Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We have been awarded a highly-esteemed Bronze Award by the Athena Swan Charter, which recognises that the University has a solid foundation for eliminating gender bias and developing an inclusive culture that values all staff.

The Athena Swan internal Self-Assessment Team (SAT) undertook a rigorous self-assessment of data to assess gender equality across Middlesex's staff community. From this insight, the team developed a set of short, medium and longer term actions to help drive forward gender equality and representation across the University, including gender non-conforming individuals.

These actions include:

• Reviewing the promotion and progression process
• Further embedding the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in new staff inductions and at local level across teams
• Enhancing knowledge of the University’s parental leave policies and developing a more robust support mechanism for staff needing to access it
• Embracing and embedding more engaging and affirmative communications in our approaches to recruitment to encourage applications from underrepresented groups.

Self-Assessment Team

The Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT) currently meets quarterly. The Athena Swan SAT is working together to identify and implement necessary actions to improve gender equality at MDX, using data and research.

The main focus of the Athena Swan SAT is to:

• Reflect on a range of quantitative and qualitative data to identify both challenges and opportunities with regards to gender equality
• Evaluate relevant policies, practices and activities
• Respond to the findings of the above, and establish gender equality-based priority areas with appropriate aspirations and targets
• Develop an evidence-based, comprehensive action plan to underpin advancement against the agreed priorities over the whole award period (five years), after which time the University will apply to renew or upgrade our award
• Evaluate the effectiveness of actions undertaken on an ongoing basis, to ensure actions are delivering desired impact against objectives, and evolve the action plan in response to evaluation.

The Athena Swan SAT has representation from a breadth of career stages and staff types, including professional and support staff, research and academic staff, and students. Membership of the Athena Swan SAT is gender-balanced, taking account of intersectionality in its make-up so far as is practicable, and is representative of the diversity inherent within MDX.

Our approach to Athena Swan SAT activities

Middlesex University is committed to developing a distinctive, inclusive and sustainable research culture which fosters the skills, methods and ethos of practice-oriented, interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange.

Our approach to Athena Swan follows four strands:

• Recruitment, promotion, picture of institution, supporting trans people and intersectionality
• Parental leave, care and flexible working
• Training, outreach, staff development, career progression
• Senior level, governance, policy.

Find out more

We received a Gold Award from Stonewall – the world’s second-largest LGBTQ+ charity – for our commitment to inclusion of lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people in the workplace in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2023. Middlesex also ranked 58th (out of 268 institutions) in this Index, and came 8th out of the 30 higher education institutions that took part this year.

• Trans: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the gender they were assigned at birth. This can include people who identify as non-binary, but not all non-binary people identify as trans.
• ‘Coming out’: When a person first tells someone/others about their orientation and/or gender identity.
• Cisgender: A term for people whose gender identity is consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth.
• Gender affirming medical treatment: treatment that a trans person may undergo to affirm their gender identity, for example hormone therapy or surgery. It is important to note that this is a very personal choice and not all trans people choose to undergo gender affirming medical treatment. This is also referred to as ‘gender reassignment’ in equality legislation.
• Non-binary: umbrella term for people whose gender identity doesn’t sit comfortably with ‘man’ or ‘woman’. Non-binary identities are varied and can include people who identify with some aspects of binary identities, while others reject them entirely
• Sexual orientation: a person’s sexual attraction to other people, or lack thereof. Along with romantic orientation, this forms a person’s orientation identity. The use of the term ‘orientation’ is as an umbrella term covering sexual and romantic orientations.
• Questioning: the process of exploring your own sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

We are a member of Advance HE's Race Equality Charter. Signing up to this charter demonstrates commitment to improving the representation, progression and success of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students within higher education.