Awards for Female Students

What is the Action?

Provide awards/scholarships to support the recruitment and retention of female students in computing disciplines.

Quick Facts to Support this Action

• 100% of all female young researchers who received a French-Israeli award of €2000 continued their career in research and published an academic paper;
• Industry supported awards include those by Intel, Huawei, Google etc.

Funding can provide financial security to students, with them not needing to work while studying, and therefore contribute to their better performance in computing;

• In case the award is partnered with the industry, recipients have an opportunity to engage with industry mentors;
• Recognition from awards can encourage female students to apply for and be successful in academic careers at prestigious worldwide institutions
• Female awardees can act as role models and inspire prospective students to apply for computing disciplines

Ways to Implement This Action

Below are some examples of sources of funding, benefits, eligibility and selection process for awards.

Sources of funding for the awards/scholarship could come from the following:

➤ A university partially or fully sponsoring an award

➤ Private funds from a foundation created to help women in STEM

➤ Industry as a full or partial sponsor.

Scholarship benefits can include the following:

• A once-off monetary award (e.g. Intel, Huawei, Math Prize for Girls);
• Sponsorship to cover the whole duration of studies or multiple years of the studies;
• Industry work placement;
• An opportunity to attend workshops organised by the industry;
• Industry mentors provided to the recipients of the award;
• Flexible options to spend the award, e.g., to use it towards the tuition and/or college expenses, to meet the childcare or travel costs, or to remove any criteria and let the successful applicants decide on how to spend it;
• Optional supplements to the main monetary awards, depending on the personal/financial situation of successful applicants.

Eligibility criteria, in addition to the applicants identifying as women, can differ depending on the award, for instance:

➤ Any STEM discipline

➤ Certain STEM disciplines

➤ Under/Postgraduate Only

➤ Early Years

➤ Later Years

➤ Related Projects

➤ Region Based

➤ State Exams

Application documents can include the following:

• Submission of a Curriculum Vitae (Google Scholarship, Claussen-Simon Stiftung);
• Motivational Letter (Trinity College Scholarship, Claussen-Simon Stiftung, Sephora Berrebi scholarship);
• Academic transcripts of record (Google Scholarship, Claussen-Simon Stiftung);
• Letters of recommendation (Google Scholarship, Claussen-Simon Stiftung)
• Where scholarship is intended for postgraduate students, a summary of research, targeting non-specialist audience;
• Short essay submission on relevant questions, e.g., on problem solutions and/or equitable access to technology, or on how the applicants would see themselves being ambassadors for gender equality in STEM (Trinity College Scholarship).

Selection criteria can involve:

• Outstanding academic achievements (Google Scholarship, Claussen-Simon Stiftung);
• The ability of the applicant to promote themselves as well as their achievements in front of an expert and a non-expert audience;
• Where applicable, relevant experience;
• Where the scholarship involves taking part in a competition, the best scores in a relevant test are the selection criteria.

To promote/benefit the funding body in some way, terms and/or activities for successful candidates can include the following:

• A work placement with an industry partner;
• An invitation to volunteer as a student ambassador on a relevant topic, e.g., gender equality in STEM;
• Acting as role models to younger female audiences, e.g., by a requirement to speak/act at relevant events;
• Assist with promotional activities, such as webinars, social media posts, and testimonials;
• Mandatory attendance of events, e.g., a ceremony for the award, or an industry-based event;
• Mandatory annual report from the recipients of the award;
• Mandatory mention of the funding body in academic publications.

Evaluation Approach:

While it might not always be straightforward to measure the impact of this action on recruitment and retention of female computing students, examples of how some evidence of impact was collected are:

➤ Continuation in research

➤ Degree completion

➤ Survey

➤ Interviews

Next Actions to Consider

Consider using this action along with some others, such as Female Faculty Recruitment.