Equality, Inclusion and Diversity

The School of Psychology has a commitment to the values of inclusion within all aspects of our activity. The School endeavours to actively promote equal practices and remove any barriers that may affect individuals or groups.

The Athena SWAN Charter is a recognition and award scheme for positive gender practice in Higher Education, administered by the UK’s Equality Challenge Unit (ECU). The Charter now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, not just the barriers to progression that affect women. The seven Irish Universities and stakeholders met first in October 2013 and now collaborate as the Athena SWAN Ireland Committee that made a joint proposal to the ECU for an extension of AS to the Irish HEI sector. Following the launch of Athena SWAN in Ireland, Trinity College was among the first tranche of Irish applicants as part of the April 2015 call for applications. Under this scheme the School of Psychology received the Athena SWAN Silver Award!

Since our last Athena Swan application, we have seen notable impacts in several key areas. Our EDI committee, founded in 2020, has become an integral part of our School’s structure, with the EDI Director now a member of the School Executive. The EDI committee now plays a key role in our School’s governance, helping to integrate equality, diversity, and inclusion into our culture. The EDI committee's efforts have led to significant changes, such as increasing the representation of women at senior levels. We have achieved gender parity in undergraduate degree results and nearly equal gender representation among PhD students and at the Assistant Professor level. Permanent contracts are now more balanced between male and female faculty. The EDI committee's work – including encouraging women to apply for promotions, hosting school-level promotion events, and sharing data and best practice, has helped achieve these positive changes. 

Looking ahead, our School has identified key priorities for future action, including the implementation of a workload allocation model, enhanced local collection of data on students and staff, a rebalancing of the gender ratio at the Professor In level through female Associate Professors applying for promotion, and a more equal gender balance in terms of Directorships. We remain committed to building upon our achievements and addressing any remaining priorities from our previous action plan, as we continue our journey towards creating a more equitable and inclusive environment.