The University was founded upon the principles of equality and established to provide education on the basis of merit.
Page
Strategic Activities
The Office for Equality and Inclusion work to develop, monitor, and implement our strategic equality objectives.
In 2022-2023, the 91app has focused on initiating work to deliver on our key strategic equality objectives (and associated actions) that we have set out in the Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2021–2025. We have proactively engaged with our duty as part of the public sector equality duty and have done so across all our areas of work and expertise, striving to bring a whole institutional approach to equality, diversity, and inclusion. As we move into the final year of our strategic period, we intend to focus on continuing to complete associated actions, developing conditions for fostering good relations, and beginning to develop a new strategic approach from 2025 onwards.
Further information on our strategic impact and progress is available in our annual reports.
Equality and Inclusion Strategy
In 2021, we formally reviewed our priorities for equality and inclusion and developed the University’s Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2021 - 2025. This strategy aims to build on and enable the delivery of 91app’s mission, values and strategic objectives that are set out in the University Strategy “Transforming education: Creating futures (2020–2025)”.
The 91app’s strategic aim as set out in the University Strategy 2020–2025 is:
“To enrich our academic work in the pursuit of excellence in education, research and knowledge exchange through collaboration with our Member Institutions; developing academic programmes, networks and partnerships that further our federation’s goals across London, the UK and internationally.”
Our Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2021–2025 is focused on enabling the delivery of the following 3 objectives that are set out in the University Strategy:
- Furthering our position as the UK’s leading provider of distance learning worldwide, delivering cutting-edge programmes to increased numbers of people who can benefit most from education.
- Stimulating innovative intellectual exchange and effective public engagement, drawing on our expertise across the University in the humanities, distance learning, careers and employability, and inclusivity/ widening access.
- Developing and continuously adapting our organisation and capacity to anticipate the university of the future.
Our ambition for Equality and Inclusion as set out in the University Strategy is:
- To ensure that our commitment to equality, inclusion and access is a key business imperative that underpins the actions we take to transform people’s lives through education.
- To use the lens of equality and inclusion in all areas of our work with students, staff, and partners and co-create solutions to widen participation, improve access and ensure success.
- To actively tackle racism, sexism, homophobia, disablism, religious and all other forms of discrimination and exclusion and enable our students and staff to realise their full potential.
- To collaborate with member institutions and other partners (within London and beyond) to develop thought leadership, and innovative policy and practice that supports us to improve equality and inclusion outcomes.
The strategic equality and inclusion objectives and associated deliverables for 2021- 25 that we have set for the University are:
- Achieve the Race Equality Charter (Bronze) award
- Improve the confidence of our staff and students in reporting harassment and discrimination and seeking support
- Adopt a systematic approach to ensuring a genuinely international curriculum
- Improve our students’ attainment
- Develop an inclusive career development pathway and advancement pipeline for all our staff, including our early career academics
