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Equality and Diversity

Equality and Diversity word cloud super imposed over the close-up illustration of a human eye

Improving Diversity and Inclusion across the Faculty

The Faculty’s new Equality and Inclusion working group is composed of both students and staff and has begun work on various initiatives to improve inclusion across the Faculty.


Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Remit

The remit of the committee was originally established by Faculty Board in 2020 following a suggested remit from the previous Equality and Inclusion Working group.

The committee is responsible for:

  • establishing general principles for increasing equality, diversity and inclusion.
  • establishing and enacting local processes for reporting grievances, including mechanisms for investigating and resolving these, including aligning these with wider University of Cambridge processes, where possible.
  • proposing a set of action items around matters such as hiring and retention, the curriculum, diversity of the student body, and so on.
  • establish policies and practices to enable the review of the existing structures and processes that inhibit progress in this area and proposing a set of action items.

Membership

  • Sharine Ayling
  • Ricardo Sabates Aysa (Interim Chair)
  • Beth Barker
  • Karen Coats
  • Zahra Grieve
  • Blanka Grzegorczyk
  • Sara Hennessy
  • Sakina Jafri
  • Kathryn Moeller
  • Jane Rex
  • Kate Rigby
  • Maha Shuayb
  • Janice Tai (Secretary)
  • Mark Winterbottom (Interim Chair)
  • Lingling Zhing

Meetings

Twice a term

2023/24

  • 25 October 2023
  • 5 December 2023
  • 13 February 2024
  • 16 April 2024
  • 4 June 2024
  • 16 July 2024

Statement from the Equality and Inclusion Working Group

We, colleagues representing the Faculty of Education’s Equality and Inclusion Working Group, stand in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and other global communities calling attention to systemic racism.

Unless we are from Black communities, we cannot truly understand the deep-rooted and justified anger, anxiety, fear and frustrations felt about the killing of George Floyd and the wider lived experiences of racism and oppression faced by broader marginalised communities, but we see and acknowledge the systemic failings which have brought us here today. Change is long overdue.

In support of, and inspired by, protest

We support and are inspired by protests in the US and around the world responding to the unjust killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other BIPOC. We sincerely hope that recent events in the US alongside the solidarity shown across nations and communities will make people, particularly White communities, think about the human impact of discrimination.

We recognise that Black communities have suffered a long history of varied and violent colonial projects across the world and their associated “racial violence, terror, exploitation and long-term harm”. We also recognise the injustices, marginalisation and segregation that Black communities continue to face.

Robust engagement with the University's Race Equality Charter (REC)

We have a long way to travel for the equity to which we aspire, but we are committed to social justice and change for good. Robust engagement with the University’s Race Equality Charter (REC) work is central to our agenda.

Our aims

Our aim is to be a force for change within the Faculty of Education in aspects of the wider REC action plan.

We also aim to celebrate and champion those staff and students addressing and confronting racial inequalities at the Faculty and beyond. As we work to improve, we recognise the disproportionate labour of BIPOC colleagues and students in educating White colleagues and students.

We commit to sharing that labour better and to supporting those who have suffered in the context of our past and ongoing failures.

As a diverse Working Group, we are also aware of our particular privileges, and we feel strongly about addressing these to benefit our whole Education community at the Faculty and beyond. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, its disproportionate effect on BAME communities, and the economic, cultural, and political precarity in which so many people live, we stand in solidarity with all students, staff and alumni. In particular, we stand shoulder to shoulder with marginalised groups across our Faculty and University community and pledge to drive for change.

Read the Vice Chancellor’s statement

Further support

For anyone who needs support related to the events surrounding the killing of George Floyd, we especially recommend the following sites:

Sincerely and in solidarity

The Equality and Inclusion Working Group


New Initiatives

Current projects include:

  • training for staff and students,
  • improved hiring practices,
  • representation for equality issues in Faculty governance,
  • embedding diversity in strategic planning,
  • a system to champion areas identified for improvement.

The University of Cambridge Equality and Diversity website provides further information on E&D including policies related to E&D, new initiatives, E&D events and training.

Quick Links

Committee Members area (Raven Required)

University E&D