Charter marks

The University of Reading is proud to receive recognition for our work in supporting staff and students in underrepresented groups.

Athena SWAN

The Athena SWAN Charter promotes gender equality: representation, progression and success for all. It focuses specifically on the advancement of women's careers across higher education in all academic fields; this includes women working as academics and researchers as well as those working in professional and support roles. The charter also promotes and recognises work that supports trans staff and students.

We hold an Athena SWAN Silver Award at the University level, which makes us one of a small group of universities to hold this award.

See this link for our most recent submission (redacted) and action plan.

We're also proud to hold Athena SWAN awards in all of our science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) schools, the majority at Silver level:

• School of Agriculture, Policy and Development (Bronze Award)
• School of the Built Environment (Silver Award)
• School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences (Silver Award)
• School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science (Silver Award)
• School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences (Silver Award)
• School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy (Silver Award)
• School of School of Politics, Economics and International Relations (Bronze Award)

Race Equality Charter

The Race Equality Charter Mark was introduced by the Equality Challenge Unit in 2015 and provides a framework for universities to identify and reflect on any institutional or cultural barriers affecting staff or students.

We have been a member of the Race Equality Charter since 2016 and in July 2018 submitted our analysis and an ambitious 4 year action plan to Advance-HE / ECU. Unfortunately we were not successful but received very valuable recommendations and feedback. We are now pressing ahead with the actions we believe will take up towards Race Equality at Reading and will take a view about resubmission for a charter mark once some of those actions have been completed.

You can read more about the action plan here:

University of Reading REC Action Plan 2018 - 2021

REC Action Plan Launch

Stonewall Workplace Equality Index

The University is proud to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion, and a Stonewall Global Diversity Champion. Stonewall works for equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people and the Diversity Champion programme provides employers with access to a range of support and resources. It is Britain's leading programme for ensuring all LGBT+ staff are accepted without exception in the workplace.

In January 2019 the University achieved its highest-ever ranking in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI), moving into the Stonewall Top 100 Employers for the first time! We placed 80th out of the 445 employers employers that applied for this scheme - a major improvement on 2018 when we were ranked 138 out of 434 employers, itself a substantial improvement on our 2017 ranking of 168/440.

The WEI is a benchmark used by employers to ensure all LGBT+ staff can be themselves the workplace and are accepted without exception. Our target is to be in the top 50 employers by 2020.

The University’s LGBT+ Action Plan Group works to develop and monitor the implementation of a programme of actions that ensure that the University: provides an environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and supportive to its LGBT+ staff and students; is engaged with and acts on issues raised by its LGBT+ communities; achieves its target to be in the Top 50 in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index by 2020.

You can read more about the work of the LGBT+ Action Plan group and the associated action plan here:

Terms of Reference and Membership of the LGBT Plus Action Plan Group

University LGBT Plus Action Plan

Investors in People

The University has two Investor in People accreditations:

• The University of Reading Library (Silver, 2014)
• Estates and Facilities (Gold, 2015)

Investors in People accreditation recognises well-trained and motivated staff, continuous improvement in services, and staff who believe their training and development needs are understood and valued by their organisation and managers - all of which are supported by a strong emphasis on equality and diversity.