The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus launched Gender Equality in Nottingham (GEN), a University-wide event which advocates gender equality through a talk session titled, “Inspiration towards the Journey of Becoming the Best” on 8 March 2017. The event was held as a culmination of the International Women’s Day Celebration at UNMC. Formerly known as Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WinSET), GEN was renamed to ensure inclusiveness and equality for both genders.
The day-long event held at the University had strong support from the senior management and featured speakers from all members of its management board team, namely CEO and Provost Professor Graham Kendall, Vice Provost (Teaching & Learning) Professor Fon Sim Ong, Vice Provost (Research & Knowledge Exchange) Professor Claire O’Malley, Faculty of Science Dean Professor Andrew Morris, Faculty of Engineering Dean Professor Andy Chan and Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Dean Professor Lee Chew Ging.
According to UNMC CEO and Provost Professor Graham Kendall: “Equality and inclusiveness is at the heart of what we do. We are doing our utmost to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity in every aspect of our operation, be that academic or professional services.
“Many of our colleagues are involved in advocating inclusive education, gender equality and promoting the science and engineering disciplines to both women and men as exciting career options, as well as increasingly looking at the social sciences and also focusing on those subjects as well.”
GEN Chair Professor Sandy Loh said: “I believe the new branding of GEN would increase the numbers of members who are interested to join us.
Together, let us work for gender equality and develop a feminist-friendly environment for our staff members and students to excel in their career and studies. Gender equality would guarantee a progressive future to all of us in higher education.”
The plenary talk was presented by The University of Nottingham Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange Professor Dame Jessica Corner. Professor Dame Corner has more than 30 years’ experience in higher education and has been active in cancer research. She holds key roles in the UK: Chair of the Council of Deans of Health and Chair of HEFCE Health Education Advisory Committee. She was awarded a DBE in 2014 for services to Health Care Research and Education and elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015.
The event also witnessed the presentation of Mentor-Mentee, a programme run by WINSET/GEN to help academic staff achieve more opportunities for career advancement. This pioneer batch completed the training in December last year.
GMP GEN Mentoring contributes to the development of their mentees’ research, teaching and soft skills, particularly with respect to career satisfaction, career management and collegial networking. At the end of the programme, an award for excellence in mentoring was presented as an acknowledgement of outstanding achievement.
UNMC’s gender equality initiatives bore fruit when in 2014, the Faculty of Science become the first international holder of an Athena Swan Award from the UK’s Equality Challenge Unit (ECU). The awards recognise commitment to advancing women's careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) in higher education and research.
“Our Faculty of Science has already been recognised for their efforts through an ATHENA Swan Award. We are very proud to have achieved this significant milestone and we are using it is a platform for many of our other initiatives.” Professor Kendall said.
“This event serves as a reminder to the Nottingham community that gender equality is important. We are supportive of the efforts of GEN and we wish them every success in their endeavours.”
UNMC GEN committee consist of the Chair, Professor Sandy Loh Hwei San, Vice Chairs Dr Geetha Baskaran and Dr Lau Phei Li, Communications Officer Dr Show Pau Loke, External Relations Liaison Officer Dr Lim Siew Shee, University Advisor Professor Graham Kendall and Faculty Advisors Professor Andrew Morris, Professor Andy Chan Tak Yee and Professor Lee Chew Ging.
(Article image caption: Professor Dame Jessica Corner and Professor Graham Kendall)
(Thumbnail image caption: Professor Corner's presentation on a reenacted washing line)
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More information is available from Professor Sandy Loh on sandy.loh@nottingham.edu.my or Josephine Dionisappu, PR & Communications Manager on +6 (03) 8924 8746, josephine.dionisappu@nottingham.edu.my.
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2015. More than 97% of research at The University of Nottingham is recognised internationally and it is 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future.
Posted on 16th March 2017