“Our EDI Framework 2023-28 brings a new focus and coherence to our efforts to promote equality, diversity and inclusion at Royal Holloway, articulating our ambition to significantly accelerate the change we want to see. We want to be more proactive, courageous and ultimately effective in our efforts to be truly inclusive. We aim to achieve this by providing considered and effective support to all individual members of our community, disrupting structures and practices that sustain inequality and discrimination, and nurturing cultures across the university that promote inclusion and belonging.”
Professor Julie Sanders, Vice-Chancellor and Principal
“Royal Holloway has a richly diverse campus community and we understand the broad range of needs of our student population. We are strengthened by diversity, and welcome students who travel from all over the world to study here ensuring an international and multi-cultural perspective with a close knit campus community.”
Royal Holloway’s Student Communities webpage
Students
Within the Students’ Union there is a VP Wellbeing & Diversity, whose work has a focus on liberation campaigns, mental and physical health provision and general wellbeing issues. Sitting on both the Union’s Board of Trustees and the EDI Committee, VP Wellbeing & Diversity spends time working closely with students on campaign delivery whilst ensuring the Union and the University are delivering on their strategic plans. They can be contacted via email on vpwellbeingdiversity@su.rhul.ac.uk.
The Students’ Union also facilitates peer support networks known as Student Communities. Representatives from these groups sit on the University Equality Groups, which are also open to any interested students. You can read more about Communities and Equality Groups on our How to get involved page!
Staff
The central EDI Team can be reached via email at equality@rhul.ac.uk. We are supported by one EDI Vice Dean in each School, who is given allocated workload to support University EDI initiatives.
We also recognise the hard work of other colleagues across both Professional Services and Schools, without whom our work could not be possible. For example, the Library has a well-established IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) Champions Group who are doing hard work on decolonising and diversifying library resources and displays, and making huge improvements to digital accessibility. The central EDI Team are currently working towards having a similar role to EDI Vice Deans within Professional Services.
We are collectively responsible for the delivery of projects and initiatives which support the University’s commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion for students, staff and visitors. This work encompasses all the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and parenthood, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. However, our work extends beyond these identities to also protect ethnicity, gender identity and expression, and nationality.
An overview of our projects and initiatives
- Working on actions and assessing their progress to support both department and University-level applications for institutional accreditation schemes including Athena SWAN (gender), Disability Confident Employer, the Race Equality Charter, and Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index (LGBT+). This includes consideration of intersectional analyses.
- Developing and maintaining EDI policies.
- Carrying out and supporting Equality Impact Assessments of processes and proposed changes.
- Coordinating and attending meetings of the EDI Committee, EDI Strategy Working Groups, and Equality Groups.
- Working collaboratively with student groups, staff diversity networks and the Internal Communications team to deliver events and communications recognising EDI events (e.g. Black History Month, Disability History Month, LGBT+ History Month, Women’s History Month).
- Designing and delivering internal EDI training courses, and creating specialist EDI resources and guidance.
- Attending relevant external EDI events, including network and knowledge exchange events, and reporting back to the University.
- Supporting EDI groups across the University to develop, administer and analyse surveys and related activities (e.g. focus groups).
- Providing guidance and support to managers and staff on EDI-related matters.
Our aim is to establish a diverse community where everyone succeeds, is included, and feels that they belong. We have created a comprehensive plan, our EDI Framework 2023-28, that will help up on our journey to achieve our ambition and see real progress and sustainable impact.
This Framework is based on a comprehensive analysis of data, and emerged following a wide range of formal and informal discussions with both students and colleagues in all our EDI spaces. It is intended to recognise and encompass the many challenges we need to address. It articulates our priorities, and outlines how we will monitor progress and measure impact. It also includes our EDI Guiding Principles, which are intended to set our foundation for conduct and culture and describe what we, as a community, feel is important.
EDI Framework 2023-28
If you have any questions about the Framework, please email equality@rhul.ac.uk.