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• EDI Initiatives
• Learning and Development
• Student Inclusion
• Students’ Union 
• Faculties and Departments
• Research
• Centre for Health and Social Equity

EDI Initiatives

Vice-Chancellor's Diversity and Inclusion fund (VCDF)

The VCDF has continued this year, a total of 22 applications were submitted, of which 13 received funding totalling £35,477.65.  Projects were awarded funding in relation to race, gender, disability, class, caring responsibilities and intersectionality.

This year we introduced a process to enable VCDF project outcomes to be communicated to the EDI Committee, so that Committee members can cascade information back to their areas and incorporate learning into core business where applicable.  There were two presentations in person:

• A Class Act - a project exploring the class-related barriers to career progression as experienced or felt by colleagues.
• Empowered Bodies – a project exploring the relationship between the built environment, gender and bodily autonomy, critiquing issues arising from biased social constructs in HE and gender stereotypes.

The Committee also received written reviews for two projects:

• Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network Away Day – focused on strengthening the BAME Network’s strategic and operational focus through capacity building, the day was informed by participatory action research methodology and included a series of participatory activities.
• WISCing Away - a project to widen participation and engagement of Woman in Information Science and Computing (WISC)WISC, further establishing its identity within the Department of CIS, in addition to providing women and non-binary students interested in Computer and Information Science subjects with the opportunity to come together as a critical mass.

DFN Project Search

In September 2023, Northumbria became host business for DFN Project Search, a year-long supported internship programme for young people with autism and/or a learning disability, in partnership with Newcastle City Council, City Learning, DFN and Sodexo.

This year, twelve interns participated in an employability skills programme delivered onsite by City Learning colleagues which included three ten-week work placements in roles at Northumbria and Sodexo.

The programme provides a fully immersive experience to help interns transition successfully into the world of work in a structured and supported way.  The programme was the first in the region and is one of over 160 across the UK. Nationally, around 70% of participants go on to secure employment either with the host organisation or elsewhere, and participants receive ongoing support with job applications and interview skills.  The programme allows Northumbria to positively contribute to employability outcomes for young people in our region who would not normally engage with us through our higher education offer.

Campus Accessibility Reviews

Following a student-led project last year to develop a framework to assess accessibility on campus and assess a range of buildings, further reviews were conducted in Faculties and the findings passed to the Accessibility Review Group for consideration and action.

Learning and Development

University-wide Leadership Programmes

• Diversifying Leadership -This year, 3 colleagues attended Advance HE’s Diversifying Leadership programme, bringing the total number of colleagues supported to participate since 2021 to 18. All colleagues supported were from global majority backgrounds. All 18 colleagues meet our DVC regularly as our Diverse Leaders at Northumbria group. This has provided a new space for dialogue about the University’s intentions towards diversity within leadership.  
• Aurora Women’s Leadership Programme - 6 women participated in Advance HE’s Aurora Programme this year. Led by a team of leadership experts, participants explore four key areas associated with leadership success: Identity, Impact and voice, Core Leadership, Politics and influence, and Adaptive Leadership Skills. There is also an action learning set element to the programme. We have supported 37 women to attend this programme over the last five years and places will be offered again in the coming year.
• Senior Women’s Leadership Programme - Advance HE’s Senior Women’s Leadership Development Programme is designed specifically for women in senior positions in higher education to help them take the next step up or extend their role, profile, and impact. It aims to create more gender parity in senior leadership within higher education, the programme enhances technical knowledge of key strategic areas of operation (including institutional finance, structures and governance) and explores individual leadership styles, leadership legacy, personal impact and developing political skills. Northumbria supported 2 women in attending this programme and will offer further places this coming year.
• LGBTQ+ Leadership Programme - The Stonewall LGBTQ+ Leadership Programme recognises the impact our identify has on our leadership.  Developed by and for LGBTQ+ leaders the programme balances expertise and peer learning support, providing participants with a space to nurture their leadership development.  In 2023 Northumbria committed to support 2 places on the course for LGBTQ+ colleagues and will do so again in the coming year.

EDI Learning

Throughout the year we offer a range of EDI-related learning opportunities.  As well as regular training sessions which run on a termly basis, we hold invited speaker events, training by specialist external providers, workshops, awareness-raising sessions and film screenings spanning all focus areas of inclusion.  We also host a variety of online learning resources for colleagues to learn at their own pace. Over the year, the total attendance of our EDI events reached 805 overall, this included 612 individual attendees.

The training offered included:

Understanding Race Bias eLearning - We have continued to provide the Understanding Race Bias eLearning, growing colleagues’ capacity for understanding issues aligned to racial inequality and encouraging self-reflection and opportunities for action.

Domestic Abuse Guidance - We have revised and strengthened the guidance given to staff and line managers on how to support those who have experienced or are experiencing domestic abuse. The guidance signposts staff to internal and external areas of support.

Basic Introduction to Inclusive Language - As well as regular bookable sessions throughout the year, sessions were delivered upon request to Departments, including Psychology, Campus Services and the SLAS senior management team and Human Resources.  The session explores the role that language can play in fostering a welcome and inclusive environment, providing participants with space to enhance their understanding of respectful language, whilst emphasising that there is no definitive list of inclusive words and phrases.

Adjustments in the Workplace Training - With separate sessions for colleagues who require adjustments, and for line managers who are supporting colleagues who require adjustments, the sessions cover how to use the Adjustments in the Workplace Passport, and explain the support available from Health & Safety, Human Resources, Occupational Health and Access to Work.

T in Transgender Workshops - Designed and delivered by Northumbria students, the workshops have continued to be hugely popular with bookable sessions as well as delivery to Departments and Faculties on demand.  The sessions are a practical introduction to transgender issues and the different lived experiences faced by transgender people.

Student Inclusion

Efforts have focused on the removal of barriers which hinder student success and inclusivity. Focus has been given to improving accessibility and providing targeted support based on student feedback. Key actions and achievements include: 

• Access and Participation Plan Outcomes: ongoing activities related to the outgoing Access and Participation Plan, with project leads presenting their outcomes at the annual APP Showcase event in June 2024. 
• Improvement of Accessibility and Inclusion Processes: collaboration with students to review and enhance accessibility and inclusion processes. This includes the transformation of the Hardship Fund into multiple funding options and the development of the NU Belong support program for student carers, care leavers, and estranged students. 
• Student Accessibility Plan (SAP): implementation of new SAP processes, improved communication with teaching staff, and a review of the PGR SAP. 
• Student Journey Mapping:  partnership with the Customer Experience Team to map the student journey for those with accessibility needs, identifying and addressing key actions to make onboarding more inclusive. 
• Research Assistants Recruitment: recruitment of four student Research Assistants to identify effective strategies for addressing barriers related to the outgoing Access and Participation Plan. 
• Sanctuary Scholar Scheme: continuation of the Sanctuary Scholar scheme, providing support to students seeking asylum.

Removing Barriers to Sport

Over the last academic year Northumbria Sport have promoted several activities that have eliminated barriers within sport at the University. An example of this is our Just Play programme that has provided FREE sport activity to all students, our Just Play activities include ten different sports including Futsal, Badminton, Women’s Football and Basketball.

Over the 2023/24 academic year there were 812 unique participants within our Just Play programme, with over 60% of students having at least one Widening Participation characteristic and 300 students being from ethnic minority groups. In the 2024/25 academic year Northumbria Sport will introduce additional activities such as Pickleball, Women’s Basketball and a Disability sport session. These sessions will further contribute to improving the accessibility of sport at Northumbria University and eliminate barriers that prevent students from engaging. In addition to the ‘Just Play’ sessions, Northumbria Sport have also offered ‘Just Try’ sessions which aim to remove barriers to participation. The take up of sessions so far shows 50% of participants are students from ethnic minority groups.  

Graduate School: Removing Barriers to Participation

The graduate school (and projects undertaken by teams that support the graduate school) have looked at several ways to remove barriers to inclusion:

• Additional support is provided to applicants from disadvantaged/under-represented backgrounds (Low participation neighbourhoods; Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students; low-income backgrounds; disabled students; care-leavers and carers; estranged students; Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities; female students into STEM.)
• A day-long recruitment event in January 2024 was hosted for interested candidates to visit Newcastle University and Northumbria University and meet potential supervisors.
• CCAI Pre-application workshops and application resources were provided
• For ReNU CDT projects, a Gender decoder tool was used on findaphd
• 2 studentships ringfenced for UK-domiciled individuals of Black, Asian, or mixed Black or Asian heritage for the NINE DTP.

University Library

The Library have undertaken several activities and actions to remove barriers to inclusion for students.  Following feedback from international students in Singapore, the timing of Library online learning skills drop ins were changed from 11am to 9am, to eliminate some of barriers these students experienced accessing one-to-one online library skills and information literacy support. 

In partnership with local sixth form schools and colleges, the Library’s Skills Development Team helped to facilitate the NU Allstars programme. A level students have been able to visit the Library, learn about using the service and the skills needed to succeed and university, and engage with the physical Library through a tour and an activity. The knowledge of academic libraries and how to use them, and the academic skills needed are transferable skills for success at any university, eliminating barriers to higher education in general. 

Graduate Futures

To better understand the barriers that students face engaging with Graduate Futures, the team developed 2 EDI Focus groups in October 2023 with a focus on BAME & Free School Meal / First Generation.  The findings from the focus groups will help to shape graduate futures offering with a view to improving communication, skills sharing and engagement.

As a result of these findings, the team are embarking on a new project to collect student and graduate case studies to showcase success stories, increased marketing and communications for the Employability Learning Fund (ELF) and included diversity of speakers which aligns to an action within the Race Equality Charter commitments.  

Careers Online

Careers Online (CO) is our online platform for students and recent graduates to access careers resources, including the Disabled Students Careers Programme and International Students Programme. In 2023/24, more than 8,300 WP students accessed CO and the biggest user groups were: 33% BAME, 23% commuter students, 20% first generation, 17% Low Participation Neighbourhoods (LPN), and 11% disabled. The platform was also accessed by 5 of our Sanctuary Scholars and more than 170 young carers. 

The Career Workshops are all recorded, and slides are available online which has substantially increased our reach, resulting in over 7,000 views of these workshops remotely this academic year.

More students are commuting, working longer hours and are at risk of not engaging with Northumbria’s optional Graduate Futures careers offer. By branding our content as episodic “CareerFlix” content, we have received much recognition for this – including a Northumbria SHINE nomination in 2023 as well as being shortlisted for a national Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) innovation award for excellence in 2024 and having met with many HEI’s in the UK to showcase our offer. This is all due to the impact of this approach to reducing barriers of access to high quality careers education.

Female Accelerator Programme

Funded by the Susan Dobson Trust, the programme is part of the university’s commitment to fostering diversity and innovation, providing a comprehensive series of workshops for women to develop their business ideas and enhance their business skills. Participants gain access to an array of resources, including expert mentorship, networking opportunities, and at the end of the programme they are eligible to pitch for a pot of £15,000. The programme received 55 applications, places were offered to 14 with 10 accepting, 9 commencing the programme and 8 completing the programme. 

Northumbria University’s Female Accelerator Programme is a testament to the institution’s dedication to gender equality in entrepreneurship, providing a crucial stepping stone for women aiming to make significant impacts in their respective industries. 

Northumbria Students’ Union (SU)

Celebrating Diversity

The SU have delivered and supported societies to deliver a wide range of events reflecting the diversity of the student campus, this included; a Bollywood night in Freshers; both key Saudi national days with guests from across the region; Diwali celebrated in both Newcastle and London; and Malaysian Lunar New Year.

At the end of the year the SU hosted the Annual Pride Breakfast, providing a safe space for students and staff to meet before Pride.

This year the number of international societies grew to 24, including Indian, African, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Saudi and Sudanese, often with London counterparts to ensure students in London campus have access to their community.

Gender

Sabbatical officers attended training delivered by Beyond Equality to better understand how to work with male students on issues around gender equality, inclusive communities and healthier relationships.

The SU ran three awareness campaigns:

• Encouraging students to participate in the Office for Students research into harassment on campus, which in turn shaped its guidance issued at the end of the academic year and its plans for a new condition of registration for Higher Education bodies around tackling harassment.
• Encouraging students to challenge and report unacceptable behaviours including misogyny, using the University platform and the SafeZone App.
• Encouraging students to access the free provision of anti-spiking products.

The annual Women in Leadership Development Programme (WILD) was run to coincide with International Women’s Day. This weeklong programme of workshops and speakers engaged 39 women students to reflect on their career ambitions post study. We also launched our student carers’ support group meeting twice monthly, once at Coach Lane – which has the highest number of female students – and once online to allow any student to participate.

Reflecting both gender and economic insecurity affects thousands of students nationally., The SU continues to make access to period products free across all campuses as well as free pregnancy tests.

Mental Health

Male mental health and the challenges around engaging male students have also been key areas of focus for the SU. Two workshops on mental health first aid for male students were delivered with Worth Educating, using their feedback to better understand how to engage male students in discussions and training around mental health.

Thanks to support from the University’s Alumni Fund, 161 student places were all fully funded for mental health first aid training, as part of our continued commitment to addressing financial barriers. 

Another 14 students were trained as peer-to-peer mentors, supporting 34 of their fellows through a structured programme of coaching and mentoring using the Bazaar platform.

Working with the University services and local charities we delivered cross campus Mental Health Day events at City, Coach Lane and London campuses for over 600 students.

Andy’s Man Club is hosted on a weekly basis in the Students’ Union to provide a space for male students.

Autism Awareness Event

An Autism Awareness event was delivered collaboratively with the Student Union for 53 students, along with tours of the Students Union specifically for those students registered with the University accessibility team so they could familiarise themselves with the Union before the noise and stimulation of freshers. 

Race and International

Recognising the impact of the conflict in the Middle East, the Union sought to support students of all backgrounds to ensure that they were able to both express their views and voice over the situation but also that all students could feel campus remained a safe place for them. This work ranged from supporting protests and speaker events to meeting with Jewish students to hear and address their concerns and all Union staff undertaking antisemitism training provided by the Union of Jewish Students.

Sexuality and Sexual Health

Northumbria Sport Club Presidents and engagement officers attended training on “Leading LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Sport” led by Stonewall to help them understand and tackle challenges in student sport and how to create and lead an inclusive environment.

Sexual Health Awareness Week in February focused on inclusivity in sex, to raise awareness across all gender and sexualities. We were also able to expand provision of free sexual health products to London to match provision in the North East and through partnership with Rape Crisis delivered on-campus drop ins.

Economic Equity

With the rising cost of living and no change in student finance, money concerns are now one of the biggest drivers of inequality in Higher Education and directly contribute to poor physical and mental health as well as exacerbating other barriers when it intersects with them.

With support from the University to help address these issues the Union relaunched its Food Pantry, providing support across all campuses for students in need of basic provisions alongside using this as a platform to deliver financial literacy skills and routes to access University support. We instigated an opportunities fund supporting 47 students to participate in extracurricular activities and another 71 to meet the costs of their graduation in terms of gowns and photographs.

Faculties and Departments

Art, Design and Social Sciences

On the first Wednesday of the month the faculty has a protected hour for EDI learning for all colleagues, during which numerous events, workshops and discussion groups have taken place aimed at fostering a diverse community and working culture. The programme was carefully curated to ensure a platform for different types of role model, as well as coverage across EDI issues such as slavery, or student experiences of hate crime.

In Humanities, a Working Culture Survey was completed in May by over 40% of research-active colleagues, the findings of which were presented to the Humanities Executive, and points shared with staff.  The Athena Swan Departmental Self-Assessment Team (DSAT) is using the data to inform a year-long action plan to address the most pressing issues, and the data will feed into the next Athena Swan application.

In Design, work is taking place to review funding support for non-parental carers attendance at external research events.   In May, Promotions Peer Learning events were held as an effective way to engage with colleagues who may not attend larger events and EDI funding was used to develop a fully accessible PowerPoint template for use in Blackboard.

Social Sciences have worked with the Access and Participation team to identify specific departmental issues: the attainment gap between students from more privileged and less privileged backgrounds, with the latter outperforming the former at a statistically significant rate, and female students outperforming male students. Following a session at our programme review and planning day, we are now collating feedback and will use this to develop a plan.

Business and Law

In June the faculty hosted the 2024 SHINE - “Sisters in Higher Education Network Conference".  The event, for Black female academics and students, aimed to explore, address and discover solutions to the deep barriers and challenges they face in Higher Education to make a positive impact in this group.

Maternity/paternity leave forms were introduced in 2023 to help line managers support colleagues who are returning from an extended period of carers, maternity or paternity leave. Take-up is slowly increasing, and we will be able to gauge the effectiveness of the forms when colleagues analyse data from our interviews. Discussion has taken place around a more robust and comprehensive domestic abuse policy that fits with current practice and developments.

The PLME Researcher Development Programme was rolled out in February 2024, to support colleagues in Business and Law with research and promotion/progression development. Designed for all colleagues, it is particularly focused on those who are chronologically mid-to-late career but are still early career researchers.  The programme lasts around six-months, and touches on all phases of the research cycle, from generating a research idea through to submitting to a journal and then responding to reviewers’ comments.   

Engineering and Environment

Working with the Organisational Development team, the Faculty has developed their support offer around academic line management after scope for development was identified at an EDI culture workshop held in November.

The Faculty has considered accessibility for its students and colleagues through carrying out building reviews of Ellison and Sutherland, including a walkaround with the chair of the Accessibility Review Group and the Strategic Space Planner to find practical solutions to improve step free access routes.  

Research and Innovation

The internal Seed Funding Scheme, introduced in 2022, has been revised for 2024/25 to focus on research idea generation with a single round of funding per year. We are keen to promote equitable, inclusive, and positive research cultures and environments through this funding scheme and will review the EDI data from previous years to ensure that future funding call requirements and selection processes offer equality of opportunity between different groups of researchers and positively encourage applications from under-represented groups.

Charter Related Actions

• Shadow Chair Initiative (Pilot 2023-24) - Four colleagues from our Diverse Leaders at Northumbria group shadowed the Chairs of Education Committee and Research & Knowledge Exchange Committee, allowing colleagues not normally in committee-aligned roles to be involved in decision making and interact with University Executive members (workload allowance provided). The process has given Committee Chairs the opportunity to hear views from those working in roles not traditionally represented in those committees.
• Reverse Mentoring Pilot (2023-24) - Developed by members of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Network and members of the Race Equality Steering Group, five colleagues from the Senior Leadership Team (the mentees) have been mentored by 5 BAME Network members. The mentees have focussed mentoring conversations on specific areas pertaining to racial equality, creating spaces to grow awareness and generate ideas for addressing racial inequality. The initiative has provided employees from BAME backgrounds with opportunities for strategic engagement and an amplification of their voice. Leaders, who play a role in ongoing cultural change, have heard the views and opinions of those with different characteristics to themselves.
• Humanities Doorplates (October 23 to March 24) - An audit of job titles displayed on office doors was undertaken between October 2023 and March 2024. All office door plates have been standardised to display ‘Dr’ or ‘Prof’ to ensure that qualifications and professional titles were represented consistently regardless of gender. 

Research

ADSS

A well-attended conference was held in November 2023 by Northumbria’s Gendered Violence and Abuse Interdisciplinary Research Team, titled ‘Violence Against Women and Girls: Research into Practice’ along with a pre-conference screening of the film, ‘LOVE’, which was attended by many Humanities colleagues.

Business and Law

A wide range of EDI related research has taken place across the faculty this year.  This includes a publication on strategies for understanding institutional racism in Academia; an edited collection on the Gender Pay Gap which included a chapter on the gendered nature of promotion criteria, based on research outcomes from the last Faculty Athena Swan application in 2019; a qualitative study of how women in African universities navigate the masculinized ideal academic norm; and the award of a UFHRD Small Research Grant supporting research on aging and social inclusion in the workplace: Fading to Grey or shining brightly? Enhancing social inclusion through HRD.

Health and Life Sciences

A ‘Research Application Toolkit’ has been developed in Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation to embed EDI considerations in funding applications and research. Once approved there is potential for this to be shared more widely. 

Centre for Health and Social Equity

Trauma and trauma-informed approaches

A working group was established to look at trauma and trauma informed approaches, and how we embed these. The work is focused on trauma in students, staff and research participants and will examine how we can become more trauma informed.  A set of intranet resources are planned, to support conversations around trauma and trauma informed practice across the university.

CPD Modules

A suite of level 4 CPD modules with no entry criteria is being developed for our public members to access. This focusses on peer and participatory approaches to research, and is funded in part by Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear NHS Trust. 

Expert by Experience Strategy

HLS has developed a strategy to develop ‘Expert by Experience’ (EbE) involvement and co-production.  The EbE committee, inputs into teaching, research and knowledge exchange activities.  This aligns with our professional bodies requirements for delivering courses that are fit for purpose and supports us in fulfilling our research funders requirements of engaging with communities.

Health Inequalities Symposium

Co-hosted by CHASE and , the ‘Nothing about us without us: bridging the research to impact gap for South Asian and Muslim (SAM) communities’ symposium was held in July. Topics included public involvement, health literacy, mental health, the inclusion of Halal options in public institutions’ menus, organ donations, addictions, cancer screening, and social interventions to tackle loneliness. The event finished by the collective commitment to keep the momentum initiated by the symposium through the creation of a network with regular meetings and events to foster collaborative working, research and the adoption of evidence-based practice. 

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