Race Equality Charter Mark

What is the Race Equality Charter?

The Open University is applying for a Race Equality Charter (REC) Bronze Award, run by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), as part of Advance HE. The REC helps HE institutions to identify and self-reflect on barriers standing in the way of minority ethnic staff and students. The REC was fully launched in 2016 and since then only nine higher education institutions were awarded the REC bronze award.

The OU is by definition, ‘open’, so it is important that we are one of the earlier adopters of this programme and find ways to improve in this area.

The latest statistics from the ECU indicate a lack of minority ethnic representation in the HE sector and the REC is an excellent way to address this. We know that the OU has work to do in this area and the REC, like Athena SWAN and the Disability Standard, offers us a proven framework to help address institutional barriers to staff and student success.

Further information about the ECU and the REC award can be found on ECU’s website: https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter/