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All-staff session on Race Equality Review 2021 – video available

01 June 2021

Race Equality Review 2021 was the topic of discussion at the all-staff briefing on Friday 28 May.

The report was published last week and details 20 recommendations to ensure fairer and more equal treatment for all staff and students.

Introducing the session, Vice-Chancellor Robert Van de Noort said the week marked the anniversary of George Floyd’s death which reverberated around the world, and made him request a review on race equality at our University.

He said, “We already knew that we had a number of challenges to deal with. We knew of our attainment or awarding gap, and we also knew that we have very few Black professors and Black senior colleagues at the University.

“I decided that we need to accelerate the progress we are making, as progress we have made on issues like I mentioned has simply been too slow.”

He said while discussions around race can be difficult, the Race Equality Report will help us all navigate the challenges we need deal with at the University.

Parveen Yaqoob started her presentation with a diagram from the BAME Ally resource webpage put together by the BAME Staff Network. The diagram, which can be found by scrolling down under Allyship and Ally Commitments describes the spectrum of development in becoming an anti-racist.

“When we launched this review, we were aware that we were breaking an uncomfortable silence around race. At the very first all-staff briefing some of the questions in the chat expressed concern that people might be expected to police each other or talking about race may unnecessarily rock the boat.

“Those feelings are understandable, as they come from the fear zone. But more and more now, I am hearing from people that they want to listen to people who are different from them, that they want to educate themselves, that they have had conversations and now want to do more but are not quite sure what to do. I find that really encouraging.”

Allan Laville talked about the staff and student progression. He said a lot of consideration had been given to working with RUSU on student experience and attainment recommendations, and with University colleagues on staff experience and progression recommendations.

A video recording of the event can be accessed below:

 

 You can access the video directly on Microsoft Stream.

The next all-staff session is on Friday 4 June and will focus on Workload and Expectations Pathway. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) Dominik Zaum, who is leading the pathway, will join the Vice-Chancellor for this session.

All colleagues will be sent an Outlook Calendar invite ahead of the session. If you have any queries, please contact communications@reading.ac.uk.

Videos of recent all-staff sessions

Here are links to some of our other recent all-staff briefing sessions:

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