Race Equality – our renewed agenda

Calling for expressions of interest from racially minoritised staff and students to be part of REC-USAT group. Please respond by 8^th Nov by emailing diversity@bath.ac.uk for more details

Overview

The university takes pride in advancing the recommendations of the Race Equality Taskforce report with the mandate to submit an application for the Race Equality Charter Bronze award in 2026. In doing so, we strive to enhance our understanding of race equality, understand the challenges we face, and commit to tangible, evidence-based actions to foster inclusion at Bath.

What is the Race Equality Charter?

Race Equality Charter (REC) is a national accreditation scheme, awarded by Advance HE, that aims to improve the representation, progression and success of ethnically minoritised staff and students within higher education.  The University of Bath committed to REC principles in 2021.

REC provides a framework for universities to self-reflect on institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of ethnically minoritised staff and students, and have their commitment to and progress in removing these barriers recognised. Member institutions develop initiatives and actions to remove these barriers over their submission journey.

New leadership

Dr Teslim Bukoye is going to lead a team of staff and students to attain our University’s race equality mandate and REC Bronze application, as the REC Lead working alongside Professor Jane White (Vice-President, Community and Inclusion). Teslim has contributed to ED&I agenda at strategic levels as a member of the Senate, Council, and Court. He is a Fellow of the Association of Project Management and his work combines scholarly rigour with a focus on promoting innovative teaching and learning experience. He strives to inspire new perspectives within his field as well as race and ED&I more broadly within HE sector, in accordance with global best practice. Teslim feels that ED&I should be embedded into the fabric of our institution and not be seen as an ‘add-on’, more business as usual, ensuring we are delivering an intentional and progressive approach to race equality at Bath.

Our renewed agenda

Our goal is to create a platform and ambience to foster the cultural diversity and inclusivity of our students and staff as well as harmonise our activities in line with our six workstreams, and priorities for action (R³ID²), which focuses on:

1. Recruitment, experience and progression of staff of colour
2. Recruitment, experience and progression of students of colour
3. Reporting racism and gaining support
4. Inclusivity and anti-bias training
5. Decolonising the curriculum
6. Developing inclusive institutional cultures

Over the next 18 months, an institutional Self-Assessment team (REC-SAT) led by Teslim and Jane will lead the ambitious action-planning to identify areas of work within the University to advance race equality at Bath.

If you are interested in getting involved with the Race Equality Charter please email Teslim Bukoye on otb34@bath.ac.uk.