Race Equality Charter
Improving the representation, progression and success of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff and students within higher education.
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The Race Equality Charter (REC) is an important national charter mark aimed at improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students in higher education in the United Kingdom.
The REC framework enables universities to identify and critically reflect on the institutional barriers faced by minority ethnic staff and students. The charter acts as an avenue for the University to raise the profile of race equality and maintain dialogue about what race equality looks like in practice at St Andrews.
By better understanding and addressing the experience of minority ethnic staff and students at St Andrews, we will be able to make meaningful and lasting interventions in areas such as staff recruitment, representation, pay gaps and progression; student admissions, representation and attainment; discrimination, bullying and harassment; and curriculum reform.
The Race Equality Charter scheme is run by Advance HE.
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No, not yet. But we are determined that equality, diversity, and inclusion will be at the heart of the St Andrews experience, and that’s why the University will be applying for a Bronze Award under the Race Equality Charter scheme in early 2024.
The Race Equality Charter is underpinned by five fundamental guiding principles:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Black, Asian 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.
- All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever possible.
To gain charter status, we need to acknowledge and embrace these principles, to act on them, and to develop an action plan which demonstrates clearly how we will address and overcome inequalities in our university, and drive long-term culture change.
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Understanding the lived experience of our minority ethnic staff and students is vital, as is being able to identify the areas, practices, attitudes, and cultures in St Andrews which need to change.
As a key part of the preparation for our submission to the Race Equality Charter scheme, we are carrying out a detailed survey of all students and staff.
We will follow that survey up with targeted focus groups, and share and publish the results of the survey in ways which allow us to reflect critically on ourselves, and on the institution.
The Race Equality Charter Action Plan will include short, medium and long-term actions to be implemented over a period of up to five years. We will be taking forward these actions, regardless of the Race Equality Charter application outcome, because this is consistent with the values we hold as an institution. Moreover, it is the right thing to do.
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To gain a charter mark, we need to show that our whole-institution culture is sensitive to the challenges our minority ethnic colleagues and students face.
In February 2022, St Andrews appointed Dr Akira O’Connor, of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, to be the Chair of our Race Equality Charter bid, to lead and coordinate the institutional efforts required to fulfil St Andrews’ ambitions to achieve Race Equality Charter status.
Dr O’Connor has set up a Self-Assessment Team, responsible for generating and implementing the Race Equality Charter action plan. To make targeted progress on key issues, the Self-Assessment Team includes four Working Groups:
1) The Student Lifecycle – chaired by Dr Dharini Balasubramaniam (dharini@st-andrews.ac.uk)
2) The Staff Lifecycle – chaired by Dr Prabs Dehal (pkd@st-andrews.ac.uk)
3) The Curriculum – chaired by Dr Amritesh Singh (as587@st-andrews.ac.uk)
4) Culture – chaired by Dr Catherine Dunford (cd41@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Each Working Group comprises staff and students who will examine the data, listen to peoples’ experiences, and generate actions that advance race equality at the University.
The responsibility for these actions will sit with senior colleagues, including the Vice-Principal, People and Diversity, who sit on the Self-Assessment Team.
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One of the first major pieces of work we will be undertaking is a detailed survey of all staff and students at St Andrews. The Race Equality Charter Survey will help us to understand how race and ethnicity affect the experiences of studying and working at the University.
The aggregated data will be used to generate a Race Equality Survey Report and will contribute to a five-year Race Equality Charter Action Plan, both of which will be made publicly available.
Find out more and take the survey.
We have started a programme of open fora, drop-in lunches, and events that you can find out more about on the University's online events calendar. Whatever your experience of race and ethnicity at St Andrews, please attend and join the conversation.
If you have suggestions for Race Equality Charter actions or activities, please email Dr Akira O’Connor at recchair@st-andrews.ac.uk. If you are interested in contributing to the working groups, please email the Working Group Chairs.