[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ specialty=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column_inner saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_post_title featured_placement=”above” _builder_version=”4.16″ locked=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.9″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
As we bring The University of Manchester’s first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate what we have achieved, reflect on what we have learned and consider the University we want to become.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Having spent two years as Executive Director of EDI at Manchester, I have seen the extraordinary commitment to inclusion that exists across our institution. I have also come to believe that our greatest opportunity lies not in doing more EDI, but in being explicit about what excellence means for our University, and recognising that inclusion is fundamental to achieving it. If our campus, teaching and learning, social and civic engagement, research, innovation and the ways we study and work are not inclusive, can we really consider them excellent? Our ambition must be to ensure that inclusion is intrinsic to everything we do, rather than something we seek to “do\u201d alongside it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is the ambition at the heart of our new EDI Framework<\/a> and our journey towards Manchester 2035.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our first EDI Strategy, launched in 2022, established an institutional ambition, strengthened governance and helped bring greater coherence and accountability to our EDI work.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Four years on, we have progress to celebrate. Representation of disabled academic colleagues at Senior Lecturer level and above has increased by 75%. We have seen a 58% increase in the proportion of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues at Lecturer level, and increases of 27% at both Senior Lecturer\/Reader and professorial levels. Female representation has increased by 13% at Senior Lecturer\/Reader level and 14% at professorial level.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Within Professional Services we have maintained gender parity, representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues at grades 7 and 8 has increased by 44%, while disabled colleagues represented at grade 7 and above has increased by 43%.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our achievements extend beyond representation. We have strengthened our policies and inclusive practices, invested in leadership development, made progress in addressing inequalities in promotion and student outcomes, and improved access and participation. Our progress has been\u00a0recognised externally too,\u00a0with achievements including Athena Swan Silver, Race Equality Charter Silver and Disability Confident leader status.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our faculties have also seen progress in embedding EDI. In Science and Engineering, accessibility audits are helping shape more inclusive learning and working environments. Humanities has introduced dedicated promotion workshops for underrepresented colleagues. In Biology, Medicine and Health, Excellence in Diversity PhD Scholarships are opening doors to postgraduate research. We have also significantly strengthened partnership working between our faculties and the EDI Directorate, laying the foundations for what comes next.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The progress we\u2019ve made is significant, especially at a time when equality and progress is increasingly contested. And we should recognise that progress – our university community has worked hard, together, to achieve it. It shows that change is possible and that our actions can make a real difference. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But we have not achieved every EDI ambition we set ourselves. And we must be<\/span> honest about how far we still must go to achieve parity in representation and outcomes and equity in experience. Inequality remains, and it\u2019s unacceptable. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Consultation undertaken to develop our new EDI Framework found that there remains a gap between institutional progress and the everyday lived experiences of colleagues and students. Improvements in representation, policies and training have not consistently translated into a sense of belonging. And data continues to highlight concerning experiences of bullying, harassment and discrimination, while inequalities in outcomes and opportunities persist.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This distinction matters: representation does not necessarily create belonging, policies must be implemented equitably to feel fair, and training alone does not always change everyday behaviours.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Recognising this does not diminish our achievements. It helps us understand what we must attend to now and in the future.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Closing this gap between our progress and\u00a0people’s lived experience is our defining EDI ambition for the next decade.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout my time at Manchester, I have been struck by the willingness of people to share their experiences, including those that are difficult or uncomfortable to share and for the institution to hear. But listening creates a responsibility to act.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We must ensure that lived experience informs change. This means working across complex structures and boundaries, with colleagues and students as trusted partners, so their contributions shape decisions and lead to tangible improvements.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It also means recognising how we engage with one another, particularly when we disagree. Universities should be places where different perspectives can be expressed, challenged and debated. We will not always agree, nor should we expect to. But we can choose to engage constructively, with kindness, curiosity and respect, and to disagree well without diminishing one another.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From Manchester for the world<\/span><\/i>\u00a0describes ‘<\/span>mattering<\/span> as knowing that your views help shape decisions, your study and work drives change, and your presence makes a difference in our shared future.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For me, this is a powerful expression of what genuine inclusion should be and the\u00a0kind of institution we will become.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At a time when many organisations are retreating from EDI, our university is choosing to lean in. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Manchester is a city with a proud history of challenging injustice and fighting for progress. From the campaigners for democratic reform at Peterloo, to the suffragettes and those who marched against Section 28. That history feels particularly important now, as we live through a time of growing division and hostility. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Progress is neither inevitable nor irreversible, and we cannot take the safety and sense of belonging of our communities for granted. In this environment, the choices we make about how we treat one another and the kind of community we build together matter deeply.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over the past 18 months, we have developed our new EDI Framework, <\/a><\/span>A Place Where You Matter<\/span><\/i>, informed by engagement with our community and independent analysis of our strengths and challenges.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And as we close our first EDI Strategy and look ahead, I want to thank the many students and colleagues\u00a0whose commitment has driven meaningful progress, and whose honest insights have shaped our new framework.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For me, the true measure of our success in 2035 will not be the number of EDI initiatives delivered, the recognition received or representation alone. Success will be whether we have closed the gap between our institutional commitment to inclusion and the experiences of our students and colleagues.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That is the opportunity before us, and one I believe The University of Manchester, with the full commitment of our University Executive, is uniquely placed to embrace.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you have any questions or want to join the conversation, you can join Sarah, Professor Duncan Ivison and colleagues from across the University at our next Townhall on Monday 16 November, to explore what it this all means in practice, and discuss what we can all do next.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sign up to attend in person,<\/a> and submit questions in advance via Menti.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav in_same_term=”off” prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” _builder_version=”4.16″ locked=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_post_nav][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_comments][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”4.16″ locked=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n As we bring The University of Manchester’s first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate what we have achieved, reflect on what we have learned and consider the University we want to become.\u00a0 Having spent two years as Executive Director of EDI at Manchester, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":4268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-edi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4273,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4003\/revisions\/4273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lots done, lots to do<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
The University we want to become\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
Creating a Place Where Everyone <\/span><\/b>Matters<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Rachel Cowen and Ad\u00e8le MacKinlay: Driving gender equity - our journey so far<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Stephanie Lee: Improving outcomes for talented students from all backgrounds during a pandemic<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
EDI Matters: Responding inclusively to transition and recovery<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
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Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>