Vet EDIAS Update

UCD Vet Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and Athena SWAN Update

The School’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) and Athena SWAN (VetEDIAS) Committee organises many events and initiatives which support our agenda of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion for all faculty, staff and students.  Below, we provide you with updates on some recent events and initiatives which have been organised by the VetEDIAS Committee.  Find out more about the work of the committee and upcoming events on our website or (opens in a new window)Instagram: 

Silver Athena SWAN Action Plan 2024 - 2028

The School is now 18 months into our Action Plan, and we can already see the impact of EDI initiatives within the School and across UCD. This academic year our VetEDIAS committee now has greater representation of Nursing and Postdoctoral staff, and increased collaboration across the University, including recognition of Technical staff in research activities. The School continues to support our student societies, student-led EDI initiatives and opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved in research. 

Pride Events 2025

Pride is an incredibly important time for us in Veterinary Sciences, when we celebrate and support our LGBTQIA+ community.  In February, we hosted our flagship CHAS Pride event aimed at students across the college and in Veterinary Sciences. To mark traditional Pride Month in June, we also hosted a coffee morning for staff and postgraduate students in our staff common room, including a display of photographs taken by staff to ‘Show us yer Pride!’.

Thank you to all the students and staff that came along to the February event, and to UCD EDI for sponsoring. A huge thank you to Head of the Vet School, Prof Rory Breathnach, Dr Conor Buggy from SPHPSS and Dr Deirdre O’Connor from AgSci, for addressing our community. It was also great to see student advisors, senior staff from CHAS and members of the LGBTQIA+ subgroup in attendance. Conor gave the audience plenty of food for thought and finished on a strong note by outlining eight overarching rules for instilling pride in yourself, whether you are members of the queer community or allies of the queer community. 

Support and other event info can be found (opens in a new window)here. 

CHAS World Cafe on Placements 

In September 2025, the College of Health & Agricultural Sciences (CHAS) hosted a workshop or World Cafe aimed at understanding and addressing Gender and Diversity Challenges faced by students during placements. Students from Veterinary Nursing and Veterinary Medicine who are currently undertaking a placement or have completed a placement, were invited, as well as students from across the College. The event was organised by Assistant Prof. Eoin Brennan from the School of Medicine, the CHAS EDI committee and UCD Dignity & Respect, and facilitated by Eimear Burkley, project co-ordinator for VetEDIAS. An interactive discussion took place, which aimed to understand and address broad EDI challenges faced by students during professional work experience and clinical placements. These challenges may be related to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race, socio-economic status or membership of the Traveller community.

The purpose of the study was to:

• Identify EDI challenges students face during placements
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing UCD supports and policies
• Develop actionable solutions to improve the placement experience for all students