Completing the full suite of five Cygnet Awards now positions UNSW to pursue a SAGE Athena Swan Silver accreditation, reflecting the University’s ongoing commitment to gender equity and an inclusive culture.
UNSW Sydney has received our fifth and final SAGE (Science in Australia Gender Equity) Athena Swan Cygnet Award – this time in the Workplace Culture category. The University is now eligible to apply for the prestigious Silver accreditation, targeting a submission in September 2025.
“Achieving this fifth Cygnet Award demonstrates the collective and collaborative efforts that have been made across the whole of UNSW to improve our workplace culture,” said Scientia Professor Fiona Stapleton, Academic Lead for UNSW’s SAGE Athena Swan Program.
“With the full set of Cygnet Awards, I am delighted that UNSW has been recognised for our progress across all five key areas – from academia to student STEMM pathways, to evolving a flexible, inclusive and equitable learning and workplace culture that underpins all that we do.”
The SAGE Athena Swan program is an internationally recognised framework for embedding sustainable gender equity, diversity and inclusion across the Australian higher education and research sector. UNSW is one of more than 40 Australian institutions participating in this accreditation pathway, which began for UNSW with a Bronze Award in 2018. As part of the pathway towards Silver accreditation, SAGE awards interim Cygnet awards to recognise progress in specific areas of equity.
The Athena Swan Action Plan 2018–2022 guided UNSW’s path to address barriers to gender equity and to foster an inclusive culture. Building on that, the University’s Gender Equity Strategy 2024–2028 reinforces a broader, longer term commitment to gender equity across facets of the University’s operations. The latest achievement — the Workplace Culture Cygnet Award — underscores UNSW’s progress in cultivating a flexible, equitable environment where students and staff can thrive.
This recognition celebrates UNSW’s progress as well as positioning the University as a leader in gender equity within the higher education sector. As we now set our sights on Silver accreditation, our focus remains on sustaining and building on these initiatives to ensure lasting, meaningful change.
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