The ACU Gender Grants are awarded annually to member universities to support the development of projects that will boost gender equity and equality. This year’s recipients and their projects are:

The University of South Pacific's (Fiji) project will help to revise USP’s curriculum for gender content and put in place procedures to systematically monitor gender friendliness of USP programmes.

Fiji National University will use their grant to support the progression of female academics and members of staff into leadership roles.

University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s (Canada) project will promote gender diversity balance in all job categories and educational pathways, and promote a GBA+ organisational culture.

The University of Manchester, UK, will use their grant to support equality in accessing funding, helping to drive forward the careers of female and ethnically diverse researchers.

University of Buea, Cameroon, will develop a gender action plan with the aim of mainstreaming gender into the curriculum.

RMIT University, Australia, plans on implementing a programme that uses a community of responsibility model to empower students to be positive bystanders.

The Gender Mainstreaming Directorate at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana,  plans to organise the gender summit and a review of anti-sexual harassment policy.

University of the West Indies’ Women and Development Unit plans to adopt a domestic violence policy and train supervisory staff to recognise the signs of domestic violence and provide supportive services.

Sindh Madressatul Islam University, Pakistan, will enhance female students’ knowledge about their legal rights to reduce gender-based violence and discrimination.

University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, will identify the barriers that female researchers face at UCT and set up a task team to identify ways that the institution could assist in breaking down these barriers.

Recipients of the ACU Gender Grants receive GBP 1,000 to develop their ideas. The grants can be used for a diverse range of projects, workshops and events that help advance gender equity, such as:

• supporting women in leadership
• raising awareness of sexual harassment and developing anti-sexual harassment initiatives
• supporting women in science and research
• creating effective institutional policies
• mainstreaming gender equity into the curriculum

Read more about the ACU Gender Programme here.