The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry is proud to hold Silver Athena SWAN Awards for both Medicine and Dentistry. Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) is a charter established 2005, that recognises and celebrates good practices in higher education and research institutions towards the advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all.
The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry is committed to the the Athena SWAN Principles. Further information can be found here on the Advance HE webpages.
Some examples of our initiatives are below:
We are delighted to announce that the School of Medicine and Dentistry has joined the BMA racial harassment charter for medical schools.
The charters sets out clear standards for medical schools, including support and training on how to respond when such behaviour is seen or experienced. As part of the charter, we will need to establish and implement an action plan, and this will be uploaded here when it is ready.
Barts and The London BMA Racial Harassment Charter [PDF 148KB]
Raising concerns during the clinical environment
We are ARSC (Anti-Racism Steering Committee): a student-staff collaboration to help actively address issues of race & racism within our curriculums. We want to represent all of BL SMD and currently have student & staff representatives for Medicine, Dentistry, Physician Associates and Global Health. We are working towards having representation from all courses and will be sending out application forms in the near future for unfilled positions.
We were set up following the recent unrest and Black Lives Matter protesting in the wake of the unlawful killing of George Floyd & many others, and increased awareness of systemic racism in our societies. In addition, much conversation has rightly centered the racial health disparities in mortality rates from COVID-19, further exposing the health, social and racial inequities that have been present for so long.
It has become clear that we can no longer stand and allow these and countless other issues to be side-lined; we need collaborative work to enact long-lasting change.
The steering committee is a student-staff collaborative initiative and currently includes students and staff from Medicine, Dentistry, Physician Associate, Malta and Allied Healthcare Courses.
Thaarabi Tharmapathy –BLSA BAME Student Representative and Student Lead
Yasmine Saima Jabbar – British Medical Association (BMA) Student Representative
Jed Ashman – Phase 1 Student Lead
Guilia Olayemi – Phase 1 Student Lead
Sally Mohammed – Phase 2 Student Lead
Christine Joerres – Phase 2 Student Lead
Halima Okewole – Phase 3 Student Lead
Rakin Choudhury – BLSA Alumni Rep / Phase 3 Student Lead
Ehsan Gauher – Gozo Society President (Malta)
Angie Anifalaje – Malta Student Representative
Milton Justinsuthakaran – Dental President
Mollie Cronin – Global Health Course Representative
Dr Riya George – Co-Chair of EDI SMD Committee
Dr Nimesh Patel – Head of Assessment
Dr Wendy Lowe – Senior Lecturer in Medical Education
Dr Lucy Carter – Physician Associate Lecturer
Dr Deepa Shah – Clinical Lecturer/ Co-lead on Yr 3 GP teaching, CBME
Dr Devina Raval – Senior Lecturer/Lead in Clinical Skills (London)
Ms Gina Baker – Academic and Wellbeing Support in Malta
Professor Mangala Patel – Professor of Bio Dental Materials
Dr Shahrar Ali – IHSE EDI Lead
Anti-Racism Committee Governance Structure [PDF 907KB]
Anti-Racism Medicine 2020 Survey Results [PDF 1,918KB]
Anti-Racism Physician Associate 2020 Survey report [PDF 871KB]
Anti-racism steering committee dictionary [PDF 530KB]
Anti-racism steering committee live resources document [DOC 40KB]
The experience of becoming a doctor/dentist for those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds can sometimes be challenging. It is a well-documented national finding that BAME medical and dental students under-perform in examinations compared to their White counterparts, what is not clear is why this might be? Reducing differential outcomes and improving the experience for BAME students is an institutional priority for many UK medical and dental schools.
The Westfield funded research project developed in collaboration with Medical and Dental Schools aims to understand and address these challenges. It describes the emergence of a collaborative interdisciplinary working group with faculties from the School of Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, Engagement, Retention and Success and Educational Development. A key component of the research is also working collaboratively with students to develop findings and instigate change.
The research team completed the medical and dental interviews and are in the process of analysing the quantitative and qualitative data. The collaborative team will complete the study in Autumn 2020.
Widening success [PDF 18,650KB]
Research team: Dr Riya George (Chair of the Differential Attainment Research Group), Professor Mangala Patel, Dr Aylin Baysan, Emma Kennedy, Harris Harris Nageswaran, Diego Bunge and Wafaa Muhiddin.