Office for Institutional Equity

Our purpose: to embed equity, inclusion and belonging across Birmingham City University, ensuring that Strategy 2030 delivers measurable, inclusive outcomes for students, staff and communities.

I'm Imagene Denton, the director of inclusion here at Birmingham City University. As our team works towards implementing the university's new

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equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy, I'm delighted to announce the launch of our office for institutional equity. This new office will strive to embed equity and belonging across BCU.

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Not only is our university home to thousands of colleagues, but we also have around 30,000 students from over 100 different countries. Therefore, it's

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important that we put the facilities in place to support all members of our community fairly. Many of our students commute from the Birmingham area and

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around half of our overall student population come from disadvantaged neighborhoods. Plus, over 50% of the

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city's population consists of racially minoritized communities. This is reflected in our population, too, with

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36% of staff and over 60% of our students coming from minoritized communities. As the UK's second city,

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Birmingham also ranks amongst the highest on the nation's indices of multiple deprivation. And as an anchor institution here in Birmingham, it's

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crucial that we serve our staff and students equitably and give everyone the fair platform needed to achieve their goals. We want to work towards closing

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the degree awarding gap between graduates from the least and most deprived neighborhoods and from different ethnic communities. And for

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our staff, we must ensure that we close all pay gaps. The Office of Institutional Equity will help the university overcome these challenges. It

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will enable BCU to improve student success and belonging, build an inclusive workforce and culture, deliver

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research and partnerships that benefit society and meet regulatory and charter expectations. It will achieve this by

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setting a clear direction and strategy, embedding equity into BCU's community engagement, planning, and governance.

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The office will work with our schools to close awarding gaps and embed an inclusive curriculum and support our workforce by providing recruitment and

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progression guidance as well as delivering training and promoting fair freedom of speech. While the office will not own or deliver all EDI activity

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across BCU, it will work towards ensuring that all staff and students feel included in our community. Whether

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you are a colleague or a student, we want to make sure that you have what you need to succeed and reach beyond. The Office for Institutional Equity will do

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so by using data and lived experiences to shape how we make decisions. We are also committed to fostering an inclusive

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leadership culture through the office by co-creating solutions rather than approaching work with top-down enforcement. By creating this inclusive

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culture, the university will be set up with a clear accountability for equity at a leadership level. While the office will not act as a replacement for people

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and culture or student advisory services, it will create an everpresent institutional awareness of equity and

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inclusivity. This work will be reflected by monitoring the university's progress and producing annual equity and social

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impact reports. By doing so, we will raise BCU's reputation and reflect the needs of those around us. The office

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will ensure that BCU delivers equity in everything that it does. I'm proud of the work that has gone into launching this new office and I'd like to thank

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everybody who's been involved in making this happen. I cannot wait for the work to get started and I hope you all see the impact that it's having at BCU and

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beyond very soon. Thank you.

The Office for Institutional Equity Has Now Launched

Watch our launch video to learn more about the Office for Institutional Equity, our ambitions for the future, and how we're supporting an inclusive culture across Birmingham City University.

OIE and EDI

Discover how we're working to achieve our ambition of making our University a fairer organisation, where everyone is able to achieve their potential.

EDI Strategy 2030 (PDF)

View Strategy

OIE on a Page (PDF)

View OIE on a page

Belonging at the Heart of BCU

At BCU, we are committed to creating an educational ecosystem where every individual - staff, student, and partner - is actively heard, valued for their individuality and strengths, and empowered. Watch our strategy launch video above.

What We Do

We provide leadership, insight and accountability for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and belonging across Birmingham City University.

Working across education, research, staff experience and civic engagement, we support the delivery of Strategy 2030.

We do this by embedding equity into institutional priorities, driving positive change through evidence and partnership, and creating a more inclusive environment for our students, colleagues and communities.

Policies and Commitments

University Community Agreement

Download PDF

Gender, Ethnicity and Disability Pay Gap Report

Download PDF

Annual EDI Report 24/25

Download PDF

Freedom of Speech

Employee Networks

Our Initiatives

Our charter work supports Birmingham City University's commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. Explore each charter to learn more about the University's priorities, achievements and action plans.

Athena Swan

The Athena SWAN Charter recognises the advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all. The Charter covers women, men where appropriate and trans staff and students.

Find out more about Athena Swan
Race Equality Charter

The Race Equality Charter aims to improve the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.

Find out more about the Race Equality Charter
Disability Confident

The Disability Confident Scheme is an accreditation backed by the UK Government where employers demonstrate they actively attract, recruit, and support disabled employees. As Birmingham City University progresses to Level 2 of this scheme, we commit to taking core actions to employing and retaining our diverse workplace, creating a culture of belonging for disabled staff across the university.

Find out more about Disability Confident (Coming Soon)
Project Zero

Project Zero is a whole-provider approach to equity, embedded in BCU’s strategy to eliminate the Ethnicity Degree Awarding Gap (EDAG) at Birmingham City University by addressing systemic, structural, and pedagogical barriers that disproportionately affect Black and Asian heritage students.

Find out more about Project Zero (Coming soon)
EDI Committee

With the advice of the University’s Equality and Diversity Policy Advisor, to maintain a watching brief on government legislation in relation to equality and good practice in the HE and wider public sector on equality and diversity issues.

Find out more about the EDI Committee
Action Plan Dashboard

An interactive dashboard providing updates on progress against key equity, diversity and inclusion action plans and priorities.

Find out more about the Action Plan Tracker (Coming Soon)

Upcoming Events

The Office for Institutional Equity hosts and supports a range of events, workshops, campaigns and celebrations throughout the year.

Coming Soon

We're currently planning our programme of events, workshops and activities. Details of upcoming events will be published here soon.

Athena Swan
Disability Confident
Race Equality Charter
Workplace Wellbeing Charter
Disabled Student Commitment

More information

Contact Us

Get in touch with the Office for Institutional Equity to discuss our work, partnerships, charter activity, policies and commitments.

Email Us

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