GENDER EQUALITY PLAN

We strive to ensure and promote gender equality

With its Gender Equality Plan, the University demonstrates its commitment to achieve gender equality at all levels

Frederick University is committed to ensure and promote gender equality to its community. The intersectional Gender Equality Plan (GEP) of Frederick University is a policy document covering the next four years (2021-2025) with which the University demonstrates its efforts, actions and projects to promote gender equality through institutional and cultural change.

Aligned with the Horizon Europe GEP requirements Frederick’s University intersectional GEP design and implementation follows the 4-mandatory process-related requirements:

a) be a public document

The commitment and support of the Council of the University is publicly available at the website of the university, signed by the President of the Council and is disseminated within the institution. The document demonstrates the commitment of the top management of the University, sets clear goals, actions and measures to achieve gender equality.

b) have dedicated resources

Frederick University has a designated Center on Gender Issues, Diversity and Equality - EnAF (Equality “n” Awareness @ Frederick), a dedicated Center on gender issues, diversity and equality. The name of the Center captures its primary goal and, at the same time, is a reference to the word ‘enough’. The Center functions as an advisory body to the Council, the Senate and the Administrations of the Schools and Departments for the promotion of equality and diversity in all levels of operation and in all the processes of academic life.

The committee aims at:

promoting gender issues, diversity and equality among the University community
incorporating gender equality into the University’s learning and teaching, research, operations and public engagement and activity
acting as an advisor to the University Council and Senate on policies, programmes and trainings related to diversity and equality on campus
raising awareness on relevant issues and implementing relevant campaigns and projects on and off campus

c) include arrangements for data collection and monitoring

Disaggregated data based on sex/gender are available by the various Services departments of the University. These data include number of students per school, number of staff per school, distribution of ranks by gender and other gender related indicators. The Center on Gender Issues, Diversity and Equality - EnAF, has in its duty to monitor and evaluate these indicators biannually. Using these data, the Center will inform the objectives and targets of the intersectional GEP of Frederick University and will also evaluate the GEP progress.

d) be supported by training and capacity-building

Frederick University is continuously providing training to its staff members through the Center on Gender Issues, Diversity and Equality - EnAF and the Personal and Professional Development Center. As an example, on the 13th of October 2021 the two centers co-organized an interactive training addressed to academic and administrative staff on “Unconscious Gender Bias”.

Recommended focus areas

In addition to the mandatory requirements, the EU Commission recommends also including more focus areas in the planning work.

Organisational culture and work-life balance

In 2015 Frederick University was certified by the Cyprus Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Insurance as an employer that implements Good Practices on Gender Equality in the Working Environment. The University participated in the project "Actions to Reduce the Remuneration Gap between Men and Women", which was evaluated by the Department of Labor Relations of the Ministry, and was one of the first organisations to be certified in 2015 as “A Good Practices for Gender Equality in the Work Environment Employer”.

In September 2023, the University once again applied to the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance to be certified as an equal opportunity employer. Within this framework a statement of commitment to promote equality was signed.

In 2020 Frederick University implemented the Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring (GEAM) Tool. A flexible questionnaire based on the Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET) and developed within the ACT-on-gender Project, where Frederick University participates as a member in two Communities of Practice (GEinCEE, STRATEGIES). GEAM survey allowed the assessment of the current situation and spotted the gaps on organisational culture and work-life balance in Frederick University.

Measures against gender-based violence (GBV) including sexual harassment

Frederick University is probably the most active University in Cyprus on issues related to gender-based violence. Throughout the years the university has addressed different key societal development trends in the area of gender-based-violence, such as #metoo, #blacklivesmatter, and #BringBackOurGirls. The award-winning campaign Dating Violence, which took place on-campus in 2014 and 2015, the campaign “It starts with ME, together WE can” of 2019, which it was launched in the framework of the international campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the “Show Red Card” campaign of 2021 are few examples of the campaigns of the university which aim to bring awareness to the staff members, students and the society at large on gender-based violence (GBV).

Also several seminars, public lectures, community events, conferences and workshops have been organized to raise awareness on human trafficking either on campus (Seminar on Gender Equality with a focus on Human Trafficking, trafficking workshops for students, screening) or online (webinar on human trafficking).

In addition, the Center on Gender Issues, Diversity and Equality - EnAF has developed a “Code of Conduct on Harassment and Sexual Harassment in the workplace” (ENG / GR), which serves as a guide for all members of the University community and outlines the procedures that are to be followed in case of harassment and sexual harassment.

The Center on Gender Issues, Diversity and Equality - EnAF is currently developing a “Code of Conduct on Language Use”, which will promote the use of gender-sensitive language and reduce gender stereotyping and discrimination during lecturing and communicating. In addition, the university aims to integrate the gender dimension into research via the implementation of supportive schemes and grant applications in a way that will support awards of equal men/women ratio.

Gender balance in leadership and decision-making

For the 2021-2022 2019-20 academic year, Frederick University has 50% women representation in its Council and 50% of the top management positions are held by women. In academic management, 39% of chaired positions (Rector, Vice-Rectors, Deans, Presidents) are held by women. The university acknowledges that has a low percentage in women representation in Professorships and this has been set as a key gap to address.

Gender equality in recruitment and career progression

Frederick University has committed to improve gender equality in recruitment and career progression, and has recently launched a training on unconscious gender bias targeting both academic and administrative personnel to ensure inclusive and equal recruitment and selection.

The gender pay gap is both associated with gender balance in leadership and decision-making and also with career progression. The university committed to eliminating gender pay gap, adopts a policy goal of having a minimum of 30% representation of women in all top governing bodies. The university aims also to have the gender pay gap less than 5% in all posts and considers any such gaps when applying salary increases. In relation to gender pay gap tracking, the university has a positive record in gender gap in management (9% higher for women). For administrative staff the gender pay gap is negligible. For academics, the gender pay gap is 4%. Although the gap is considered acceptable, it arises due to the lack of female academics at the rank of Professor. Analysis of salaries by rank shows that gender pay gap is <2%.

Frederick University is also bound by the Gender Equality Plans of the EU-CONEXUS, a European Universities Alliance to which it participates as a full member.