In the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, we are working hard to create a positive work environment, fostering employee engagement, and nurturing a culture that aligns with our values and goals. Our People and Culture function co-creates a workplace which is fair, just and inclusive.
In line with the King’s Vision 2029, in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, we are striving to build an inclusive community where our students, staff and visitors feel welcomed and valued and where people’s experiences and outcomes are equitable across groups. As a faculty dedicated to delivering world-leading education and research in the biomedical and health sciences, we have a responsibility to ensure that our work is accessible and benefits all societal groups in the UK and globally.
Our Diversity, Development & Inclusion (DDI) Team comprises a core team and a committee made up of DDI leads for each school and representatives from research and technical staff. Our work applies equality, diversity and inclusion principles including an intersectional approach to understanding people’s experiences across the nine protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation). The People and Culture team also work on projects relating to organisational development and learning and development across FoLSM.
Current priorities
As we develop our new People and Culture strategy (launch 2023/2024), we remain committed to our current priorities to:
- Increase the diversity of our staff population to better reflect our diverse student body;
- Eliminate inequalities in student experience and outcomes observed across different student groups;
- Build knowledge, understanding and advocacy within our staff and student community of the importance of respect, inclusion and equity;
- Reduce experiences of bullying and harassment.
Current projects
As we develop our new People and Culture strategy (launch 2023/2024), we remain committed to our current priorities to:
- Developing People and Culture strategy 2024
- Athena Swan silver renewal 2024
- Staff survey response and action plan
- Improving alignment with university activities and initiatives
- Progressing inclusive education and research culture
What we contribute to
Inclusive Culture
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Research Culture
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Athena Swan Charter is a framework used to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE). When it was launched in 2005, it focussed on advancing the careers of women in science, in particular aiming to improve the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) in higher education. The Charter now works to progress gender equality more broadly and covers work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law, in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students.
The College holds a silver institutional award and departments within the Faculty have held Athena Swan awards since 2014; in 2018, the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine was recognised with a Faculty Athena SWAN Silver award as recognition of our ongoing commitment to achieving gender equality and an inclusive environment.
Athena Swan website
While Race Equality Charter awards are only awarded at institutional level, we are working on our race equality activity within the Faculty. We own a number of actions within the College’s Race Equality Action Plan, particularly focussing on improving inclusive leadership of our senior leadership teams and profile-raising events for Black staff and alumni. There is more we need to do to drive race equality across our community and we are committed to make strong progress.
Race Equality Charter website