Next week, on the 26th I’ll be welcoming a new group of staff to the University, talking about our mission and governance and people and diversity.
The following week on 10th October I’ll be speaking about The Perks of Working for a University as part of the ‘Empower yourself’ theme at the Scottish Women in Tech Conference in Glasgow.
It has to be said, working for universities generally include:
- generous annual leave allowance
- high quality pension schemes
- a bunch of family-friendly working policies
- staff discounts on a range of services
- on-campus nurseries
All of which are defended by your union.
And the lesser-recognised, but best perk of all, Eduroam! Free wifi in ( and near) university buildings, libraries, museums and hospitals all over the world.
To highlight the kinds of values the university has I may mention that:
The University of Edinburgh won the National Universities Human Resources Award for Excellence in Equality and Diversity in 2018 https://www.uhr.ac.uk/awards/awards-2018/.
The University of Edinburgh won the Wikimedia UK Partnership of the Year Award in 2018 for our work in contributing biographies and articles to raise the profile of role models of women in STEM https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/about/news/partnership-of-the-year-2018
Our Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Melissa Highton (me) is named as one of the EdTech50 in 2018 https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6798/1/edtech50-2018.pdf
The University of Edinburgh Staff Pride Network was awarded Stonewall Scotland Network of the Year in 2018. https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/news-events/news/staffpride-award
The University of Edinburgh is shortlisted in the Diversity Project of the Year category of the Computing Women in IT Excellence Awards 2018 http://events.computing.co.uk/womeninitawards/static/2018-shortlist
The University of Edinburgh is recognised for our commitment to promoting gender equality by attaining the prestigious Athena SWAN Silver Institution award, the first in Scotland to do so. https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/news-events/news/more-athena-awards
The University of Edinburgh case study was highlighted in the Equality Challenge Unit’s briefing on ‘Intersectional Approaches to Equality and Diversity. https://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/intersectional-approaches-equality-diversity/.
The University of Edinburgh was awarded the Scottish Union of Supported Employment (SUSE) Inclusive Workplace award in 2017 https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/about/news/inclusive-workplace-awardcommitted-to-supported
The University of Edinburgh is a sponsor of Girl Geek Scotland http://www.girlgeekscotland.com/
The University of Edinburgh recruits women into IT roles via Equate Scotland’s Women Returners programme https://equatescotland.org.uk/projects/women-returners/
The University of Edinburgh recruits women students into IT roles as summer interns providing paid work and industry experience and has won the Student Employer of the Year (SEOTY) award in 2018 https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/about/news/excellence-in-student-employment