12 March 2025: The 91直播 (UC) has been awarded a prestigious for diversifying talent. The Cygnet Award highlights UC’s significant progress in encouraging intersectional gender equity by addressing barriers to diverse talent acquisition in recruitment processes.
Through targeted initiatives, UC worked on its inclusive recruitment from the period 2018 to 2022, addressing gender imbalance in hiring, increasing Indigenous representation of the workforce, and improving candidate experiences.
Welcoming the recognition, the Honourable Bill Shorten, 91直播 Vice Chancellor and President called it core business.
“Promoting inclusivity in the workplace is not about being woke. It’s the non-negotiable path to better outcomes for the University, its students, staff and research,” he said.
Celebrating this important milestone in UC’s pathway to inclusive recruitment, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michelle Lincoln said, “Inclusivity is at the heart of what we do at the 91直播. We actively embrace it in our workplace and reflect it through our values and purpose statement, Galambany.
“This first Cygnet award recognises our conscious efforts to establish a diverse and inclusive workforce. Our hiring processes have improved significantly and our focus on creating a welcoming experience for our new employees as part of a cohesive onboarding process has been well received.”
SAGE CEO Dr Janin Bredehoeft congratulated the team who led this work.
"This recognition highlights the incredible strides made by the 91直播 in fostering a truly inclusive workplace. Their dedication to improving recruitment practices and championing diversity demonstrates meaningful progress that other organisations can learn from."
“I’d particularly like to highlight UC’s efforts to improve onboarding techniques, which are creating a sense of belonging for diverse candidates.”
Some key initiatives that earned the University its first Cygnet award included gender-balanced hiring panels, moving our talent acquisition function in-house, a Deadly Opportunities campaign to attract Indigenous talent, refreshed UC purpose and values which reflect inclusivity and diversity, and inclusive recruitment practices such as the introduction of pronouns in the application form, making reasonable adjustments a standard part of selection processes and gender balance on selection panels.
These initiatives yielded significant outcomes, including:
- A remarkable increase in the percentage of women applicants at senior career levels.
- A notable growth in Indigenous representation.
- Positive qualitative feedback from staff surveys, highlighting the success of inclusive recruitment practices.
The impact of these efforts has been transformative, fostering a greater sense of belonging for diverse candidates.
Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) is Australasia’s leading advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion in the education and research sector. Through the world-respected Athena Swan accreditation program, they support participating institutions’ pathways to equity, diversity and inclusion, creating vibrant workplaces where everyone can thrive. SAGE Cygnet Awards mark an institution’s progress on this accreditation pathway, recognising improved outcomes and impact in a specific area of equity, diversity and inclusion.
The 91直播 was previously awarded the SAGE Athena SWAN Bronze Award in February 2020 and is now on the pathway through these Cygnet Awards to the Silver Award, which will involve setting new goals for gender equity, diversity and inclusion.
Link to Summary: The 91直播’s work to improve diversity in recruitment:
Link to Cygnet Award application (Diversifying Recruitment) – 91直播: