Dear colleagues,
As February draws to a close, I would like to look ahead to some significant events in March which underline our values and commitment to being a socially-progressive institution.
International Women’s Day takes place on 8 March and this year’s theme is #BreakTheBias which encourages us all to celebrate women’s achievements and to raise awareness against gender bias.
At Strathclyde, we understand the importance of supporting the success of women in the workforce and taking proactive steps to remove any bias they may face.
We pride ourselves on being inclusive and diverse and provide a range of people-oriented and socially-progressive policies to support women at Strathclyde.
Through initiatives such as family leave policies, a menopause policy, enhanced support for carers, the new Agile Working Toolkit, the Aurora leadership development programme and network, and Strathclyde Women’s Week (7-11 March), we strive to ensure that all staff are supported appropriately, are able to balance work and life commitments, and can achieve their full potential.
During Strathclyde Women’s Week, we will be running a number of sessions which I encourage you to sign up for. You can find out more about them on the Strathclyde Women’s Week SharePoint site. You will also find stories in Inside Strathclyde about some of our inspiring colleagues explaining what International Women’s Day means to them and how they have been supported at Strathclyde.
March will also see us celebrate our first-ever Sustainability Awareness Month, with a series of events organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development. These events will aim to raise awareness within Strathclyde, amongst our partners, and with the wider public of the range of activities taking place at our University that are helping to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to tackle the climate crisis.
Sustainability sits at the heart of our Strategic Vision 2025. It is embedded in our curricula, guides our campus development, inspires our research activity and informs our own carbon reduction and net zero targets. The Centre for Sustainable Development SharePoint site has all of the details on the events taking place.
I am also pleased to announce that the latest in the series of Principal’s Engagement Sessions will begin on March 17.
As before, I will be joined by members of my Executive Team and we will provide you with an update on how the University community has continued to deliver for our students and other stakeholders as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. We will also look at progress against our ambitious Vision 2025 Strategy.
There will be an opportunity for questions from colleagues to be taken. If you would like to submit a question for the panel in advance, please reply to this email with your question and we will seek to address these in the meetings. These are important sessions and I would encourage you to attend. You can see the available sessions and reserve your place using the links on our website.
The sessions are very valuable for me and other members of the Executive Team and they have played a key role in generating two-way feedback which has allowed us to continue to put our students and staff at the heart of everything we do.
As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, the publication this week of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework outlining the plan for learning to live with COVID-19 provides clarity on the future direction.
From 21 March, the Framework will see the removal of legally-imposed measures for mitigating COVID-19, such as the mandated wearing of face coverings. The University will continue to follow national guidance, and over the coming weeks we will provide more information on what the Framework means for Strathclyde.
Finally, congratulations to MEng Civil and Environmental Engineering alumnus Grant Hardie and his GB Men’s Curling teammates on their silver medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics – an outstanding achievement. It was also fantastic to see the women’s team claim GB’s only gold medal!
Thank you for your continued contributions and I hope you have a great weekend when it comes.
Best wishes,
Jim