Equity, diversity and inclusion is under attack but it should be an increasingly important consideration for universities around the world. As student and staff populations become more diverse, it’s vital that we are creating environments where everyone feels safe, included and respected – a place where people feel that they belong, regardless of their individual identity and background.
Embed EDI in your institutional strategy
At my institution, EDI is integral to our “Creating Better Futures. Together” strategy. We’ve developed our first EDI core plan to foster an inclusive and equitable environment for everyone, particularly those from protected and marginalised groups.
The plan outlines how we can become an anti-discriminatory institution. It also helps to nurture an overarching sense of belonging and inclusion, reducing any gaps in the student and staff experience identified by belonging and inclusion surveys, such as the National Student Survey and our Staff Experience Survey.
- Extracurricular activities are powerful tools for building belonging
- Common barriers to belonging and how to overcome them
- Creating a culture of belonging with inclusive pedagogy
By embedding EDI within our institutional strategy, it is a guiding principle for everything we do across teaching, research and innovation.
Adopt key EDI initiatives
As EDI manager, I work to implement a clear vision. This involves helping develop a globally diverse mindset and cultural competency across the institution, adapting structures and processes to be more inclusive, and more appealing to under-represented colleagues and diverse student groups.
We pursue a number of initiatives that advance EDI, including the Race Equality Charter and the Athena Swan Charter, to improve race and gender equity. Both highlight our commitment to inclusion and belonging. I am also directly involved in two important initiatives designed to create a fairer and more inclusive environment: a development programme for senior leaders, and a series of panel discussions called Voices of Diversity.
Get senior leaders on board
Senior leadership buy-in is essential to advancing EDI across an institution. Secure it as soon as possible. An accountable leadership team, who demonstrate a commitment to EDI, will build trust and confidence across diverse communities – and should be a key priority for senior leaders across the world.
Furthermore, the ability to create environments that feel psychologically safe and inclusive for diverse groups requires a process of continual learning. To this effect, I lead institution-wide training programmes to upskill senior-level colleagues, and I am currently project-managing a university leadership EDI development programme.
This programme aims to support senior leaders in developing skills that enable them to be champions and role models for EDI – including empathy, humility and strategic thinking, centred around issues related to belonging and inclusion.
Make conversations happen
My approach to EDI and creating a sense of belonging aligns with the university’s core values: working in a responsible, authentic and collaborative way. With this in mind, I have created and curated our “Voices of Diversity: Mental Health Series”: a sequence of panel discussions on ways to support people from marginalised groups, which was accepted as a workshop at the recent AdvanceHE EDI Conference 2025. Initial feedback has been incredibly encouraging, with sector colleagues reporting that the sessions have given them both the tools and the confidence to host similar initiatives at their own institutions.
These discussions involve collaborating with colleagues and students to talk about EDI issues so that we can learn about the lived experiences of diverse groups of people. They also allow those in leadership positions to further support diverse groups and address any inequitable outcomes that arise from the conversations.
In my experience, this is often challenging. People have a visceral reaction of fear of saying the “wrong thing” in conversations, which becomes an inhibiting factor, stifling attempts to have honest and authentic discussions between groups. One way my EDI colleagues have been successful in addressing this situation is to create safer spaces and more positive environments where exploration, questioning, challenge and reflection are encouraged. This involves setting expectations and boundaries at the start of the discussion and being sensitive to people’s fears of not getting the conversation right.
This approach has been highly successful, indicated by the high attendance levels at Voices of Diversity events, and EDI staff being invited to present on these themes within our academic schools and professional services areas. Ultimately, the work of initiatives such as Voices of Diversity serves to strengthen a culture of inclusion and belonging because it places diverse and marginalised voices at the centre of the conversation.
My work in these areas also highlights the importance of understanding the barriers these groups face and equipping colleagues adopt anti-discriminatory working practices – skills such as active listening, reflective practice, challenging discrimination and cultural sensitivity.
Make a cultural shift
Making the cultural shift at any university to becoming an anti-discriminatory institution – one that makes space for the entire community to feel they belong and are included – takes dedicated time and commitment, particularly from those with the most power.
At my university, this culture shift is already well under way through initiatives such as the charters, the university leadership programme and the Voices of Diversity series, all of which serve to drive us to a position where we are renowned for making our diverse groups feel that they truly belong.
Denise Coles is equity, diversity and inclusion manager at Loughborough University.
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