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Student Experience Directorate

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Welcome to our Staff EDI Intranet Page, a dedicated space for fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion across our directorate.

Here, you’ll find tools and resources to support your learning and development, along with updates on key actions from staff surveys and our EDI action plans.

This platform also features the Staff EDI and Wellbeing Form, offering a confidential avenue to share your feedback, experiences, and best practices. Together, we aim to create an inclusive, supportive environment where every voice is valued.

2024-25 plan

The Student Experience EDI Action Plan 24-25 [PDF 242KB] has been developed in collaboration with the directorate’s EDI Committee, reinforcing our ongoing commitment to advancing Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).

We remain dedicated to supporting our staff through the development and implementation of this second EDI Action Plan for the directorate. Robust processes are in place to ensure the tracking, monitoring, and reporting of each action’s outcomes within the Plan.

Updates are shared with the EDI Committee and staff across the directorate through regular all-staff Update Meetings and on this page:

Progress Report (November 2024) 

1. Business Continuity Planning 
A guidance document, Managers' Guide to Dealing with Incidents, has been developed and distributed to all Student Experience managers. This document serves as an appendix to the Business Continuity Plan, empowering managers to address incidents at the local level effectively. 

2. Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) 
This year, a goal was set to conduct four in-depth Equality Impact Assessments, with managers receiving support to collaborate on these assessments and determine additional necessary EIAs. Staff involved in projects, activities, or procedural changes will be encouraged to complete EIA training, laying a foundational understanding of how to carry out effective assessments. 

3. EDI Interview Questions 
Work is underway to create a standardised pool of EDI questions for the Student Experience interview process, in consultation with the EDI Committee. A draft of this document has been submitted to the committee and will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. 

4. Management Training in EDI 
Progress continues on identifying suitable external training resources for staff, beyond the mandatory programs. Options under review include both external providers and in-house "train the trainer" programs, ensuring accessible and comprehensive EDI training for managers within the Student Experience directorate. 

5. Reciprocal Mentoring Program 
Engagement with the upcoming university Reciprocal Mentoring program is anticipated. Further information is awaited from the EDI HR department regarding the programme’s structure and promotion strategy across all staff groups. 

2023-24 plan

The Student Experience Directorate prioritises embedding EDI across all activities. To support staff, we developed the Student Experience EDI Action Plan 23-24 [PDF 175KB] with the EDI committee and Chris Shelley, tracking progress on agreed outputs listed below:

  • Establish a directorate Exit Interview process to enable sharing of learnings.
  • Promote Aurora development programme to our staff who identify as women and support applications to increase the number of places given to SE staff.
  • Promote the Parents and Carers Network to staff in this category and support their involvement in attendance at this forum.
  • Promote other women’s professional development programmes available e.g. Springboard, Carer’s Development Fund.
  • Work with the HR team to ensure our roles are advertised to attract the widest pool of candidates.
  • Set up directorate EDI Committee and support their development as individuals and a group, support communication with staff to identify issues and ideas and provide administrative support for projects they wish to lead or monitor.
  • Agree with EDI Committee a plan for engaging with staff on EDI issues, e.g. web form submissions, regular forums, drop-ins with senior staff.
  • Report progress on this Action Plan through the directorate EDI Committee.
  • Student Experience Directorate roles to be advertised with additional focus on flexibility to ensure applicants understand the flexible working options available.

The Student Experience Directorate EDI and Wellbeing Feedback Form is a permanent tool for all staff in the directorate to use to send in suggestions for things we could do to better support you, comments on activities we have run or raise general issues of concern if you are unsure of how else to do that.

It will enable you to communicate feedback of your experiences with the Director and, where appropriate, the directorate EDI Committee and you have that choice within the form. The form will be open all year round so can be used at any time.

This isn't a reporting form for incidents that require investigation - for that please use Report and Support - but if there are general issues of concern you wish to raise then that can be done through this form. The form can be submitted anonymously or not, it is up to you.

The form includes questions relating to EDI data for collection purposes only which would be used to identify trends and patterns and would not be used to identify you in any way. You can submit the form without providing this data if you prefer to.

We've put together a document outlining the Role of an EDI Committee member [DOC 22KB] and their key responsibilities. If you would like to find out more, or are interesting in joining, please get in touch for an informal chat.

You can also view our EDI Committee Terms of reference [PDF 511KB] or contact our committee members directly:

Join the Student Experience EDI Network Teams Site which has been established to help create a community where we can connect and post EDI related thoughts, discuss issues affecting us and share best practice.

Managers’ tools: Addressing Bullying and Harassment

  • Toolkit - Bullying and Harassment [PDF 1,626KB], covering
    • Setting expectations
    • Recognising and reporting bullying and harassment
    • Acting on concerns raised
    • This is a recently launched resource (published May 2024); the OPD Team will be working with local leaders to establish a way to ensure managers find the toolkit accessible and easy to navigate.

 

Staff guidance: Bullying and Harassment Overview

The section below is updated monthly to share relevant local news, events and positive impacts that we can see happening across our directorate.

EDI News

B-MEntor 2025 is now open for applications from mentors and mentees!

B-MEntor is a cross-institutional, London-wide mentoring scheme for Academic and Professional Services staff from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. The 2025 intake is now open for applications and expressions of interest must be registered by Monday, 6th January 2025.

You'll have the opportunity to grow and develop alongside colleagues from University College London, Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London, University of the Arts London, University of London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). 

The mentoring period will be approximately one year, and a training and support package is offered for all parties. The selection and matching of mentor and mentees will take place in late January 2025.

For further information and to register your interest, visit Queen Mary’s B-MEntor webpage, which provides detailed eligibility criteria. If you have any questions about the scheme, please contact Carol Malcolm (QM contact) or the UCL B-MEntor team. A full list of FAQs is also available on the UCL B-MEntor webpage.

EDI Events

At Queen Mary we mark and celebrate a number of equality, diversity and inclusion events throughout the year. The Awareness and Inclusion Calendar 2024/25 contains some notable dates in the EDI calendar - printed versions are available from the EDI team. 

If you are organising an equality, diversity and inclusion related event at Queen Mary and would like to see it appear on the EDI Calendar web page, please email the EDI team to let them know.

EDI Successes

We are pleased to share our EDI Committee Directorate Update November 2024 [PDF 574KB] which summarises our main achievements during our first year in action.

We also share our key priorities for the year ahead which are to:

  • Build and grow our SE EDI community,
  • Support progression and diversity in management,
  • Promote inclusive practice.

     

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