Last Thursday, Senator Rónán Mullen raised the issue of the Athena SWAN charter which is now a funding requirement for third level institutions seeking research grants.
That remit has been extended to other publicly funded bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
This has led to the rather pathetic scenario in which Irish third level institutions, the ESRI, and even public officials with responsibility for higher education and research, are boasting about gold, silver and bronze awards from an English NGO.
It’s reminiscent of those native Americans who sold entire tribal territories for a few shiny trinkets – though our representatives only have the integrity of education and research to peddle.
This infiltration of the Irish educational and other sectors has proceeded at pace for almost ten years since Advance HE – the English company/NGO which invented the Athena SWAN Charter – was allowed to have a say in setting the standards for “equality and diversity” here.
Yet, as I will outline below, no records of meetings in the HSE when they decided to adopt the Athena SWAN programme apparently exist.
It was made clear by Gript, and people like South East Technological University lecturer Colette Colfer, as well as Senators Mullen and Sharon Keoghan, that the Charter that was being implemented in third level institutions contained a provision that did not accurately reflect Irish legislation.
That was shown when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee stated publicly that, to quote Minister McEntee, “misgendering people will not be a crime”.
That directly contradicted the claims made in the gender expression and equality documents published on the websites of Irish universities including SETU, Trinity College, and University College Dublin which asserted that “Refusing to address a person by their correct gender pronoun or new preferred name” constitutes “unlawful discrimination or harassment”.
This claim is still intact in the policy document posted on the SETU site. The current Trinity College Dublin policy document contains almost exactly the same formulation. So too does the Gender Identity Policy and Expression document on the UCD website.
Well, do we accept the word of the Minister for Justice who has clearly stated that there is no law that would have you pinched by the guards if you do not address someone by their “correct gender pronoun”? Or do we alternatively – as some of our leading third level institutions appear to – prefer the formulation of an English liberal NGO?
Gript has previously outlined the history of Advance HE and the adoption of their Athena SWAN charter in this country.
Senator Sharon Keogan described the Advance HE Athena SWAN certification as a “hitherto functionally useless award handed out by a leftist British NGO” that “is now an essential prerequisite for every Irish university, college and institute that wishes to apply for funding from the country’s main research funder”.
She called on the Minister for Higher Education to debate “the appropriateness of withholding funding from Irish higher education institutes, HEIs, which have not been rubber-stamped by a British NGO”.
To summarise their origins and motivation, Advance HE can be fairly described as the direct product of British educational policy, which has been totally dependent on UK state funding and its ability to be awarded contracts with British third level institutions.
It has, as indicated by the Athena SWAN Charter, a definite ideological bias that is reflective of British left liberalism and of the educational policies inspired by and implemented by the British Labour Party.
Advance HE was formerly known as, and currently incorporates the Higher Education Academy, which was established in 2003 and was directly responsible to the then Labour Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson.
Is it not rather bizarre that the creature of a foreign government ought to be given such a prominent role in the way in which higher education in the Irish state is administered and funded?
It is difficult to get information about how Advance HE operates in Ireland. They do have an address here, at Penrose Dock in Cork, but other than that details are sparse. It actually has two separate registrations with the Companies Registration Office (CRO.) One was incorporated in March 2022, the other in September 2021. Both are registered as external companies.
None of the officers of either company have addresses here. NATSEC, with an address at the IFSC in Dubin, is listed as an “authorised person” for one, and as secretary of the other.
The financial statement for the company registered 703150 provides an address at Penrose Dock and provides absolutely no information on its specific accounts for operations in Ireland as its balance sheet lists no assets, liabilities or shareholder funds for 2022.
The accounts for the company registered as 909772 link directly to the 2022 report for the UK company which has almost the same directors as the company registered in Ireland.
The report barely mentions Ireland and implicitly speaks of and considers the Irish state and its educational institutions as no different than if they were in Nottingham or Sheffield. Gript has attempted to find out more about how Advance HE operates in Ireland.
The total staff costs for the year amounted to more than £20 million. There is no separate accounting for either income or expenditure for their operation here.
A Tonya Watt is listed as their Head of Partnership for Ireland but an email to Ms Watt was responded to with a statement that she is “no longer working at Advance HE.”
A Sarah Fink is listed as the head of Athena Swan in Ireland but there are no contact details. Likewise for Irene Byrne, the National Advisor on Athena SWAN. Nor is there a phone number or email contact for their office in Cork.
We have also several times sought information from Government departments regarding contracts with Advance HE for the implementation of the Athena SWAN programme.
While they are happy to boast about getting stars from this outfit – like the gillies who used to get invited around for a glass of sherry in the landlord’s kitchen on Christmas morning back in the day – they are more reticent about telling anyone how much they pay them.
When Gript asked the Higher Education Authority to provide a “contact number or email for Advance HE in Ireland, an Executive officer working with the HEA’s Centre of Excellence for Equality and Diversity provided an email address.
The HEA, of course, describes itself as the body which “leads the strategic development of the Irish higher education and research system.”
I asked the HEA Centre of Excellence for Equality and Diversity noting this and inquiring if “Advance HE is operating as part of the HEA? Or what exactly is the relationship?” I had received no response by the time we were ready to publish.
I did, however, receive a response from Sarah Fink Head of Athena SWAN in Ireland. Ms. Fink provides a standard overview of how the Athena SWAN programme works here.
She did not specifically answer the questions I had asked regarding the directorship of Advance HE in Ireland, or whether there are separate accounts for their operation here.
Her only reference to this was to state that “A national committee made up of HE institutions, the Higher Education Authority and Advance HE (which has a team of two in Ireland) oversees the way the Charter operates, to ensure it responds to the sector’s gender equality priorities.”
I sent another email to Ms. Fink and to the UK office of Athena SWAN requesting the same information but had received no reply before we went to publication.
We have also previously asked the HSE for records of meetings when they decided to adopt the Athena SWAN programme. Such records do not exist, apparently. In a response to a Freedom of Information request last November, I was informed that there are no records of any meetings with Advance HE regarding the introduction of Athena SWAN into institutions under the responsibility of the HEA.
And yet one of the people responsible for bringing them here has written an academic paper detailing all the contacts over the years.
I was referred to three reports published by the HEA but they only describe how Athena SWAN is now a requirement, not why it was decided to be a requirement.
One of those reports, on Gender Equality published in November 2022 does refer to the Centre of Excellence. It states that it was established in 2019 as the Centre for Excellence in Gender Equality, and that it “evolved into the Centre of Excellence for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” in 2020. It does not mention Advance HE so we are no wiser about why the Centre appears to function as the contact address for Advance HE in Ireland.
If Irish citizens are paying for this tendentious nonsense and allowing our education system to be monitored by a gang of red brick university Brits we really ought to be told more about how this came to pass, and what exactly is the relationship between a foreign NGO and a publicly funded state agency that shares an email address with it. You know ….