Founding values and early commitment
University College London (UCL) is a large research-intensive multidisciplinary university, consistently highly ranked in the world’s top 10 universities. We celebrate 200 years in 2026, and our founding values, openness, equality and humanity, remain foundational. We were London’s first university, and the first in England to admit students of all faiths or none, admit women on equal terms with men, and to establish a students’ union. In line with these values, UCL was a founding member of the Athena SWAN Charter in 2005. UCL received its first institutional Athena Swan award in 2006 (Bronze), progressing to Silver in 2015. Its sixth application will be in 2026, with an ambition to achieve Gold.
UCL works hard to progress equality, diversity and inclusion, including increasing our resourcing of EDI. From one Director of EDI, we now have a central team of 16 working out of the Office of the President and Provost, 11 Vice-Deans of EDI in each of our faculties, and an academic Pro-Provost (Equity and Inclusion).
Building EDI infrastructure
Our central EDI team structure is now designed to provide more support to faculties and Professional areas for Athena Swan. We also have several faculty-based EDI roles, the majority of which began as support for faculty and departmental-level Athena Swan activity before being expanded to cover a range of EDI work within faculties.
UCL has four Equality Steering groups (gender, race, LGBTQ+, and disability) and numerous networks, including a newly established EDI community of practice, which currently has over 800 members. EDI is central to our institutional strategy and our culture.
Transforming academic careers and leadership
Through our Athena Swan action plans, we have achieved several notable successes. In 2017-18 we launched a new Academic Promotions framework that resulted in a doubling of women promoted to Professor, and brought our proportion of female professors to over 35% with a 94% success rate for all female applicants. This framework is being reviewed in 2026 to ensure it remains fair. Institutionally, we remember appointing the first female heads of departments in some faculties, and increasing gender balance in senior staff (44% of staff at grades 9&10 in 2024) and on senior committees.
We allocated resources to prevent bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct through our Full Stop campaigns, which have tripled reporting rates over the last six years. In 2020 we launched the Equity and Inclusion-focused UCL COVID-19 Career Support Scheme to mitigate the gendered impacts of Covid-19 on staff career.
UCL has also allocated resources to support the career progression and development of staff at UCL through 10 annual leadership programmes. Women represent over 65% of participants in our leadership programmes, including 51% of participants in the University Leaders programmes aimed at senior staff in grades 9 and 10. Our gender-positive action schemes, Women in Leadership and Senior Women in Leadership programmes, have supported over 362 women professionals and academics over the last three years to lead intentionally and progress within a complex institution like UCL.
An intersectional approach to equality
UCL received its first Athena Swan Silver Award in 2015. In line with the evolution of the Athena Swan Charter, which requires institutions and departments to examine intersectional inequalities, and our engagement with the Race Equality Charter since 2015, we have committed to addressing gender inequality at UCL through a firmly intersectional lens.
Gender equality has been embedded in our race equality action plans as well as our institutional EDI strategy and the action plans for LGBTQ+ and disability. Over the last two years, we have transformed our EDI governance structure and self-assessment process through the creation of the Equality Monitoring and Advancement Group, prioritising the strategic alignment of our equality work across all strands.
Alongside our own journey, we have supported others in their Athena Swan and gender equality journeys. From giving talks across the UK of our experiences to bringing an EDI lens and mid-term reviews of European universities, to supporting five Indian institutes in their applications to the Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions scheme (GATI) in 2021/2022, and invited commentaries (Five questions on improving diversity, equity and inclusion in UK bioscience research or “How can UK bioscience be changed so that those from marginalised groups can thrive?”).
Departmental innovation and impact
At UCL innovative good practice often arises at departmental level, which is fostered through the Athena Swan departmental scheme, and by active support of departments as they prepare submissions.
Departmentally, as well as a focus on improving the progress and promotion of women, we work hard at increasing the proportion of male students in female-dominated subjects. For example, as reported in their 2020 Gold application, the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health increased the number of males on postgraduate taught courses by introducing a MSc in Cell and Gene Therapy in 2014 as a basic science course, which consistently attracted a majority of males for the next five years.
The first Athena Swan departmental awards (STEM) were in 2009, the first in AHSSBL departments in 2015, and the first departmental Gold award (UCL MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology) in 2016. The number of departments engaging increases year on year and by June 2025 there are 53 departmental awards (25 (47%) Bronze, 21 (40%) Silver, 7 (13%) Golds). Three of our Golds are in our Engineering Sciences faculty.
UCL’s departmental Athena Swan scheme has been the catalyst for transformative EDI work across UCL. A number of departmental Athena Swan SATs have gone on to develop into departmental and faculty EDI committees leading on race, disability and LGBTQ+ equality as well as gender equality work. These very much mark a cultural change that embraces using a wider lens to tackle inequality locally and improves the experiences of all marginalised UCL staff and students. We look forward to one day being at Gold level across all departments.
The road to Gold
In 2025-26, UCL will launch its new five-year EDI strategic plan, and Athena Swan will feature as a key enabler of equality across all strands of the strategic plan.
As UCL embarks on our Gold journey, our priority is building on our successes over the last 20 years of Athena Swan work to address current and emerging barriers to gender and wider equality at UCL.
Sara Mole is a Professor and Chair of UCL’s Gender Equality Steering Group. She has engaged with Athena Swan since 2008, leading her department to Gold, and is Chair of Advance HE Athena Swan Governance Committee.
Kae Ohene-Yeboah is UCL’s Head of EDI Programmes and Charters. She is the institutional lead for Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter, working closely with key staff and students across the university to mainstream EDI and ensure transparent governance and accountability to our community.