Collaboration with
Edinburgh University Women in STEM
Spread the Word‘s founder, Dr Athina Frantzana, and the Edinburgh University Women in STEM (EUWiSTEM) Society conducted an investigation into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students’ experiences of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the University of Edinburgh.
The aim of this work was to explore students’ awareness and knowledge of EDI issues in STEM and how the university is tackling these problems. We measured the effectiveness of the EUWiSTEM Mentoring Scheme, and other interventions of our pilot program, such as workshops and events, and what practices the university has in place to assist students belonging to minority groups.
We produced a report that describes our methodology, explains the findings from our research and evaluation of our program, outlines our recommendations needed for the University of Edinburgh to tackle EDI problems within the institution and better support students, and the next steps for Spread the Word and EUWiSTEM towards this goal. The extended version includes all the responses of the participants to important open-ended questions.
Panelists: Karen Halliday (Dean for Systematic Inclusion, College of Science and Engineering) Jean O’Donoghue (Chair of Diversity and Inclusion, School of Chemistry) Rodaidh Mclaughlin (EDI Co-coordinator, S`chool of GeoSciences) Simon Kelly (School Head, School of GeoSciences) David Ingram (Director of Diversity and Inclusion, School of Engineering) Victoria Martin (Director of EDI, School of Physics and Astronomy) Iain Gordon (School Head, School of Mathematics) Sinead Collins (Director of EDI, School of Biological Sciences)
If you are interested in supporting our work or you have any questions about this report and/or our EDI program, please get in touch at hello@spreadthewordstem.co.uk.
“Dr Frantzana has a great passion for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion which shows through her enthusiasm for her work.
Sarah Lappin, President of EUWiSTEM 2020/21
For the past two years, Athina has supported us through every step of the process to set-up and coordinate the EUWiSTEM mentoring scheme, helping us to understand what makes a mentoring scheme effective and providing training to all our participants.
We have also worked with Dr Frantzana to host a series of EDI workshops for students. Athina is well organised and every one of her workshops has been engaging and informative; students especially rave about the Imposter Syndrome workshop!”
Academic Year 2020-2021
Based on the positive response we received regarding the mentoring scheme and workshop series, and the demand for more workshops, we have expanded the mentoring scheme and the number of participants has already doubled, and we offer the workshops more times within each semester in order to reach more students, increase engagement and achieve maximum effect. The agenda below shows the available workshops to STEM UG and PG students of the University of Edinburgh for Semester 1 and Semester 2. All the workshops are designed and delivered by Dr Athina Frantzana (Spread the Word), and organised, hosted and sponsored by EUWiSTEM and CompSoc.
Academic Year 2021-2022
Academic Year 2022-2023
Spread the Word 