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Equality and Diversity at Goldsmiths

We are passionate about advancing equality and celebrating diversity at Goldsmiths.

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Goldsmiths has a rich heritage of challenging inequality in all its forms and equality, inclusion and social justice are values which are incredibly important to Goldsmiths. These values are enshrined throughout our rich history, entrenched in the subject matter of our research and teaching, and embraced by members of our community.

Our aim is to embed equality, diversity, and inclusion across Goldsmiths and make it a part of everything that we do by working together collaboratively and proactively.

We were delighted to launch our renewed Equality and Diversity Strategy at Goldsmiths in 2015 along with a five-year implementation model, to proactively work towards our aim.

In 2017 we launched our Equality Objectives 2017- 21 and an Action Plan to help us meet these objectives. This both complements and underpins the aims of our Strategy.

Monitoring our progress

We continually monitor and reflect on the work we do to progress equality, diversity and inclusion to ensure our initiatives are effective and to ensure we do what we say we are going to do.

We seek opportunities to do things differently, challenge the status quo, and be innovative in our approach.

We also develop an annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion report, in line with our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, which allows us to review our progress annually and set new objectives for the coming year.

Schemes and Charters

Goldsmiths has joined a group of leading companies from the energy, property, transport, engineering and creative sectors in taking the Inclusive Culture Pledge, overseen by leading diversity consultancy EW Group.

Goldsmiths is a Stonewall Diversity Champion and we are proud of our strong commitment to advance sexual orientation and gender identity equality and to maintain an inclusive environment for everyone.

Goldsmiths is a member of the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’. We actively encourage applications from disabled people for positions at Goldsmiths.
 
We are also a member of the Equality Challenge Unit – who work to further and support equality and diversity for staff and students in higher education institutions.

We have signed up to the Athena SWAN charter to advance gender equality. Further information about our work in this area can be found in our Athena SWAN page above.

2010 saw a lot of change in the landscape for equality, diversity and inclusion with the introduction of the Equality Act. Following this, a further Public Sector Equality Duty was introduced on 5th April 2011. 

The Equality Duty is a duty on public bodies, including Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and others carrying out public functions. It is designed to help HEIs fulfil the requirements of the Equality Act by taking proactive steps to: 

  • combat discrimination, victimisation and harassment
  • advance and promote equality of opportunity between different groups
  • foster good relations between people from different groups 

In 2015, Goldsmiths launched a renewed Equality and Diversity Strategy (PDF) which aims to drive forward our aims to embed equality, diversity and inclusion into everything that we do, and go beyond our legal obligations, to be recognised as a leading Higher Education Institution in this area.

There are also three specific obligations we must meet as part of our Public Sector Equality Duty:

  1. To publish information to demonstrate compliance with the equality duty by 31st January 2012 (and annually thereafter) – please see our annual reports: Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2016 - 2017 (PDF), Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2015 - 2016 (PDF) (Published January 2016), and Equality and Diversity Report 2014 - 2015 (PDF ) (published January 2015)
  2. To set and publish one or more specific and measurable equality objective, at least every four years (by April 2012) – we are proud to present our Equality Objectives 2017-21 and Action Plan
  3. To publish information and equality objectives in a manner that is accessible to the public