SOAS awarded Race Equality Charter for its diversity work
SOAS University of London has received the bronze award for its recent submission to Advance HE’s 2025 Race Equality Charter.
The award recognises SOAS's commitment to advancing race equity in the representation, progression and success of our racialised staff and students. It also highlights the impactful work of institutions within the university sector that are confronting the obstacles faced by Black, Asian, and minority ethnic staff and students, and creating strategies and framework to further progress inclusion.
SOAS’s submission to the charter began in 2022 through a self-assessment team, chaired by Professor of Feminist and Security Studies, Awino Okech. Assessments were coordinated on data around staff recruitment and progression, student admissions, and SOAS’s own postgraduate pipeline – over the course of three years. The team also conducted a survey and a variety of interviews and focus groups with both staff and students, to better understand race equity within the culture of SOAS, alongside their lived experiences.
The findings resulted in identifying key priority areas, and four-year action plan by SOAS’s EDI and Staff Wellbeing team, that include establishing a mid-senior leadership pipeline for racialised women, enhancing data collection and accountability for race equity, tackling racial disparities in student outcomes, advancing race equity in graduate preparedness, and fostering an institution-wide, consciously inclusive culture where race equity is prioritised.
We are honoured to receive this recognition, which offers a valuable framework to not only examine, but address the institutional and cultural barriers that exist across society.
On the award, SOAS Vice-Chancellor Professor Adam Habib said:
"We are honoured to receive this recognition, which offers a valuable framework to not only examine, but address the institutional and cultural barriers that exist across society.
"I extend my gratitude to all the teams involved in this collective effort. As we move forward, we remain committed to fostering an inclusive community at SOAS, so that staff and students alike feel supported and enabled.”
Former Associate Director of Equity and Chair of the Oversight Team, Professor Awino Okech, added:
"SOAS marks an important milestone by achieving its first Race Equality Chartermark Bronze Award. Over three years, we worked with staff and students to develop the evidence driven workplan that connected various institutional strategies, plans and teams - EDI, Education, Human Resources, Estates, Careers and Access and Participation. This is a SOAS community informed action plan which will be delivered by leveraging our existing work on race equality."
Claire Herbert, Head of Head of EDI and Staff Wellbeing at SOAS added:
“We would like to thank everyone at SOAS who was involved in the submission, including the self-assessment team, the data and planning teams, our students who got involved and everyone who has contributed to the survey and the action plan.”
Information on the charter can be found online, with further information on SOAS’s equality chartermarks also being available.
