Speak up about race equity

Our Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Education, Professor Madeline Eacott, is the Inclusion Champion for Race at Essex. She has been involved in our Race Equality Charter submission. Here she gives us an update on the work and invites our community to take part in a consultation to help shape our action plan.

We are committed to improving race equity and tackling all forms of racism at Essex. The University became a member of Race Equality Charter in 2017, and since then we have been working across our institution to identify and tackle instances and areas of inequality.

• We are working to keep reducing our degree awarding gap to ensure students from outside the UK are awarded degrees at the same rate as those from the UK.
• We have increased the number of black, Asian and ethnic minority academic staff we employ
• We have increased the number of black, Asian and ethnic minority professors on our campuses
• We launched forums for staff and students including the Essex BAME Staff Forum and the Essex Global Forum
• We launched our Black Researchers’ Hub, an online platform that provides help and guidance to black students interested in pursuing a research career. 

We want to hear from you

This year we are preparing our application to become an accredited member of the Race Equality Charter at bronze level. This work has required us to dig deeper, to be honest, to examine inequalities and speak to our staff and students about their lived experiences of race inequality on our campuses. Our application involves creating an action plan; a commitment not just in words, but in actions that we can and will deliver on.

Before we submit our application in July, we want to hear from you on our four-year action plan to address race inequity. We want you to let us know about areas where you feel there could be greater fairness or equity across our campuses. We also want to hear about the positives; examples of best practice that could be replicated or rolled out to the benefit of everyone.

Our Race Equality Charter consultation survey asks just six questions and gives you the opportunity to add additional comments to enable your voice heard. You can complete the survey [Essex users only] and read the draft action plan for consultation (.pdf) online.

Please note, the action plan is still in draft form and is a work in progress.

The deadline for taking part is 13 May.

Your feedback is vital

Once collated, your views will help further shape our Race Equality action plan, helping put our commitment into real action that can be felt by our community. Your feedback is vital to ensure that we deliver on our promises and that we are tackling racism wherever it occurs. We will not shy away from this work, we will tackle it head on and with your help, we will encourage and grow a fair and balanced community where everyone is supported to achieve their very best.

We very much value your contribution to this work.

• Read more about our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Check out this blog from our Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment Team (REC SAT) member, Dr Cara Booker.
• Ensure you are up to date with all policies and sources of support on our Tackling Racism web page.