Gender

University site visits

Good Practice in University Physics Departments Site Visit Scheme

A new scheme has now been set up.  The visit explores a department’s good practice policies and processes and to get a feel for the impact they have made on individuals’ enjoyment of their careers in academic science.

An essential precursor to a visit is the completion, and return of the Athena Partnership Good Practice Checklist. The visiting team will want to explore how well the examples of good practice identified by the check list are implemented at different career stages and, in particular, with post doctoral researchers.

The IOP analyse the completed check list and follow it up in a pre-arranged phone call with the head/deputy head of department (duration around 40 minutes) . The phone call should be at least ten days before the visit date. The call allows any specific issues to be discussed in advance, and will help the IOP to identify specific topics on which to focus during the visit.

During the visit the team hold a series of discussion sessions, starting and finishing with the head of department. Unless numbers are small, staff are seen in grade groups (Professors, Readers with Senior Lecturers, and Lecturers) except to post docs where males and females are seen separately. The discussion sessions usually range around the theme of whether the department is a good place to work, in particular:

• Appointment, promotion, appraisal, training and development;
• How staff contributions are supported, encouraged, valued and recognised;
• The allocation and rotation of responsibilities and resources;
• Departmental communications, committees and decision making.

For post docs there is a particular emphasis on:

• Departmental induction, mentoring and networking;
• Appraisal, frequency and usefulness;
• Their involvement in the academic life of department;
• How they view themselves/are viewed – staff, students, lab rats;
• What career advice/ development opportunities are there/do they take up;
• The support /encouragement to raise their profiles internally /externally;
• Their interest in continuing in an academic /research career.

For more information, use the links on the right hand side to down load a briefing sheet, the Good Practice Checklist and a sample visit timetable.

Women in University Physics Departments: A Site Visit Scheme 2003-2005

The Women in University Physics Departments site visit scheme was set up by the Institute of Physics in 2003 and ran until 2005. The idea of the scheme was to allow an external panel of visitors to spend a day in the department to investigate its “gender friendliness”- that is, how welcoming it was to female students and staff.

The Institute contacted every physics department in the UK and Ireland, and 40% of these requested a visit. The visiting panel spent a day in the department looking round, and talking to both staff and students. Each visit was followed up with a confidential written report sent to the head of department highlighting good practice, as well as areas that were not so satisfactory – this in no way constituted a formal audit, but was instead seen as giving friendly advice to the head of department. The individual reports form the basis of an overall report on the scheme, which highlights issues and recommends good practice, without identifying any particular institutions.

If you have any comments or queries, or if you require hard copies of the report, please contact the Diversity Team

^ To the top ^