Equal Opportunities
Encourage diversity
An environment that is inclusive and attractive for all students and employees allows for a wider range of perspectives and talents within the University.
For the Faculty of Science and Technology the aim to promote and extend equal opportunities is a quality issue for the organisation. All employees and students should be treated with respect and given the opportunity to work and study on equal terms regardless of:
- sex
- transgender identity or expression
- ethnicity
- religion or other belief
- disability
- sexual orientation
- age
(The seven grounds of discrimination of the
Discrimination Act).
Committee for Equal Opportunities
The Faculty is responsible, through its Equal Opportunities Committee, for the coordination, support and follow-up of the Faculty’s work with equal opportunity issues. However, the main work takes place at department level and every department has a Equal Opportunities Representative and a working group.
The Faculty also has two Study counsellors with special responsibility for Equal Opportunities who are responsible for coordinating support for students with special needs.
Equality
A total of 39 % of the students and 36 % of the PhD students at the Faculty are women. However, the proportion of women among senior lecturers is only 27 % and among professors 24 %*. The Faculty´s Equal Opportunities Committee will therefore try to increase the number of women that continue their career within the academy. By supporting the women that are already working at the university the Faculty hopes to achieve this. A mentorship programme for young researchers in the beginning of an independent research career is therefore one of the measures in the Equal Opportunities Plan.
* The figures are for 2020.
More effective PhD programmes
To increase the diversity it is important to have a PhD programme that is equally inclusive and supportive for all students. A PhD supervision that creates an equal playing field for all the Faculty´s doctoral students is therefore one of the goals of the Faculty´s Equal Opportunities Plan.
One way to achieve this is through a collaboration with the international project FESTA - Female Empowerment in Science and Technology Academia (link to resge.eu). Two of their rapports in which the faculty has been involved are: