Race Equality Charter at MDX

Guiding principles

REC members are committed to following these five guiding principles:

1. Racial inequalities are a significant issue within higher education. Racial inequalities are not necessarily overt, isolated incidents. Racism is an everyday facet of UK society and racial inequalities manifest themselves in everyday situations, processes and behaviours.
2. UK higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population and until individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords.
3. In developing solutions to racial inequalities, it is important that they are aimed at achieving long-term institutional culture change, avoiding a deficit model where solutions are aimed at changing the individual.
4. Black and minority ethnic staff and students are not a homogenous group. People from different ethnic backgrounds have different experiences of and outcomes from/within higher education, and that complexity needs to be considered in analysing data and developing actions.
5. All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those identities should be considered wherever possible.

Bronze Institution Award application

Our aim is to seek the Bronze Institution Award in the first instance which recognises that the University has a solid foundation for eliminating race bias and developing an inclusive culture that values all staff.

In order to prepare and effectively co-ordinate the submission for the Award, the following key objectives have been identified:

1. Assess race equality inclusive of intersectionality, including quantitative (staff/student data) and qualitative (policies, practices, systems and arrangements) evidence and identify both opportunities and challenges;
2. Undertake a critical self-assessment;
3. Develop a four year plan that builds on the central self-assessment, information on activities that are already in place and what has been learned from these;
4. Develop and embed an organisational structure, including self-assessment team [SAT], to carry out the agreed actions moving forward;
5. Submit the complete application by the agreed deadline.

The submission of the application for the Award will take place in 2021/2022, either by July 2021 or by February 2022, according to Advance HE the assessment process typically takes 18 months. Two months’ notice is required to be given to Advance HE ahead of the formal submission. The actual submission date will be confirmed by the Steering Group in early May 2021 depending on the progress made by the Self-Assessment Team.

Key people and group membership

Race Equality Steering Group

This group has been formed to:

1. Provide support and challenge for University Leadership (including Executive and Governors) in relation to strategy, plans and activity to progress Race Equality.
2. To review relevant student, staff and wider demographic data.
3. To support the work of the REC steering group, SAT and network.
4. To act as a sounding board for proposals and to bring in personal insights and expertise.
5. Ensure that the principles of Race Equality Charter are adequately promoted and adopted within relevant policies, practices, actions and culture.
6. Oversee the process for the Award submission preparation resulting in successful application.
7. Recommend the organisational structure, key objectives and governance.
8. Develop the Project Plan (including both sequence and dependencies).
9. Ensure the outputs and outcomes are delivered on time to SAT.
10. Ensure that the EDI Committee and SAT are kept appropriately informed of the progress.
11. Develop and embed an effective communication and engagement plan to a variety of key stakeholder groups about the activities of this project and achievement of agreed outcomes.

Self-Assessment Team (SAT)

The main focus of the SAT is to:

• Reflect on a range of quantitative and qualitative data to identify both challenges and opportunities with regards to race equality;
• Evaluate relevant policies, practices and activities;
• Respond to the findings of the above and establishing race equality-based priority areas and appropriate aspirations and targets;
• Develop an evidence-based, comprehensive action plan to underpin advancement against the agreed priorities over the whole award period (four years), after which time the University will apply to renew or upgrade their award;
• Evaluate the effectiveness of actions undertaken on an ongoing basis, to ensure actions are delivering desired impact against objectives, and evolving the action plan in response to evaluation;
• Aim to gather data of our contractors and their experiences of the university and build this into our narrative.

Find out more

MDX staff can meet the REC SAT on the staff intranet (please note, this page is for MDX staff only and requires a login).

Information for staff

MDX staff can find further information on the staff intranet (please note, this page is for MDX staff only and requires a login).