Help us address race equality at Oxford

The Race Equality Task Force consultation is open! Thank you to those of you who joined us last week for the launch, and thank you to all of you who have already engaged with the work of the Task Force to get us to this point.

Earlier this year we reflected on the activities that are already happening at the University to advance race equality, but also on the limited progress in some important areas. We shared our hope that the work of the Task Force would promote faster and more sustainable change to our environment.

The Task Force has worked hard over a period of nine months to identify priorities. Through engagement with staff and students, and with some external input, we have developed a plan with suggested actions that we believe will result in the desired accelerated and sustainable change. It is now your opportunity to get involved.

Each of you will come to this consultation with your own experience that may draw on work at other institutions and that may cast a different light on priority areas or ways in which we might affect change – we want to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

The Task Force consultation document reflects the shared views of the members of the Task Force and our discussions, based on the evidence we collected. The suggested measures are organised within seven themes and the consultation gives you the opportunity to indicate which ones you would definitely want to see enacted and those that you feel should not go forward – as well as to provide your own suggested measures.

The consultation is open until the end of November. Once we have collected input we will review the priority areas and develop a strategic plan (including a resourcing plan) to be agreed by Council in Trinity term.

That doesn’t mean to say, however, that we are not taking actions forward at this time – a lot is already happening which will continue, and three enabling actions will be taken forward immediately. These are the creation of a senior Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) leadership role, the development of shared governance of EDI across the collegiate University and thirdly a University Communications Strategy that both enables positive communications and engagement with race equality and increases conversations about race equality.

The Race Equality strategy that we take to Council in Trinity term needs to be a plan we can all get behind and enact. We therefore want to encourage the widest possible participation in this consultation. Your input will help us prioritise the actions and investment to make sure this isn’t a plan created by a few but reflects a broad set of collegiate University views.

Professor Patricia Daley, Professor of African History

Professor Anne Trefethen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (People and GLAM)

Professor Martin Williams, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Co-Chairs of the Race Equality Task Force

You can take part in the consultation via the Task Force website, or find out more about the consultation on the University website.