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Press release: NOVA University Lisbon adopted its Gender Equality Plan 2021-2025

In September 2021, SPEAR partner Universidade NOVA de Lisboa approved its Gender Equality Plan (GEP) under the coordination of the NOVA Gender Working Group and the support of the University's top management and senior leadership.

While Portugal is still below the European average concerning GE issues (EIGE), Nova University Lisbon has emerged as the Portuguese institution with the best performance in «gender studies, gender equality policies and commitment to recruit and support women careers», the 15th best worldwide and 2nd best among young European universities (Times Higher Education Impact ranking 2021).

NOVA Gender Equality Plan implementation period is 2021-2025, during which the University will perform annual progress assessments and monitoring to identify needs and challenges and revise the document accordingly.

The GEP considers five strategic dimensions containing a total of 10 measures and 44 goals:

  1. Structural integration and policies: NOVA will create a Gender Equality/Equal Opportunity (GE/EO) office in charge of updating and rewriting mission statement and other strategic documents (e.g., Strategic Plan 2020-2030; GE/EO policy, Ethics code, etc.) with inclusive language; it will encourage the gender-equal composition of all institutional bodies and will ensure the full involvement and commitment of senior management to Gender Equality. Moreover, it will implement training and communication activities aiming at raising awareness on Gender Equality issues both in internal and external dissemination actions.
  2. Equal access to employment: NOVA will improve its Human Resources selection and recruitment processes, to ensure gender balance in the creation of University’s teams and will offer mentoring and empowerment courses to support career progression and share career development good practices
  3. Equality in the working conditions (equal treatment and protection against discrimination): the University will ensure that all members of its community are familiar with measures related to discrimination, including physical, psychological, or sexual harassment; it will highlight its commitment to equal opportunities and recognise the need to foster and promote a fair distribution of opportunities for development according to personal requirements.
  4. University as a place for work: Nova will implement measures to encourage good practices of work-life balance and ensure active institutional support of parental leave and family assistance
  5. Gender dimension on research and education: the University aims at strengthening and promoting a gender perspective in research processes and in teaching and educational content through training and the creation of GE-based clusters and clubs in all of NOVA academic units.

 

„The development of a Gender Equality/Equal Opportunities Plan is a very important step towards the implementation and monitoring of our pro-equality efforts and a clear message on how NOVA University stands concerning this very important topic.”

João Sàágua, Rector of NOVA University Lisbon

 

You can read the NOVA Gender Equality Plan here

For further information about the GEP contact nova.research@unl.pt