Pictured from left to right, going from the front row to the back row: Maureen Brogan, Director of HR, Ibec, and member of NCI Governing Body; Professor Gina Quin, President of NCI; Professor Jimmy Hill, Vice President of NCI; Caroline Dolan, HR Operations Manager, NCI; Deirdre McCarthy, EDI & Training Manager, NCI; Teresa Murray, Head of Communications, NCI; Faith Wainaina, NCISU Vice President for Academic Affairs; Dr Cristina Hava Muntean, Vice Dean of NCI’s School of Computing; David Ochieng, Grant Finance Officer NCI/ELI.
National College of Ireland recommits to our Athena Swan Charter as we celebrate the renewal of our Bronze Award. On Tuesday, November 19th, 2024, NCI President, Professor Gina Quin signed the Athena Swan charter for our Bronze Award renewal.
In the weeks approaching the national celebration of Athena Swan awardees, we looked back on a variety of initiatives and milestones that marked our journey between our first bronze award and our renewal this year. NCI’s commitment to the Athena Swan charter aligns with our 5-year strategy and positively impacts staff and students. The strong working relationship between NCISU and College management leads to initiatives like Brigit’s Basket.
Brigit's Basket is a joint initiative at National College of Ireland, where NCI Students' Union and college management have collaborated to make period products available for free to staff and students. Our Brigit’s Basket initiative also aims to educate everyone in the College about menstruation while also protecting the dignity and wellbeing of those who will need these free period products.
When we think about ensuring that everyone’s dignity and wellbeing is protected, naturally, we think about diversity. Diversity makes NCI stronger, bringing multiple perspectives to learning and decision-making. Consciously recognising race inequality in Higher Education allows us to actively tackle racism. In September of 2022, National College of Ireland signed the Higher Education Authority Principles of Anti-Racism for Higher Education Institutes, endorsing the six Principles of Anti-Racism for Irish HEIs.
Taking practical steps to developing our understanding of race inequality, to be able to see and tackle racism, is one of many campaigns and initiatives that the College is committing to, to ensure that we are continuously creating and maintaining an environment that is warm, inclusive and, most importantly, safe for all students and all staff members. Another conversation that is active at NCI is about the importance of educating everyone about consent. Our very popular Valentine’s Consent campaign, alongside our most recent act of placing Active*Consent posters, in many different languages, around the campus, including in the bathrooms, are part of our ongoing collaboration with Active*Consent. NCI’s translations into Portuguese (Brazil), Ukrainian and Hindi are now available to all other HEIs in Ireland, who participate in Active*Consent training.
In March of 2022, National College of Ireland published the NCI Framework for Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment. These consent campaigns are part of NCI’s joint efforts with NCISU to implement the framework.
Ensuring that all students and all staff members have the range of supports they need in many different areas of their studies and/or personal lives is something that we are passionate about at National College of Ireland, which is why we were so thrilled and proud to renew our AsIAm Autism Friendly Campus Award in October 2024.
NCI was first accredited as an Autism Friendly Higher Education Institution by AsIAm in 2021, being the second HEI in the world to achieve this award. To see the range of support services offered at National College of Ireland, visit our How Can We Help page, and learn more about NCI’s bespoke Sensory Room, our Disability Support Service, our Careers Support service, and our Sensory Alerts. NCI is also committed to the 9 Key Principles of Autism Inclusion across all areas of college life.
National College of Ireland attending the National Celebration of Athena Swan awardees at Trintiy College Dublin:
Some members of NCI’s Athena Swan team had the pleasure of attending the National Celebration of Athena Swan awardees at Trinity College Dublin this week on Tuesday, November 19th, 2024.
Pictured from left to right: NCISU Vice President, Jordan Buckley and NCI Vice President, Professor Jimmy Hill, celebrated International Men’s Day 2024 as part of the team attending the HE Advance’s National Athena Swan Awards.
At this event, Deirdre McCarthy, NCI’s Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Training Manager, was given the opportunity to present about our Early Learning Initiative Action. This piece of action research, involving ELI’s Community Home Visitors, was chosen because it is an area unique to National College of Ireland, one that offers us the opportunity to address the equality issue of class that is often overlooked or ignored because, as yet, class (or one's socio-economic status) is not enshrined in Irish equality legislation as grounds for protection against discrimination.
“NCI is delighted to have renewed our Athena Swan bronze award, we value the enrichment that comes from our diverse community of students and staff, and we continue to be committed to preventing the opportunity for poor practice, discrimination and exclusion in our community.” ~ Deirdre McCarthy, NCI’s Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Training Manager.
"At National College of Ireland, we are delighted to celebrate our Athena Swan Bronze Award renewal. We are immensely proud of the initiatives undertaken to ensure that the College is a safe, inclusive, progressive environment where all students, all staff, and all visitors to our Campus feel that they can thrive, academically, professionally, and personally. We look forward to our next Athena Swan Action Plan and making even more progress on our equality, diversity, and inclusion journey. " ~ NCI President, Professor Gina Quin.
#ChangingLivesThroughEducation