The Faculty of Pharmacy brings Equal opportunities to the Lecture halls

“We are currently expanding the Faculty of Pharmacy's Equal Opportunities work. From previously focusing primarily on employees to also including all Pharmacy and Prescription students, who in their future careers will work closely with many different people. In the long term, we are convinced that this expansion will add extra quality marks to both our educations and alumni,” says Mikael Engskog, Equal opportunities officer at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.

As part of the work, the three departments' Equal opportunities committees carried out a joint status analysis in the autumn semester 2023, highlighting discrimination, harassment and equal opportunities among students at the faculty. Together with Make Equal, a company specialized on equal opportunities, interviews were also carried out with several industry representatives. The results are now presented in a report that provides important answers and outlines the direction for future steps.

“The report partially confirms the outcome of previous, less extensive surveys. It also shows that the Faculty of Pharmacy's Equal opportunities initiatives generally works well. But above all, the answers pinpoint a number of areas where we, with the right efforts, can become even better,” notes Hannah Olsson Dannfors, Equal opportunities officer at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences.

A total of 289 students answered the survey. On the question I feel like part of the community at the Faculty of Pharmacy, their average answer is 7.4 on a ten-point scale – a relatively high result according to Make Equal. However, the results differ between different student groups: The groups Born in Sweden with at least one parent born outside Sweden (7.1) as well as those with Islam as a belief (6.8) give lower answers. The statement I feel that there are good opportunities to combine responsibility for children with my studies also receives a lower average response (5.9) among students with children.

“These results are close to the response reported from Uppsala University as a whole in a recently conducted national survey. They show how differences between domestic and foreign-born are often bigger than those between women and men in terms of bullying and sexual harassment. For our faculty, whose students make up a comparatively international group with almost 70 percent women, it is of course highly relevant,” says Henrik Lodén, Equal opportunities officer at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences.

The results also show a need for increased knowledge of and trust in Reporting processes. In the survey, only 12 percent of those who have been subjected to or seen others subjected to harassment state that they reported the incident. This low percentage can be explained by the fact that 50 percent of the respondents state that they have not received information about how to file a report. Another possible reason is that 25 percent of the respondents state that they are worried about being treated differently if filing a report.

“Important work awaits, which will involve both teachers and students, including the development of our educations and more practical equal opportunities work shops. First we must, of course, ensure a safe study environment where everyone is included, but with students, teachers, student union and organisation standing united in the importance of this investment, we have the conditions to reach all the way, states Karin Svensberg, Equal opportunities officer at the Department of Pharmacy.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt a o