The Race Equality Charter Survey for staff and students launched on Tuesday 7 May – it’s the University’s largest-ever survey into racial equality on campus.

The University of Nottingham is committed to providing the best support, learning experience and working environment for its students and staff, regardless of their race.

The University is set to apply for Race Equality Charter bronze status in summer 2020. Data from the survey is a key part of the application process, and will inform our action plan going forward.

The Race Equality Charter gives us a framework in which to identify, explore and consider issues affecting the representation, progression and success of BME (black and minority ethnic) students and staff at the University. Completing the detailed analysis in support of the Race Equality Charter is a useful additional process alongside our more general work to support equality, diversity and inclusion, through which we can drive culture and process change – institution wide

Professor Sarah Sharples, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) said: Whilst awards through externally managed schemes such as the Race Equality Charter are important, they are only of value to us as a University if they reflect a real and active commitment to change.

“We hope that as many staff and students as possible will support us by taking the time to complete the REC survey, and help us to make changes within our University that will make our place of study and work better for all.”

The experiences and perceptions of all students and staff are essential to the data collection process – but it is particularly important to gather information from the BME members of the University community.

The survey is a key part of the Race Equality Charter process, and it is important that staff and students from ALL backgrounds take part. The survey is an important tool in making the University a better place to work and study.

The data will help us to assess and define our current position – giving us a picture of the experiences of staff and students across the institution. Survey data will be used with other information already collected by the University to create this picture – including recruitment and attainment data.

All information collected during the survey and through other data-gathering exercises will be completely confidential. On occasion we might ask for contact details so that we can invite respondents to be involved in further activity. This is entirely voluntary, and contact information will always be stored separately to survey responses.

For more information on the Race Equality Charter and the staff and student survey, visit our EDI webpages, or email mailto:rec@nottingham.ac.uk.

Read Professor Sharples’ latest blog here.