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Equality, diversity & inclusion

The University was founded upon the principles of equality and established to provide education on the basis of merit.

Postgraduate students taking a break on the steps

1. Equality, diversity & Inclusion 

The University of London is committed to equality and inclusion and is a key institutional value enshrined in our Statutes. We recognise that embracing equality and inclusion is critical to the success of the University and that we can only achieve our vision of being a world-class, forward looking, ambitious university by recruiting, supporting, and developing both students staff from a wide and diverse range of backgrounds. 

We have amended our Statutes to include the following: 

“The University shall not discriminate against any person on the grounds of race, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, religion, social background, or political belief. (21.1)” 

The Inclusion team sits within the Partnerships and Governance Directorate at the University of London, providing strategic advice, guidance, and support to enable the University 

“to continue to build on the founding ideals of inclusivity, diversity and collaboration of the University of London and to champion inclusive cultures, structures and journeys to enable our collective expertise and strengthen our connections and collaborations nationally and worldwide.” 

2. Strategic activities 

Our equality, diversity and inclusion work is concentrated on six strategic areas including: 

Strategy and impact 

  • Developing, monitoring, and implementing our strategic equality objectives. 

Student experience 

  • Informing and shaping our approach to embedding inclusion for all students at all points of their journey and experience. 

Staff experience 

  • Building capacity, knowledge, and skill to enable and empower staff to cultivate and thrive in inclusive cultures. 

Charters and accreditation 

  • Delivering on the Race Equality Charter and Athena SWAN initiatives and supporting wider frameworks for inclusion across the University of London. 

Events 

  • Collaborating across the University and the Federation on raising awareness and creating opportunities to celebrate diversity and inclusion 

Regulatory and reporting

  • Overseeing work towards demonstrating due regard to the public sector equality duty, Equality Act 2010 and reporting within our governance to the Equality and Inclusion Committee and Board of Trustees, where appropriate.

3. Accreditation 

We are proud to participate in both the Athena SWAN and Race Equality Charter frameworks and are delighted to have been awarded the Athena SWAN Bronze Award by Advance HE, in 2022. 

Athena Swan and REC logos

4. Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2022-23 

In 2022-2023, the University of London has focused on initiating work to deliver on our key equality objectives (and associated actions) that we have set out in the Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2021–2025. We have proactively engaged with our duty as part of the public sector equality duty and done so across all our areas of work and expertise striving to bring a whole institutional approach to equality, diversity, and inclusion. As we move into the final year of our strategic period, we intend to focus on continuing to complete associated actions, focus on developing conditions for fostering good relations and begin to develop a new strategic approach from 2025 onwards. 

View/Download the University of London Equality and Inclusion Annual report 2022-23 [PDF]

4.1 Previous annual reports 

Our previous annual reports are listed below:

Recent and previous gender pay gap reports are noted below:

5. Responsibility 

The Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the University meets its legal duties under the terms of the Equality Act (2010), including the Public Sector Equality Duty, and for ensuring that the objectives set out in our Strategy are monitored and progressed. 

The Equality and Diversity Committee has responsibility for providing the appropriate strategic direction and co-ordination of day-to-day actions to ensure this action plan is progressed.  The Equality and Diversity Committee reports annually to the Board of Trustees, the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Group, its staff consultative group(s), trade unions and Staff Association. This report will become the University’s annual diversity report and will be published on the website to ensure a transparent approach. 

Our dedicated Inclusion Office reports to our Director of Governance, Policy & Compliance and Secretary to the Board. The Head of Inclusion is the key contact on our institutional approach to equality, diversity and inclusion. Any comments or questions on the University’s approach to inclusion can be emailed to: inclusion@london.ac.uk. 

5.1 Freedom of expression 

As an international group of universities, we have a strong and longstanding commitment to the values of freedom of expression. Read our Freedom of Expression and Speech position statement: 

5.2 IHRA's definition of antisemitism

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