Our work on racial inclusion is moving beyond one of making sure policies are in place to one of activists and allies working hand in hand to drive a culture of anti-racism as a golden thread through everything we do.
It is not enough to say that we don't tolerate racism. We must actively fight against it.
We have committed to reviewing our racial inclusion action plans in this light, to make sure that all pledges we make will go beyond nice sentiment to having a tangible, meaningful and sustainable positive impact.
There are some things that we cannot change overnight. Issues such as Black representation in professorship and University Leadership positions for example are endemic problems across our sector.
What we can do though, is put systems in place that encourage and support inclusive talent development and career progression, that attract external job applicants to want to live and work in Hull, that support students from traditionally underrepresented racial backgrounds to go on to do a Masters or PhD and to consider careers in academia.
You can find our Social Justice and Inclusion strategy here which sets out how racial inclusion is one of our areas of priority focus, which is underpinned in our Dignity and Respect at Work and Study policies and echoed in our procedures for how we handle complaints and support those who feel discriminated against, bullied, victimised or harassed.
Our new Inclusion & Campus Community Team works closely with a number of representative networks and formal committees, as well as our Student Services and Human Resources Teams to make sure policy and approach is aligned.
Campus Accessibility
Through the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, our Estates Team has been busy making the latest round of accessibility improvements and upgrades to our campus.
This has included major works to our Hardy Lab, now incorporating rise and fall workstations including a lab bench with sink (for up to three students) and a rise and fall fume cupboard.
The team has also improved the floorplans and furniture layout in several teaching spaces to make them inclusive for students, researchers and employees and who use wheelchairs.
We've also upgraded facilities by improving handrails and have sourced better furniture to allow for more flexible room configurations to allow students with disabilities to sit with their classmates.
We've also introduced our Accessibility Support Tool to help staff and students raise any general accessibility concerns, flag the urgency of any repairs needed (such as the impact of a temporarily out of service lift) or make proactive suggestions for ways we can make your campus experience better in future.
Through our partnership with AccessAble, you can find access guides for our buildings and services.
Student Support
We're here to support you in all aspects of your student life to help you get the most out of your overall student experience and love your time here at Hull.
Find out more about our support services for students with disabilities here.
As well as the University's own Student Services Team, which has dedicated Disability Inclusion Advisers, members of the Hull University Students' Union can also access support through their Advice Centre.
Clubs, societies and sport
To get the best out of your University experience, you may want to join one of the many clubs or societies run by the Hull University Students' Union (HUSU) - some of which include groups specifically to support people with disabilities, their friends and allies such as the Hull Hornets Wheelchair Basketball Team.
Or you may want to take part in some volunteering, or try something completely new through one of the Give It A Go activities. You can find out more about all this from the 'Join In' section of the HUSU website.
For disability sport in the local community, you can search for opportunities in this area using the Every Body Moves website. Please note that as this is an external site, we're not responsible for this site's security or content.
Awarding Gaps measure the difference in likelihood between students with a protected characteristic attaining a 'good' degree (a first or a 2:1 degree classification) compared with students without that characteristic.
BAME Awarding Gap
The BAME Awarding Gap is the difference between white students and Black and minority ethnic (BAME) students being awarded a 1st or 2.1-degree classification.
This is a longstanding and unacceptable problem in higher education, typically resulting from systemic barriers which disproportionately disadvantage different racial groups compared with white students.
While we had been seeing some small improvements in previous years, progress has not been fast enough. And, even more frustratingly, we saw this gap widen in 2020. We have looked into the reasons why and are taking the following steps to address this:
- Diversification and decolonisation of the curriculum (making sure our subject matters, learning resources and teaching methods are as diverse as possible to represent different perspectives and voices and to improve the relatability of subject experts to students from a diverse range of racial and cultural backgrounds)
- Tackling the hidden curriculum (the social, cultural and language expectations in Higher Education which are intrinsically white majority cultural norms and present an additional barrier by default to those from other backgrounds)
- Improving our service to students with extenuating circumstances (including the proactive consideration of collective trauma impacts such as the effect of George Floyd's murder and the #EndSARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria).
Disability Awarding Gap
In our latest report, there are 3.3 percentage points between the percentage of students with a declared disability who achieve a first or 2:1 degree classification (70.9%) and the percentage of students with no known disability who achieve a first or 2:1 degree classification (74.2%).
Although the Disability Awarding Gap narrowed in 2020, we need to take care that this is an improvement that can be sustained and we must continue to take steps to close this gap.
We are taking steps to understand and improve this position including:
- Improving the experience and mental wellbeing of our disabled students by improving the accessibility of our campus estate. It's important to us that all students feel they are valued and respected members of an inclusive campus community.
- Improving the accessibility of digital and hard copy resources. Our Library and academic colleagues work exceptionally hard to provide inclusive learning resources or versions in accessible formats where appropriate. We are reviewing the technology available to us to make this even better and easier to access.
- Improving the accessibility of blended learning. Learning from Covid, we know that many of our students have enjoyed aspects of blended learning and would like some remote teaching to continue after the pandemic restrictions have ended. We are working to improve remote delivery for students with disabilities even further such as through better captioning of online lectures and video resources.
Gender Awarding Gap
The Gender Awarding Gap measures the differences in the likelihood of being awarded a first or 2:1 degree classification by sex.
In our latest report, we saw the results swing from being a 3.3 percentage point gap that saw female students more likely to be awarded a first or 2:1 classification (71.9% of female students compared with 68.6% of male students) to a 3.5 percentage point gap that favoured male students over female students (75.7% of male students compared with 72.2% of female students).
We are investigating the causes of this swing, including exploring the disproportionate effect Covid has had on the domestic burdens of some women - particularly those with intersectional characteristics such as parental or caring responsibilities and cultural expectations of contributions to homecare among some cultural groups when female students are at home rather than on campus.