Equality and diversity

The School of Computing and Communications seeks to maintain the highest standards in teaching, research and enterprise. To do this, we are committed to ensuring that staff and students work within an environment which is inclusive, where people are treated with dignity and respect, where inequalities are challenged, and where we anticipate and respond positively to different needs and circumstances so that everyone can achieve their potential.

These values are in accordance with the Open University's mission of being open to people, places, methods and ideas and its values of inclusivity, innovation and responsiveness.

All staff and students in the School therefore commit to treat others with dignity and respect, mindful of the diverse School community. The School has a duty of care to its members, and all members have a duty of care to each other to ensure there is no discrimination or exclusion on the basis of protected characteristics and experiences, including, but not limited to: age, disability, caring and dependency responsibilities, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, political opinion, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, trade union membership or other distinctions.

The School is proud to be holder of an Athena SWAN Silver departmental award to demonstrate our commitment to addressing the under-representation of women in STEM and specifically in our discipline area of Computing.

We are actively working on a number of initiatives and research projects to achieve this objective, including through strategic partnerships such as the Institute of Coding, the WISE Campaign and Stemettes.

Examples of current work includes: