The School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queens is proud of its sustained commitment to gender equality across our entire community of staff and students.  The School’s engagement with the Athena SWAN Charter has resulted in three consecutive Silver awards recognising our achievements and progress in supporting and transforming gender equality in higher education.  Our approach is based on the recognition that to improve female representation in our School, a ‘pipeline’ approach is needed focusing on recruitment activities at all significant decision points along the educational pathway not just at the transition to third level education.

In 2023 Advance HE recognised this approach as good practice and invited the School to publish their work in the form of a case study outlining the approach and its subsequent outcomes.  In summary since 2010, the School has continuously increased female student numbers, consistently keeping our statistics above national averages at close to 20% female.  This was achieved through focussed engagement with primary and secondary schools enabling better-informed decisions around subject choices, broadening entry subject requirements to encourage more female applications and the introduction of new Masters programme aimed at attracting a broader range of female applicants to choose and continue STEM careers.  Significant outcomes included:

• Product Design Engineering reached near gender parity (45% female) in 2019/20 from 27% in 2015/16.
• In 2019/20, the student community was 18% female (from 11% in 2010)
• In 2019/20, the new undergraduate intake was 24% female.
• Female participation in our Foundation Degree Programme rose from 14% in 2015/16 to 26% in 2017/18.
• The number of female Masters students doubled from 2015/16 to 2019/20, representing an increase from 14% to 19%.

In 2025 Dr Joe Butterfield was invited to the ADVANCE HE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference to deliver a workshop covering our progress in Gender Equality were he was able to provide an update on developments after our successful growth in female student intake.  Our statistics showed that in 2023 female students were ranked 1, 2 and 3 in our graduating class for Aerospace Engineering.  The top five graduating students in our Product Design Engineering pathway were females and in the same year, three of the top five graduating Mechanical Engineers were female.  This shows a clear correlation between female successes and improved gender balance vindicating our approach to date and our continued commitment to the ATHENA SWAN Charter.

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You can visit Athena SWAN at SMAE for more information.

If you are interested in studying at our School though our undergraduate or post graduate pathways, please visit Queen's Coursefinder for UG, PG courses | Courses | Queen's University Belfast or contact us directly at: schooloffice.mae@qub.ac.uk