Race Equality Week
Race Equality Week (5 to 11 February) is a UK-wide initiative aimed at uniting organisations and individuals in addressing barriers to race equality in the workplace.
The theme for Race Equality Week 2024 is #ListenActChange.
The Race Equality Matters website emphasises the collective responsibility we all share in understanding the experiences of our minoritised ethnic communities, collaborating with them to take action and inspire change. With this theme, we encourage everyone to actively listen and learn from each other, as well as using existing resources to educate ourselves, while planning the actions we can take on individual and institutional levels.
Call for events
If you, or your department, are organising any activities we can help promote them! Share your race equality events and activities with us.
Submit your race equality events
Our actions and initiatives
Staff Race Equality Forum listening exercise
The staff listening exercise organised by the Staff Race Equality Forum (SREF) is an example of how the institution can make a genuine change to support our minoritized ethnic staff members through #ListenActChange. SREF conducted its first listening exercise in 2019, which led to the development of new guidance and policies to enable individuals as well as fostering a more inclusive culture. In 2022, SREF conducted the second listening exercise with its members, with the attendance of the Vice Chancellor, Professor Charlie Jeffery, and the Chief Operating Officer, Dr Joss Ivory. Since then, a list of objectives have been developed.
Find out more about the Staff Listening Exercise
Find out more and join the Staff Race Equality Forum
Race Equality Coordination Group
As an institution, we acknowledge the significance of not losing sight of the important work around anti-racism, which is why we have established the Race Equality Co-ordination Group (RECG). As part of this, we have agreed an anti-racism statement and set ourselves ambitious and impactful targets. The University has implemented actions that address the under-representation of ‘BAME’ student population in York and in the UK Higher Education. Some of our race equality initiatives include:
- Our Black Access scheme
- York Graduate Research School (YGRS) PhD Scholarships
- Our status as a University of Sanctuary
Find out more about our targets and ongoing actions:
Get involved
The 5 day challenge
We're encouraging everyone in our community to take part in the Race Equality Matters 5 day challenge. On each of the five days you'll take part in a different challenge, each taking around five minutes with videos, articles or activities to help you reflect and take actions which will lead to change.
The new online EDI modules
We are launching the new online equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) modules, which were developed in collaboration with AdvanceHE. The eLearning package explores themes of oppression, the impact of harassment and discrimination on individuals, and the important role we play being an upstander and as staff member in an education setting. These topics are presented with real-life examples by staff and students from Higher Education Institutions, with links to additional resources and learning materials.
The module is available and mandatory to all staff members. We urge everyone to take the module to update our knowledge in EDI, to take actions against any forms of discrimination, and to support our communities with empathy.
Start the online EDI modules on the LMS
Unveiling Our Names
University of York #MyNameIs event
Thursday 22 February, 1pm to 2pm, online
Names can represent an individual's relationship with gender, ethnicity, family, history and culture - this is a great opportunity for us to learn more from each other's names.
Developed from Race Equality Matter's #MyNameIs campaign, our online networking and discussion event welcomes people's diverse and complex stories of their names.
Join us to listen, share, and plan future actions.