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Northumbria's inaugural Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) conference was held in June, showcasing the intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches that the Northumbria community takes to ensuring the University is an inclusive place to work and study. The event was opened by Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Andy Long and featured key-note speakers, workshops, presentations, seminars, and networking opportunities. Approximately 200 people attended the event including colleagues, students and regional partners.
Following a call for contributors to showcase research or an interdisciplinary approach to EDI, highlight lived experience or facilitate a workshop, over thirty expressions of interest were received from groups and individuals, who were all offered a space to exhibit their work, through presentations, workshop or as part of the project library. Participants were able to sign up for the various sessions in the agenda. Inclusion and accessibility were embedded into planning, with the provision of parenting facilities, prayer and quiet spaces throughout the day.
A selection of recordings, slides and posters are provided on the conference web page for those who were unable to attend.
Our second Shine Awards took place in June 2024, to celebrate colleagues and teams across the University who are committed to our Values and who personify our Behaviours.
One of the five awards is the Inclusivity Award which is for colleagues and teams who recognise, value and celebrate our diversity and collective expertise; and who practise and promote fairness, transparency and mutual respect, asking for and listening to feedback so that they can learn and improve. An outstanding 204 nominations were received, exceeding the 179 received last year.
Our worthy winners were presented with their award by members of the University Executive Team and all those shortlisted were also presented with a certificate in recognition of their outstanding contributions and commitment to embracing Northumbria Values and Behaviours.
During Disability History Month we provided online resources signposting to e-learning on Mental Health Language Awareness, a HIV and AIDS Awareness session for World AIDS day, Reasonable Adjustments Training and a session by Law Colleagues on Disability Discrimination in the Workplace. We also signposted to the support offered by the Student Accessibility Team, including how to request an assessment for Dyslexia or another Specific Learning Difficulty.
We marked Neurodiversity Celebration week with a Supporting Neurodivergent Team Members session facilitated by Lexxic aimed at line mangers. In May we published information about Global Accessibility Awareness Day and promoted the Accessibility Toolkits for staff and students and highlighted the work of the Digital Accessibility Working Group.
The Library piloted tours for neurodivergent students which following the success of the pilot has been developed into an established service for the new academic year. The team worked with the Neurodiverse Students President to develop these tours and handout materials. Feedback received so far has been very positive.
Multiple menopause events and sessions took place across the year, including training for line managers and Business and Laws’ Menopause Cafe. In Health and Life Sciences a Women’s Health Champion has been introduced to develop peer support across the Faculty.
The Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences received a request from the EDI Caucus project at Heriot-Watt to become a test site for its wor
k on menstrual health and (peri)menopause in a work setting. During a co-design workshop in July 2024, suggestions on improving working culture were made which were focussed on normalising practices and discussions.
A range of events were held to celebrate International Women’s Day. The Northumbria Women's Network arranged a networking lunch to discuss the network's
purpose and future direction. A screening was arranged of ‘Rattle Snake’, a theatre production by Open Clasp, which shows real-life stories of women who have faced and survived coercive controlling domestic abuse. The University IDRT lead presented the Group’s work on Gender Violence and Abuse. A talk by Alex Knight, the Founder & CEO of STEMAZING, a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to promoting Inspiration and Inclusion in STEM. was hosted in Engineering and Environment. Alex spoke about common barriers to diversity and inclusion and how we can all be a part of the solution.
As part of the annual international campaign, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence we held a second screening of the powerful ‘Rattle Snake’ production with Open Clasp. The annual campaign originating from the Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991, the annual international campaign commences on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and concludes on December 10, Human Rights Day.
During LGBTQ+ History Month in February, a range of events were held on campus. These included the Assemblage III Programme initiated by the Fine Arts Team, a series of public events designed to be part of and cultivate the local contemporary art scene in Newcastle and the surrounding region. A screening of 120BPM was held in collaboration with UNISON’s Year of the LGBT+ Worker. We offered two ‘T in Transgender’ workshops and funding for six places on an online webinar ‘Is Sport a Safe Place for LGBTQ+ Women and Non-Binary Participants’.
Various LGBTQ+ events were marked throughout the year including Trans Day of Visibility, Lesbian Visibility Week, International Non-Binary People’s Day and Bi-Visibility Day and IDAHOBIT with online information, resources and signposting. During LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June, rainbow banners were raised across campus celebrating Northumbria as a LGBTQ+ friendly campus.
Northumbria’s annual PRIDE Breakfast was once again a great success, hosted in Habita by the Student Union, and supported by the LGBTQ* Staff Network and the EDI Team. Participants enjoyed a varied breakfast, face painting, therapy dogs, music, karaoke, giveaways as well as participating in crafts and banner making before leaving to join the PRIDE march from the Civic Centre.
The Pandon Building is the primary hub for Professional Services teams at Northumbria. The four floors of the building are themed over continents with meeting rooms named after major cities on each continent where the University has business and research links.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community expressed concerns about a small number of rooms which were named after locations where being LGBTQ+ is illegal, and the LGBTQ+ law is not reflective of the UK’s position. This did not align with Northumbria’s values as an LGBTQ+ inclusive campus, and in the summer rooms on the Lower Ground Floor were renamed after cities which the University has business links with, where no one can be criminalised for their LGBTQ+ identity.
To broaden colleague knowledge, we hosted two awareness sessions; an Islamophobia awareness session delivered by Tell MAMA, and an Antisemitism awareness session organised by the Community Security Trust and the Union of Jewish Students.
We hosted the Fate Unknown exhibition from the Weiner Holocaust Library, inviting colleagues from the Library to provide a public lecture and exhibition viewing in November.
We hosted the ‘We are here: Inspirational Women’ exhibition, with content created by the Discovery Museum’s community-led Exchange Steering Group. The exhibition showcased inspirational stories of exceptional women who enrich north-east communities in medicine, healthcare, science, education, activism and politics.
ADSS held screening of Inner Gods, a locally made film, reflecting on the effects of the Covid pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
We have continued our participation in the ongoing Pro:North East project. The project involves the five universities in the North-East, widening access and participation for racially minoritised students and staff in postgraduate research.
We also continued our support for the Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showman & Boaters (GTRSB) Pledge, and hosted a talk on “The circus: a personal research journey”.
A series of videos to celebrate cultural diversity were created by the student ambassadors. These were based on the human or living library concept and involved short interviews with students discussing their culture and heritage and what it means to them, their sense of belonging within the University and what we can do better as a University and as a Library.
The Amplifying Inclusion: Research and Conversation series continued into 23/24 for a second series featuring three episodes, the final featuring as part of the NU EDI Conference 2024.
The series was borne from the desire to facilitate conversations which enlighten, express, and engage attendees in topics relevant to equity, diversity, social justice, and activism. It provides a platform to uncover and amplify the truths found in research and practice, whilst supplying a shared space for our students and colleagues to listen, absorb and discuss.
Across the year, 115 colleagues and students attended Amplifying Inclusion.
Two dedicated quiet rooms were introduced in the Business and Law Building this year to provide spaces for people to rest, relax, meditate, pray, or take time to recharge. More widely a brief is being developed for the provision of further quiet and sensory spaces across the campus.
A new Professional Services Community (PSC) was established in Business and Law for Faculty and Faculty-aligned Professional, Technical and Operational colleagues, aimed towards raising awareness of, and building respect for one another’s roles. The Group has met twice during the reporting period.
To support Network Co-chairs in serving their communities and developing resilience and capacity within the Networks, we invited EMBED Inclusion in to deliver a bespoke session ‘The Power of EDI Staff Networks’ to empower Co-chairs and support them in the valuable work they do in the employee networks.
Over the past year the Network has continued to grow, welcoming new members.
In 2023 the Network published a statement on the topic of Where Are You Really From. This question can often by followed by "No, where are you really from?" A seemingly straightforward line of questioning, what can appear to be a perfectly innocuous thing to ask can make people feel uncomfortable, frustrated and "othered". The statement was intended to help employees at Northumbria University understand the daily experiences of network members, supposedly minor moments that shape our everyday lives, and how they have to navigate through spaces that on the surface appear to be safe but can be rife with complexity.
The Network also discussed the Baroness Casey Review, a review into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service. The findings are relevant to any large institution active within the United Kingdom today. It is important to note that it is the tenacity of people of colour and women in disclosing their experiences and challenging the behaviour that has led to this important inquiry, reinforcing why Networks like ours are important.
The Away Day in December 2023 was the Network’s first opportunity to meet collectively since the beginning of the BAME Network. The objectives of the meeting were to revisit the Network ethos and Terms of Reference; to explore what members can do as a collective ‘by us and for us’; to re-consider the naming of the Network; to understand the range of member’s expectations, against what the university is doing; and to build capacity amongst the Network to effect change.
This year, the Network expanded its operations by establishing ‘Dad Chat’ and ‘Mum Chat’ as social forums that normalised open discussion of parenthood amongst colleagues in various departments in the University. The Network continues to offer a daily space for parents and carers to support each other and share resources that equalise knowledge of relevant policies and statutory entitlements.
The Chair of the network has been active in a national scale research project connecting the Northumbria University Network with other parents and carers networks across the UK higher education sector. The project has culminated in the creation of a toolkit for parents and carers members. The Chair has now become co-chair of the national network of Parents and Carers Networks in HEIs known as UK PACT (Parents and Carers Together).
In June 2024, a day workshop was held that brought parents and carers networks together in person in Newcastle upon Tyne. This burgeoning community will increasingly work together to speak for parents and carers across the UK HEI sector.
Based on the ties that have been fostered between UK networks, we recently shared a UCAS guide for student parents that was developed at Chester University. The Network encourages this guide to be disseminated to all programme leaders via the EDI Faculty directors.
In September and July of the academic year, the Network invited all members to join a social gathering to encourage a sense of community and belonging between parents and carers. There are plans to introduce a new Carer’s Network that will be institutionally aligned and should offer fresh impetus to create a community for carer colleagues at Northumbria University.
The Women’s Network have a Steering Group who have held monthly meetings to discuss the organisation of new events and identify a themes and actions.
The Women's Network have an active Teams site which has been developed to support communication across University.
An event was held for International Women’s Day, with a viewing of a documentary and discussion around the results of a survey that aimed to restructure the NU Women’s Network as a space for women's inclusion and belonging within Northumbria.
LGBTQ+ Network
The Network has continued to be a valuable source of support to its’ members. This year the Network revised its leadership and expanded the Number of Co-Chairs to five. Terms of reference were redefined to reflect the needs of the members; Support – Connect – Represent – Empower. Co-chairs met with colleagues in the University Executive and Governance to discuss freedom of speech in relation to gender critical debates on campus, to agree appropriate levels of communication with the Networks so that those affected by such debates can be supported.
The Network has continued to provide Pride themed lanyards to colleagues, raised Pride Banners across the campus during Pride Month and supported the Pride Annual Breakfast in July, held in collaboration with the Student Union. The Network benefits from close links with Unison, members attended Unison’s LGBTQ Workers Lesbian Visibility Day event, and the IDAHOBIT event at the Civic Centre. They also hosted an interactive poster presentation on ‘What Makes you Proud?’ at the EDI Conference.
Northumbria Sport are continuously looking to develop activity that fosters inclusion and creates a sense of belonging for our students. After an extremely successful launch in January 2023 through accessing BUCS Active 5 funding, Northumbria Sport committed to continuing our Intramural Kwik Cricket League in 2023/24. Through reducing the barrier of travel and providing all equipment, we were able to engage with 48 students 73.3% being postgraduate students and over 90% being from ethnic minority groups.
In August 2023 Northumbria Sport were successful in a joint application for the BUCS Referee Development Fund with Newcastle University, which upskilled 16 referees with 50% being from widening participation groups. This enabled our leagues to be officiated by the referees who completed the course, which will contribute creating an environment that champions inclusion and a sense of belonging.
Northumbria Sport were also delighted to support the rainbow laces campaign which saw over 400 laces worn in our sport clubs in October, this underlined our commitment to ensure all our students feel a sense of belonging with our clubs. Over the next academic year, we will introduce our Wellbeing Walks programme that will give students the opportunity to explore Newcastle with facilitate walking sessions. These sessions will specifically target our underrepresented groups to ensure all student feel included in sport at the University.
Open Days are a great way for you to get a feel of the University, the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the course(s) you are interested in.
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