Self-Assessment team

Having an effective self-assessment team will be key to the success of an application to ECU’s Athena SWAN Charter. The submission will require significant reflective analysis, which should be driven as far as possible by the full team (rather than it being reliant on a few or single individuals).

A self-assessment team can be a committee in its own right or it can operate under the umbrella of another group. This umbrella group must also follow the Athena SWAN self-assessment process.

Representation

It is likely that for an institution application the team will include at least one representative from each of the institution’s faculties. You will want each of the main areas of your institution to be represented while maintaining a manageable group size.

The team should comprise a mixture of grades and roles representing different stages of the career ladder (particularly at the early and mid-career stages).

It may be appropriate to consider having a more complex structure to ensure adequate representation, such as a smaller central group and larger working group.

For departmental applications the self-assessment team should be representative of the staff in the department, and should usually include student representation.

Meetings

The self-assessment team must meet at least three times a year.

Shared responsibility

It is unlikely that any one individual will be responsible for completing or working on the whole application. Your final submission should be the result of intensive group work and collaboration across the self-assessment team and the institution or department.

Data considerations

The self-assessment team needs to decide the clearest way of presenting data in the narrative to allow the awards panel the maximum insight into the issues affecting the department or institution.