RCSI has welcomed the recommendations made in the Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Task Force Report, published today by Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD.

The Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Task Force Report outlines a comprehensive strategic approach to bringing about organisational change and empowering a culture of gender equality in higher education for all staff – academic, professional, management and support staff – at all levels.

RCSI provided a submission to the Task Force Report in January 2018 including recruitment and promotions data over a ten-year period. RCSI also engaged with the Task Force Members at the consultation process held in February 2018. RCSI established a dedicated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Office in July 2017 and achieved the Athena SWAN institutional award in October 2018.

Underlining RCSI’s ongoing commitment to gender equality, RCSI CEO/Registrar Cathal Kelly commented: “We applaud Minister Mitchell O'Connor’s steadfast commitment to gender equality in the higher education and look forward to engaging with the Department of Education and Skills and the Higher Education Authority to implement the important recommendations of the Task Force.

“We will continue to work to embed gender equality across RCSI through our 2018-2022 strategic plan and through our gender equality action plan. We are very proud to have achieved the Athena SWAN Bronze Award last month, in recognition of our genuine commitment to gender equality at RCSI and we now look forward to the unveiling next March of eight portraits of women leaders in medicine, commissioned for Women on Walls at RCSI in partnership with Accenture.”

RCSI is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. It is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. RCSI is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.