Charters and Frameworks

Select the relevant link below to navigate to a specific desired section or continue reading the full content:

• Athena Swan
• Race Equality Charter
• Disability Confident
• Disability Confident Voluntary Reporting Framework
• LGBTQ+ Equality
• Student Inclusion

Athena Swan

Institutional Award

Northumbria was awarded Athena Swan Charter Silver Award in May 2025, having held a Bronze Award since 2015. This award recognises our progress and continuing commitment to promoting and achieving gender equality. Our Action Plan contains actions to ensure that our recruitment, development and progression processes are inclusive and effectively support the career development of women

The judging panel commended the evidence of success to date in addressing gender inequalities, including the improved maternity and paternity benefits and the improvement in the gender pay gap at senior levels.

Our Action Plan outlines six key priorities in our Action Plan which ensure that our gender equality aims are embedded in all that we do. The Action Plan is reviewed regularly with progress updates to ensure that we continue to address current and emerging gender priorities.

More information can be found on our Athena Swan Charter webpage.

Departmental Athena Swan Awards

In July 2025, two Athena Swan applications were submitted – a Bronze renewal for GES and a Silver application for the Faculty of Business and Law, demonstrating the ongoing commitment to advancing gender equality and broader intersectional inclusion following significant efforts by colleagues and PGR students involved in the Self-Assessment Teams.

The Faculty restructure this year provides us with a unique opportunity to begin to transition the fourteen current unit Awards, into three Faculty awards to reflect our new structure.  This will allow us to bring together the very best of gender inclusion practices already in place across Northumbria and align these more closely with the institutional action plan, whilst retaining the nuanced actions required across an academic landscape where gender equality issues vary greatly from one discipline to another.

Race Equality Charter

We were delighted to have been awarded Race Equality Bronze Award in late 2024, recognising the steps we had taken with our community to uncover inequalities and carefully develop a meaningful action plan to address these.  Work on the action plan is progressing well and we are reviewing data to identify any emerging priorities. At the end of this reporting period, 11% of our Race Equality actions are complete and 71% of our actions are progressing and on track. 

Charter actions relate to both colleagues and students, and include actions across the employee lifecycle, research and funding, student recruitment, outcomes, training and progression as well as our policies and decision-making structures, culture and ways of working.

More information can be found on our Race Equality Charter wepbage. 

Disability Confident

In July 2023 Northumbria was awarded Disability Confident Leader status reflecting the significant efforts to improve support for disabled colleagues, and this year we supported Huddersfield University as their external validator for their successful Disability Confident Leader plan.  Over the past year the Disability Equality Steering Group (DESG) has progressed work to establish a Disability Action Plan addressing key priorities identified in engaging with our community. The plan far exceeds the limitations of Disability Confident which focuses primarily around supporting people into employment.  The four themes of the Action Plan are:

1.    Access to Spaces

2.    Safety to Share

3.    Culture of Belonging

4.    Learning to Understand

Each theme has between four and six underlying actions and in July 2025 EDI Committee endorsed this plan and aligning this with the newly created Equality Actions Plan which brings together all institutional level actions committed to for Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter.

Disability Confident Voluntary Reporting Framework

All Disability Confident Leader organisations commit to fulfilling the requirements of the Voluntary Reporting Framework (VRF) on an annual basis.  The framework, aimed at large employers with over 250 employees, was developed by the government in partnership with large employers and expert partners (including leading charities) to support organisations to record and voluntarily report information on disability, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.  Our Disability Confident Report outlines the steps we take within our organisation so support the recruitment, retention and development of disabled people.

LGBTQ+ Equality

Over the past year the Steering Group has begun work to establish an action plan addressing the key LGBTQ+ priorities at Northumbria.  Through engagement workshops with the Steering Group and EDI Department Heads we recognised that the priorities for LGBTQ+ colleagues extended beyond the scope of the Stonewall Equality Index which we had originally based our work around and that a broader approach was needed.  The Group is now ready to begin engagement with colleagues from the True Colours Network and across the wider community to develop a plan which is meaningful and which can deliver change. 

Once finalised these actions will be incorporated into Northumbria’s Equality Action Plan and managed and monitored through the Equality Action Group to ensure they are fully embedded into business as usual in the same way as the equality actions from our formal Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter marks.

Student Inclusion

We have continued to foster an inclusive environment for students with a range of initiatives which include: 

Student-led Peer Support Schemes

These targeted, centrally supported, locally delivered schemes include the Transition Programme supporting students in first semester for students who completed Destination NU.  Student mentors worked in pairs to deliver group sessions covering support, how to budget, preparing for exams and academic skills development, as well as a Sociology Pilot which was co-designed by students and delivered to first years to support a module that has traditionally been one where some students struggle with the academic content.

“I would definitely recommend the student mentoring sessions to others, especially for this module. Throughout this module I found it hard to understand content in the lectures due to the nature of it, and due to it being a hard topic to teach. I believe that if I didn't attend the sessions, my understanding of the content would not be the same as it is now.”

Financial Inclusion

Funding is awarded through four Core Success Funds to students in financial need alongside the digital financial education tool Blackbullion.

Financial support is particularly important for students from widening participation backgrounds as evidence shows considerable and increasing financial stress for this group of students, which can ultimately have a negative impact on their mental wellbeing.  100% of students supported through the fund said it helped improve their circumstances in the short term. 87% of students said being awarded the funds improved their mental health and 87% of students said they have used Blackbullion learning pathways to educate themselves.

Student Inclusion Consultants

Each year, students from underrepresented groups are offered flexible opportunities to work with staff and peers to enhance the student experience. Their insight is used to address barriers to access, retention, attainment and progression in line with the objectives of the University’s Access and Participation Plan (APP). The scheme has grown year on year with 2024 – 25 having the highest number of student applications to date.

IRIS

IRIS (Inclusive Reciprocal Insight Scheme) matches students with a senior member of university staff to share insights reciprocally about their experiences of being a member of the university community. Underpinned by educational theory and the Professional Standards Framework (PSF), IRIS facilitates meaningful and transformative conversations between current students and University decision makers who can influence change. In 2024/25, eight academic members of staff took part, and over 50 senior colleagues from the beginning of the programme. 83% of staff strongly agree that IRIS partnerships positively impact the student experience and 100% report gaining authentic insights that inform their practice.

Postgraduate Research Culture

The Graduate School holds weekly drop-in session for all students to attend, providing access to sympathetic and supportive experts.

PGR reps, Students’ Union and academic colleagues engaged regularly through Graduate School Townhalls, PGR Directors meetings and PGR rep meetings. We recognise and celebrate diversity and cultural differences and encourage a sense of community and connection.

This year Graduate School colleagues worked with the PURE team to find a solution which allowed students unable to change their legal name in SITS records to have their chosen name shown on PURE.

Return to main EDI Report page.