Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The School of Geographical and Earth Sciences has an active Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee, which has worked closely with staff and students across GES to co-develop and co-deliver a suite of activities designed to improve work and study place culture. E&D@GES is the local name for a programme of activity linked to the Advance HE Equality Charters.
In 2023, we launched a new model of delivery where EDI principles are mainstreamed and embedded in every activity we do in the school. The EDI together approach allows the GES community of scholars, students, technicians and professional staff to work together to create an inclusive, positive and nurturing work and study culture. Together, we are committed to tackling gender, race, LGBTQ+, disability and age inequality through an open, sensitive and transformative approach that we embed across the School. GES hosts regular social, wellness and career development events, and works closely with the College of Science and Engineering’s (CoSE) EDI officer and committee to co-organise events across the college around EDI themes (e.g. sisability in 2023).
The EDI committee operates as a focus for this work, where staff in the GES community can share progress on their EDI actions and activities, gain support and share their ideas. It brings together postgraduate students, academic and professional staff from a broad range of job families and career stages across the school.
GES held an Athena SWAN Silver Award (2017-22) where it successfully delivered a large number (>40) of actions to improve working culture and conditions in GES. Notable achievements over this period were successes in retention and promotion of female staff in all academic job families, the regrading of professional and technical services staff and successfully meeting or exceeding our benchmarks for the number of female:male students in the school. Moreover, new initiatives were put in place to improve work-life balance including inclusive meeting times and welcoming families to school social events.
In November 2023, we submitted Silver Renewal Action Plan (SRAP) Application to Advanced HE, recognising this commitment to addressing gender and intersectional inequality in Higher Education. Our new action plan will continue to make progress on EDI issues that are part of continuous improvement in the school and identifies new activities designed to improve gender and intersectional equality in the School.
We take an intersectional approach to addressing inequality and cover issues including:
- Effective data capture to track our progress on EDI matters
- Workplace culture, including promoting positive and addressing negative workplace culture
- Tackling intersectional inequalities
- Supporting career and personal transitions
