A university pharmacy school has successfully renewed an award given for its achievements in addressing gender equality for another five years, it was announced earlier this month (December 5). 

De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester’s School of Pharmacy first achieved the Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2019 and in its five-year action plan, it had enabled greater career progression and improvement within 'academic citizenship', which it defines as the “non-teaching and research service and support activities academic staff members undertake”.

DMU’s Health and Sciences faculty Athena Swan lead Daniel Carter, said the next five-year action plan to run until 2029 will focus on academic citizenship as well as continuing “to tackle the issue of underrepresentation of women in senior roles”. 

Read more: Condoms, cannabis and chlamydia... life on a university campus pharmacy 

The DMU pharmacy school the first in its faculty to have the award renewed, and its head of pharmacy Ahmed Aboo said the award is a “significant milestone” and a “testament to the ongoing efforts and progress made by staff and students in fostering an equitable and supportive environment”.   

Carter said "I've had the pleasure of working with each school in the faculty to achieve an Athena Swan award and each time I'm struck by the sheer dedication demonstrated by all staff involved”. 

15% more women professors at DMU 

The Athena Swan Charter is used to “support and transform gender equality” in higher education by tackling inequalities among staff and students, as universities can apply for an award to recognise their efforts in achieving this. 

Awarded by the charity Advance HE, the award looks at areas such as “representation, progression, career journey, and the working environment”. 

Carter told C+D that DMU pharmacy school had created a “culture of gender equality” by introducing “an overarching school strategy to create and retain a diverse and motivated community of excellent teaching and research staff, and taken action to achieve more equitable promotions rounds by introducing support for staff aiming for promotion and seen this bear fruit” 

Read more: Pharmacist creates AI chatbot to help students with clinical exams 

“The school’s leadership team embodies gender diversity; the school’s Research Institute Director and Deputy Head of School are both women. Since introducing our Athena Swan action plan the school’s Professoriate gender imbalance has decreased. 

“The female professorial population went from 3 to 5, a mark of firm progress considering two female professors left the school in 2021/22.  Our professorial gender profile compares favorably to the sector benchmark for pharmacy and pharmacology staff where just 28% of professors are female compared with 43% in our school,” he said. 

Carter pointed towards the pharmacy school’s work on academic citizenship too, which is the “non-teaching and research service and support activities academic staff members undertake”. 

Read more: Trainee pharmacist wins award for mental health project 

A 2018 pharmacy school staff survey revealed academic citizenship was an issue, so the school’s leadership aimed to make it “integral to any academic role, enhancing career development rather than hindering it”. 

It has since been recognised as an essential part of academic promotions, job descriptions, and to be accounted for in staff workloads, and progress in this area will go further in the next five-year plan to supporting career progression for its staff. 

“The school will focus on increasing support for staff working part-time, staff with caring responsibilities and staff taking/returning from a period of extended leave, e.g., maternity and parental leave,” Carter said. 

Read more: New pharmacy school plans for 2026 launch 

“Through increased support from management and flexible approaches to teaching and research, we are working to create a culture where staff do not lose out when looking to progress their career because they have taken a period of leave, or because they have the important task of caring for children or elderly relatives for example. 

“An important step we are taking is increasing the leadership and developmental opportunities that will be made available to part-time staff and making sure support mechanisms are in place for these staff to take on such opportunities through mentorship, workload allocation, and local support from managers.” 

Education updates 

Last week, C+D reported that only 58% the 1,146 candidates who sat the November registration exam last month passed, with it being its joint-third lowest pass rate for the November exam sittings. 

And the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) last week announced that some proposed changes to its education and training “quality assurance process have now been approved”. 

Earlier this month, C+D reported the mother of a pharmacy student, who died by suicide after her university wrongly told her that she had failed her second year, is campaigning for universities to have a statutory duty of care to prevent more student deaths. 

Read more: ‘Our daughter would still be alive’: Campaign launched over MPharm suicide after wrong exam results 

The University of Suffolk announced last month its planning to launch a new pharmacy school for the 2026/27 academic year 

Bangor University announced in July plans to offer an “exciting and relevant” MPharm degree from 2025, with opportunities to practise in the Welsh language, and the University of Sheffield announced in September that it would open its new pharmacy school to students in September 2025. 

C+D reported in August the PhSC called for academic pharmacy to be “more attractive” so it can deal with an increase of 1500 pharmacy students by 2031, as work needs to be done to “address the current salary disparities between HEIs and the external workplace”.