Race Equality Charter Mark

Queen Mary University of London seeks to be the most inclusive university of our kind, anywhere, by 2030. We are proud to be a university that opens the doors of opportunity to anyone with the potential to succeed. We are also proud to celebrate how diverse our communities are, with over 170 nationalities and 75% of our undergraduate students coming from a Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic background.

To ensure we are advancing race equality at QMUL, we are using the Advance HE Race Equality Charter Mark (REC). The REC provides a framework through which institutions work to identify and self-reflect on institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of minority ethnic staff and students. An essential part of this process is hearing from our staff and students about their experiences.

Queen Mary became a signatory of the REC in 2018. The REC is underpinned by five fundamental guiding principles:

1. Racial inequalities are a significant issue within higher education. Racial inequalities are not necessarily overt, isolated incidents. Racism is an everyday facet of UK society and racial inequalities manifest themselves in everyday situations, processes and behaviours.
2. UK higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population and until individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords.
3. In developing solutions to racial inequalities, it is important that they are aimed at achieving long-term institutional culture change, avoiding a deficit model where solutions are aimed at changing the individual.
4. Minority ethnic staff and students are not a homogenous group. People from different ethnic backgrounds have different experiences of and outcomes from/within higher education, and that complexity needs to be considered in analysing data and developing actions.
5. All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever possible.

Race Equality Charter: Student Survey
Queen Mary’s Race Equality Charter Student Survey will launch on 15 May and be open until 28 May. 

The Race Equality Charter Student Survey will help us to understand our students experiences of studying at Queen Mary. The survey results will be used alongside the results from the Staff Race Equality Charter Survey to inform our five-year institutional action plan on how we aim to ensure our institution is a great place to work and study for all. 

We want every student to complete the survey. Please take some time to share your views and experiences. The REC Student Survey is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, regardless of race or ethnicity and all responses are completely confidential.

Our students feedback will add to the understanding of race equality at Queen Mary that our Race Equality Action Group is building. Maximising the number of students who respond to the survey will strengthen our rationale for the actions we identify and look to deliver to improve race equality at Queen Mary.

The survey will take around 10-15 minutes to complete, and respondents will have the opportunity to add any additional comments they would like to provide.