We aim to celebrate diversity of staff and students across campus by highlighting, recognising and celebrating less visible staff and students of Newcastle University who encompass the values of EDI in their daily practice. We have set out to achieve this by:

• Highlighting those members of teams who play a less visible yet key role in faculty/institutional successes
• Highlighting a range of staff across the campus to raise the profile of the contributions/skills of technical and administrative staff
• Challenging the way we recognise achievement across different roles and the conventional notions of success
• Embedding EDI into everyday campus life

Why are we doing this project?

Not all social identities are celebrated as equal within Higher Education; subtle manifestations may lead marginalised individuals to experience Higher Education as negative and disempowering. A core belief at Newcastle University suggests ‘we value diversity and are committed to societal challenges`. The Equality Strategy and Equality Agenda aims to decouple an individual’s circumstance from destiny, and our Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (LTSE) strategy aims to ‘develop an inclusive University community … where diversity … is valued'.

At Newcastle University, we are committed to the moral, ethical and results-based reasons to subscribe to all of these agendas. Implementation and integration can sometimes be difficult though, and committed action to diversity may be often neglected and poorly addressed.

We wanted our project to achieve something more than a 'ticky-box exercise' and to have real value for staff and students, who can identify with the everyday struggles of their peers and educators and realise that their experiences may be shared. It may also help them to achieve greater things, even in the face of personal struggles and other difficult circumstances.

We want to encourage our staff and students to be active and engaged members of the University community, regardless of their background or personal circumstances - and to be inspired by others in similar or comparable circumstances.

Read more about our project in the NU Connections article available at https://my.ncl.ac.uk/staff/nuconnections/item/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-grants