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. 

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.  

The University of Leeds is committed to the principles of the Race Equality Charter and officially joined the charter membership in August 2023 with a formal launch in October 2023.

The five guiding principles for our REC work are: 

1. Racial inequalities are a significant issue within higher education. Racial inequalities are not necessarily overt, isolated incidents. Racism is an everyday facet of UK society and racial inequalities manifest themselves in everyday situations, processes and behaviours. 
2. UK higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population and until individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords. 
3. In developing solutions to racial inequalities, it is important that they are aimed at achieving long-term institutional culture change, avoiding a deficit model where solutions are aimed at changing the individual. 
4. Ethnically minoritised staff and students are not a homogenous group. People from different ethnic backgrounds have different experiences of and outcomes from/within higher education, and that complexity needs to be considered in analysing data and developing actions. 
5. All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever possible. 

An institutional Self-Assessment team (REC-SAT) chaired by University Dean for EDI, Dr Kendi Guantai and co-chaired by Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Jeff Grabill will lead the ambitious action-planning to identify areas of work within the University to become a truly anti-racist institution.