University awarded Silver Race Equality Charter award

The University of Manchester has been awarded a Silver Race Equality Charter (REC) award, becoming the second university in the UK to do so.

The award, adjudicated by an independent panel of assessors in higher education, comes after a submission in July. This raises the University’s Bronze award, given in 2015 and again in 2018.

REC is part of an Advance HE programme that started in 2015. It aims to highlight good practices and weaknesses in advancing race equality at the University.

Advance HE is a global charity that aims to “improve higher education for staff, students, and society.“

They define the REC as a way to “improve the representation, experience, progression and success of racially minoritised staff and students within higher education.”

Head of the Race Equality Charter, Anne Mwangi, congratulated the University on the Silver Award, stating that “[t]he award recognises the University’s commitment, leadership and significant progress in addressing inequality and promoting race equality across the whole institution.”

Out of a current 101 REC members in the UK, 43 hold Bronze awards. Alongside the University of Manchester, De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) remains the only other institution with a Silver Award, which was given in April 2023.

In the University of Manchester’s Equality Information Report in March 2023, Vice-President for Social Responsibility Professor Nalin Thakkar stated that despite achievements in equality, “we acknowledge that in many areas we have more to do, and the pace of change is not fast enough. We recognised that we can and will do more.”