The first day of Black History Month, 1st October, is also the anniversary of the Equality Act 2010. This piece of legislation was a groundbreaking moment that brought together 116 pieces of legislation into one single act. This provided the UK with one clear discrimination law to protect the rights of individuals and the creation of this act has done much to advance equality of opportunity for all. The creation of a new piece of legislation, guidance from a regulatory body, awards given by organisations such as Advance HE or the development of new local policies can be impactful tools to drive inclusion and change lived experiences.
The awarding of the Bronze Race Equality Charter (REC) to the university in 2021 has been an important catalyst in driving race equality work and I am very pleased to say that with everyone’s hard work we have completed 39 of 129 actions on the REC action plan with 53 in progress. During Black History Month we will celebrate the achievements and work done in this space to create equality for all. Some of the highlights of this work include:
- Creation of The Black Industry Connections and Empowerment Programme, (BICEP) which offers mentorship and networking opportunities to our students of black heritage
- Development of our new Welcome Module which supports new students to join our community and has a focus on antiracism (8256 of our new intake have engaged with this module to date)
- New scholarships for students of black heritage studying Science and Engineering, set up by an anonymous donor
- (MI Talent Summer School led by Denise Mclean to encourage underrepresented groups to explore technical careers
- Senior banding review that has led to a significant increase in the number of black and racially minoritised staff at higher pay bands (11.1% from 4.4%)
- Career development workshops run for Administrative, Professional and Management (APM) staff targeted at supporting black and racially minoritised staff to develop their careers
- Commission of The Reverse Mentoring Practice, established by Stacy Johnson, to roll out a programme of reverse mentoring across the university that will become embedded into the Human Resources organisational development offer as business as usual in future years.
The theme of Black History Month this year is ‘Saluting our Sisters’ and centrally we have funded 10 recognition events and projects across the university that pay homage to the achievements of black women. These include events celebrating Nigerian Changemakers, Black Women in Creativity, Black Sporting Heroes and Saluting Our Mathematician Sisters.
The university, in collaboration with the Majority Black Led Churches, is also hosting breakfast for our civic partners to discuss how we can collectively enhance the opportunities for young people from black communities.
This month will see the launch of the refreshed Race Equality Steering Group for the university chaired by Dr Kelly Vere MBE and Professor Jasmeet Kaler. This work of this group will be strongly supported by Eli Todorova, who alongside Jasmeet, is the Race Equality Theme Lead for the organisation.
The refreshed membership of this group will allow us to more effectively align our work on gender equality with our work on race equality. This will ensure that we are taking a truly intersectional approach and understand the cumulative impact that, for example, being black and a woman has on opportunities and experiences.
Our work in driving forward gender equality over the past 20 years has been significant. I was keen to recognise all the hard work that has gone into 21 of our 22 Schools holding Athena Swan awards and so hosted a celebratory lunch last week for all those who have been involved.
This was a very positive event with attendees sharing insights and good practice around gender equality and a collective acknowledgement of the progress made across the institution. As always there is still more work to be done in this area and I am keen to make sure that changes, where they can, happen at pace.
Most recently, this has involved the increase of the full pay element of adoption, maternity and shared parental pay at the organisation from 8 to 26 weeks. This increase should see greater choices for parents regarding the arrangements they make to care for their children and potentially a reduction in the disproportionate impact on women’s careers that parenthood can have.
Professor Katherine Linehan
How to say my name
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and People
2 October 2023