Race Equality Charter
We are committed to eliminating racial inequalities at Sheffield, and our submission to the Race Equality Charter Bronze Award is an important step in the right direction.
Our Race Equality Strategy and Action Plan was published in March 2019 and outlined our commitment to building and supporting a diverse community of staff and students.
To progress our work around tackling racial inequalities and build upon our Race Equality Strategy and Action Plan, we’ve signed up to the Race Equality Charter.
The Race Equality Charter is a framework which enables universities to identify where institutional and cultural barriers may be standing in the way of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)* staff and students.
Five fundamental principles underpin the framework. By joining the Race Equality Charter, the University of Sheffield commits to fulfilling and following these principles in approaching and tackling racial inequalities across the institution.
We know we still have work to do to improve race equality at Sheffield. Our application for the Race Equality Charter Bronze Award will allow us to understand the current situation at Sheffield fully.
*Language disclaimer
Language can influence how we perceive and categorise reality. Throughout our work, we use the acronym BAME to stand for people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic groups within the UK. We are aware of the profound limitations of this term as it groups together a wide range of people and their various lived experiences. As we monitor our progress on the actions, we will check to see if a particular ethnicity or ethnicities within our UK BAME community face distinct challenges that need to be recognised and addressed.
We still need to use some classifications such as BAME and the racial classifications that make up BAME to analyse how ethnicity affects our processes, our experiences, and ultimately, our lives. We will take a path that enables a careful balance of progressing race equality whilst not racialising further. It is important to understand and tackle issues that groups of people may face and removing barriers they may face is a prior requirement needed in order to ultimately get to a world where we treat people as individuals and judge them for their actions.