King's receives Race Equality Bronze Award

King’s College London is one of eight universities to receive the first ever Race Equality Charter Award for its work on race equality.

A national framework managed by the Equality Challenge Unit, the Race Equality Charter (REC) aims to improve representation and success of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students and staff in higher education. King’s successfully went through a rigorous application process, but showed dedication and commitment to improve race equality amongst staff and students at the university by organising various initiatives such as unconscious bias training and consultation events with BME staff & students. 30 institutions signed up to participate in the Race Equality Charter Mark trial, 21 submitted applications and only eight universities received the Bronze Award.

Chris Mottershead, Vice - Principal  (Research & Innovation) and Champion for Diversity & Inclusion commented: ‘Obtaining the Award was hard work, but reflected a real team effort by the Diversity & Inclusion Team, the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Staff Network and the cross-university Self-Assessment Team who steered the process.  These Awards help to give our diversity and inclusion work a sense of focus and purpose, and my observation is that we are now making huge strides in this area which are reflected in altered attitudes and new activity across the whole organisation, which is the only way we will generate the desired shift in culture.'

Left - right: Dr Shubulade Smith, Dr Bernadine Idowu, President & Principal Professor Ed Byrne, Dr Sylvane Desrivieres, Dr Kawal Rhode, Dr Susan John and Dr. Baljinder Mankoo 

Jo Johnson MP, Universities and Science Minister added: ‘These awards recognise the hard work of many universities to improve diversity on campus. This Government is committed to ensuring everybody has the opportunity to benefit from higher education, and want to see 20 per cent more BME students entering HE by 2020. The Race Equality Charter is a welcome step towards helping meet that common goal.’

The other universities to receive the Bronze Award are: De Montfort University, Kingston University, Royal Holloway University London, Staffordshire University, University College of London and University of Manchester.

For further information about the Diversity & Inclusion team visit here.

For more information about King’s, visit the King’s in Brief web pages.