“Congratulations to The University of Nottingham in Malaysia Faculty of Science for becoming our first international holder of an ECU Athena SWAN award, to all our new award holders and to those successfully renewing or upgrading previous awards.” Sarah Dickinson, Athena SWAN charter manager at Equality Challenge Unit, said.

“I am delighted that the Equality Challenge Unit has recognised the achievement of the Faculty of Science at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus with a prestigious Athena SWAN Bronze Award.

It is a great honour and testament to our ongoing efforts to ensure the successful career development of all our staff, especially women, in STEMM disciplines,” said Professor Claire O’Malley, Dean of Faculty of Science at UNMC.

“Our submission for the Athena SWAN bronze award provided a great opportunity for understanding how we are currently performing in relation to gender equality, as well as for reflection on what further we can do as a Faculty to support women in science subjects. Being the first unit to receive this award outside the UK is a particularly special achievement,” said Dr Elizabeth Sheppard, Athena Committee chair for Faculty of Science and Associate Professor at the School of Psychology at UNMC.

On September 9, UNMC launched the first working group amongst Malaysia’s higher education institutions which promotes gender equality.  At the launch two new career development initiatives, the WinSET Mentoring Programme (WMP), and the WinSET Leadership Development Programme (WLDP) were unveiled by Yg. Bhg. Professor Dr Raha binti Abdul Rahim, Director of the Higher Education Excellence Planning Division, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

The Athena SWAN awards presentation ceremony will be held on 6 November 2014 at the University of Cambridge.

About Athena SWAN Charter

The Athena SWAN Charter is owned by the Equality Challenge Unit. It is funded by ECU, the Department of Health, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Royal Society, the Biochemical Society, the Scottish Funding Council and the Higher Education Authority Ireland.

The welcome speech was presented by Professor Chong Mei Fong, WinSET Chair, while opening speech was presented by Professor Christine Ennew, Provost and CEO (UNMC). A total of 11 posters were presented by staffs and students. The topics covered included how to develop your CV in the duration of your study, goal setting and what you can achieve in these coming three years. Keynote sessions were delivered by Y. Bhg. Prof. Dr. Adeeba Kamarul Zaman (Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya) and Ms. Sharifah Hendon Aljash bt. Salleh (Research and Quality Management, Head of Natural Wellness Biotech (M) Sdn Bhd. The role play session was delivered by Professor Christine Ennew and Dr. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz (Associate Professor, School of Geography, UMNC).  There is a panel discussion on women’s right, whereby the moderator is Professor Graham Kendall (Vice-Provost for Research & Knowledge Transfer, UNMC) and the six panel members included Professor Chong Mei Fong, Ms. Ivy Josiah (Executive Director of WAO), Ms. Ho Yok Lin (Executive Director of AWAM), Mr. Pragalath Kumar (Online Journalist, Malay Mail), Dr. June McCombie (School of Chemistry, the University of Nottingham UK campus) and Mr. Sanjiv Indran (Research Assistant, UNMC). The aims of the event were to encourage all gender to explore their leadership potential within academic life, or within an administrative career. It provides an important platform to meet people not just internally but also externally and internationally who are successful in their own way. 

The aim of the meeting was to address under-representation of women in boards and senior management positions by providing platform for businesses to explore ways of furthering the advancement of women.

The participants, which include UNMC staff, received useful insights on key success factors and common pitfalls or hurdles; learn about policies and issues concerning gender equality, as well as gather assistance and opportunities available from partnership or networking.