The Nottingham BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership recognises and prioritises its responsibility to operate in a way which creates equality of opportunity for all of our applicants and students, supporting the recruitment of a diverse student cohort and running an inclusive programme.
Recruitment:
- we offer an applicant mentoring scheme, AMPlify, to support applicants from black and black mixed backgrounds
- we offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for applicants from black and black mixed backgrounds
- we ensure the anonymisation of name, gender, age and previous institution of study in application assessments
- we focus on motivation and potential in our application assessment criteria
- we advertise PhD opportunities as widely as possible, aiming to eliminate jargon from our advertising and showcase diverse role models in our imagery
- we ensure all interview panellists have undertaken unconscious bias training
- we provide questions in advance of interviews for all applicants
- we monitor our EDI data closely, including data on socio-economic background of candidates and caring responsibilities
Within the Studentship:
- we include equality, diversity and inclusion focussed training in our programme, for students and supervisors
- we listen to our students' feedback and involve them in the governance of the programme through a Student Forum
- there is a dedicated Welfare & EDI Officer working in the DTP team
- enhanced stipends are available for any care-experienced individuals and young carers who join the programme
- Inline with UKRI terms and conditions, from the start of the 2025 academic year, disabled students can request reasonable adjustments at the earliest opportunity so that reasonable adjustments can be in place as swiftly as possible, and be in place for the start of the studentship.
Student Events and Networks:
Funded by BBSRC, Nottingham BBSRC DTP and SWBio DTP ran a series of national student networks to support students from a range of backgrounds:
- Ethnic Minorities student network
- LGBTQIA+ student network
- Neurodiversity student network
The processes that support the training programme are designed with inclusivity and flexibility in mind. Feedback is also reviewed to drive continuous improvement.
We are proud to have become the first university in the country to be awarded the Athena Swan Gold Award for its commitment to advance gender equality across higher education and research.
