Western Sydney University achieves prestigious SAGE Athena Swan Silver Award

Western Sydney University has been awarded a SAGE Athena Swan Silver Award, capping a ten-year journey with SAGE and recognising its action and progress in addressing barriers to gender equity, diversity and inclusion (GEDI) across the University.

The SAGE Athena Swan Silver Award is a prestigious, international accreditation that honours an organisation’s demonstrated commitment to driving gender equity progress through honest engagement and structural, systemic, evidence-based change.

Western Sydney University Vice-Chancellor and President, Distinguished Professor George Williams AO, said the University was proud to celebrate this milestone.

“This prestigious recognition is a testament to the collective efforts of the entire University community. It represents our ongoing commitment to breaking down barriers and taking meaningful action. We should all be proud knowing that our consistent and purposeful approach is creating real impact across the University,” said Professor Williams.

Dr Janin Bredehoeft, CEO of SAGE, congratulated Western Sydney University on the achievement.

“Western Sydney University's Silver Award reflects ten years of well-evidenced work turning gender equity commitments into action and real outcomes for staff. Its decasualisation program and Indigenous Strategy stand out as strong examples of what genuine institutional commitment to GEDI and systemic cultural change looks like,” said Dr Bredehoeft.

The University has made substantial progress and measurable impact across each of its five Bronze Cygnet areas including flexible work, academic promotions, Indigenous staff advancement, gender equity in COVID-19 response, and support for parents and carers.

Examples of impact include:

• Indigenous staff advancement: celebrating Indigenous excellence, appointing the largest number of Indigenous staff in the University’s history (including growing Indigenous Level D academics and above from 2 to 9), and 88 percent of Indigenous staff reporting meaningful progress on Indigenous priorities. These achievements complement the University’s recent milestone of 1,000 Indigenous student enrolments in the 2026 academic year;
• Academic promotions: women now apply for promotion at equal rates to men, and succeed on par or higher at every level, with meaningful progress for Level C and E women in STEMM;
• Flexible Work: a 4x rise in paid parental leave uptake by men and a 37 percent increase in staff awareness of flexible work entitlements;
• Decasualisation: 159 casual staff (151.1 FTE staff) appointed into ongoing roles (61 percent women, 6 percent Indigenous), making it the largest program of its kind in the sector.

The Silver Award represents a landmark achievement in the University’s development and progress towards GEDI and commitment to continuing this work.

The Silver Award also marks a shift into a new phase of work. Western’s Silver Cygnet Framework (2026–2032) focuses on five priority areas to embed structural and systemic improvements that will further drive gender equity, diversity and inclusion across the University.

These include career planning for academic staff, career planning for professional staff, an intersectional focus on women, trans and gender diverse staff in STEM, decasualisation, and continued efforts to support the advancement of Indigenous staff.

Each priority area responds to gaps identified by comprehensive organisational research and staff engagement undertaken by Western’s SAGE team. The University looks forward to continuing to make positive impact across these priorities in the coming years.

For more information, you can find case study summaries for Western Sydney University’s five Bronze Cygnet Awards and the full Silver Award Application here.

ENDS.

28 August 2026
Photo credit: Sally Tsoutas
Media Unit