Career Development). Since 2013, CES has a weekly hour-long pop-up stand in the Maths Building atrium, to raise awareness of their services and give students the opportunity to get career advice and input on their CV writing without a formal appointment. This comes after successfully trialling the idea of pop-up stands several times in the previous autumn. The School has a Moodle page for students on careers, where opportunities like careers fairs are highlighted and occasionally also jobs advertised. Additionally, this information will be emailed to students by the School’s Careers Advisor. A minimum of three maths-specific career talks/events take place throughout the year. Penultimate and final year students will get invited via email, by their tutors and through shout-outs in lectures by staff. Consequently, attendance in careers talks for penultimate and final year students rose by 300% over the last three years. The Careers Advisor also keeps advertising the range of services offered by the University's Careers and Employability Services when talking to students who look for advice on careers or CV writing. Both staff and PGR students are aware of Professional Development services available to them, as is made clear by the last survey results in 2012 and 2013.

Also relevant here, building on things already in place in 2011: The grant mentoring scheme is well-used and is now run by the Research Facilitator. He arranges grant mentors (often one from the same research group and another independent mentor for bigger grants) to give advice and help polish grant applications. He also handles financial and technical aspects of applications. Drafts are then passed to Director of Research and HoS for further comments, and the process iterates. New study leave/sabbatical scheme.

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5. Culture, communications and departmental organisation

The 2011 Action Plan says…

What has happened?

5.1 Athena SWAN Group to meet once per semester, to give reports/updates on actions and initiatives, and to produce an annual report.

There were several confounding factors which impeded the report of regular progress for the ASG in 2011 and 2012: the Chair of the ASG left in 2011; there was lack of a handover period to brief the new Chair; and the new Chair had some health problems in 2012. The ASG was reconstituted in September 2013 including some new members and met six times before the submission. It reported progress to all School meetings (October 2013, March 2014) during that period. The Chair of the ASG 2011-2013 made substantial contributions to outreach, mentioned throughout the document. Not all ASG activities/meetings were formally recorded after the last submission in 2011. In spite of these issues, there was still good progress in implementing the action plan, which shows commitment from other staff members.

5.2 Improve awareness of Equality and Diversity issues. Increase uptake of Equality and Diversity training to 100% across the School. Review annually.

All staff is encouraged to undergo an online equality and diversity training module set up by the University. The most recent email asking staff to do this was sent in January 2014. Uptake appears to have been lower than desired, but it is not clear how often one has to do/repeat the training and most staff completed it already several years ago. The School and Professional Development are doing targeted follow-up on non-completers. In March 2014, the School hosted a “Women and Men: HE careers in Mathematics” workshop with panel discussion.

5.3 Ensure gender balance on committees and in processes. Executive Group to review annually.

There are three female members of staff on the Athena SWAN Group, and one on the Research Board. The chair of the Athena SWAN group is also on the University's WinSET committee. Roles and committee memberships are first drafted by HoS, then reviewed by the Executive Group. Gender balance is considered informally, but this is difficult due to small number of female staff, as mentioned in the main document. Although advertisements for research and teaching posts now contain a different wording encouraging female applicants, this did not bring any significant or measurable change in the level of women applying nor being appointed. The School now emphasises its family friendly work environment and points out that UoN holds the Athena SWAN Silver award.

5.4 Improve transparency in workload allocations. There was a web-based system showing the allocation of work in place for staff to access 2011-2012. In Autumn 2012, a working group was formed to develop a new points-based Workload Model which aims to give a fairer reflection in broad terms of the work conducted by academic staff involved with R&T in the School. This improved web-based workload model is trialled in 2013/14, and is designed to improve workload distribution, transparency and fairness. It contains both tariffed and non-tariffed activities, where the non-tariffed activities are largely self-

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directed. The tariffs provide a useful comparator for the potentially flexible contributions of the different roles and activities of research and teaching staff in the School. Pastoral and administrative responsibilities (e.g., chairing the Athena SWAN committee, being Tutor to Women) are taken into account as tariffed activities. All information on workload allocations is accessible to all staff.

5.5 Increase number of female reps at UG and PG Learning Community Forums.

There has been a sustained increase and there is now a female majority on the UG Learning Community Forums (8 female and 4 male in 2013/14, 9 female and 8 male in 2012/13, and 6 female and 7 male in 2011/12). Out of 5 student representatives in the Postgraduate Learning Community Forum, 2 were female in 2013/14 and 3 female in 2012/13, a huge improvement from no females in 2011/12. Reps are elected by the students after volunteers are sought from different courses. There are thus currently 10 female members on the Community Forums.

5.6 Further improve social activities in the School (inc. summer BBQ).

In addition to research group-specific events (such as Computational Neuroscience Group, which holds frequent journal clubs and social activities), the Research Facilitator organizes regular off-campus social events like mid-week dinners at restaurants or pubs downtown or close to campus. The School hosts an annual well-attended Christmas lunch. Women’s lunches take place each Monday in term time, since 2012. There were welcome drinks for new staff and PGRs in Oct 2013 (organised by PGRs) and a BBQ for first year students and staff in autumn 2013.The Common Room in the new building is a valuable social space for all staff and students.

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6. Career breaks and flexible working

The 2011 Action Plan says…

What has happened?

6.1 Ensure awareness of University and School policies. Improve documentation of School policy, especially in regard to return-to-work arrangements.

School policy is well documented and can be found in the Staff Handbook. A recent staff survey found that staff are well aware of the policies and where to find them. Policies on career breaks and flexible working are at University level. The School developed separate written policies for staff returning from maternity leave (no Research and Teaching staff member has been on maternity leave for last 8 years), for paternity leave of PGR students (an additional 2 weeks on top of annual leave) and for maternity leave for School-funded PGRs in 2013 (two additional months paid by School on top of the four paid by UoN, further six additional months unpaid), see main submission document. The Study Leave scheme is running since 2013; staff are invited to apply each autumn. All policies can be found in Staff Handbook and PGR Handbook.

6.2 Advertise career success stories to heighten awareness of the School’s supportive environment.

Career success stories are advertised as news items on the School's homepage, regularly featuring female staff; female mathematicians are featured in School and PG Newsletters; female staff profiled in PG Newsletter and 2011 WinSET brochure; in videos and media coverage.