Athena Swan Award

J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics at NUI Galway is delighted to have been awarded the Athena SWAN Bronze Award in Sep 2020.  We are very pleased that ours represents the first application from a non-STEMM school in NUI Galway. Congratulations to all our wonderful staff and students on such a fabulous achievement.

This award follows an assessment by Advance HE and recognises our progress on, and our commitment to, gender equality, inclusivity, and diversity and for providing opportunities for all staff and students, in a supportive environment. This Award has helped us improve our culture, our environment for research and teaching, scholarship and learning, student diversity, curriculum development around the UN Sustainable Development Goals, recruitment, retention and promotion of female colleagues. Reviewing, questioning and establishing good working practices around recruitment, induction, representation, staff training and development, progression, leave and flexible working are all part of an Athena SWAN submission.

It is a key part of the School’s, and indeed the University’s, strategy to embed equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. Professor Anne Scott, Vice-President for Equality and Diversity, said; “In NUI Galway we are working at institutional, college and school levels to ensure that our knowledge of these principles informs our policies and practices through instruments such as the Gender Equality Action Plan and our Equality Impact Assessment tool. Achieving Athena SWAN accreditation (bronze, silver or gold) is an important symbol of our commitment at institutional and college/school levels to increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in our culture and work environment.

“As we prepare our institutional application for reaccreditation in April 2021 the heartening news of the achievement of an Athena SWAN Bronze award for SBE over the summer, the first AHSSL School to achieve this in NUI Galway, is exactly the good news we need to help colleagues redouble efforts and strive to be the best we can as a community in the EDI arena! Well done SBE!”

We established a team with 20+members that meet regularly to guide action within the School, including representation from both academic and professional service staff. This collective effort demonstrates the commitment to make positive cultural changes for all members of staff and students and represents a key milestone for us at an important stage in the University’s commitment to further gender equality in the policies and practices across our School and within our College and University community.

Head of School Dr Tom Acton said “Our Athena SWAN team worked extremely hard on the submission but I would particularly like to mention the team’s joint chairs, Dr Shivaun Quinlivan and Prof Willie Golden, for their enthusiasm and leadership on this task.”

This award recognises the School’s commitment to implementing a four-year action plan to ensure an inclusive culture where all staff and students feel valued, welcome, supported and integrated, and have equal access to opportunities. After two years of data gathering, gap analysis and self-assessment we look forward to implementing the changes that working towards the Athena Swan award has highlighted to us.

We join a small yet prestigious group as only a select group of other University Business Schools have achieved an Athena SWAN Bronze award.

Learn more about Equality & Diversity at

NUI Galway