Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Equality Charters and benchmarking

Our equality goal for Sussex is to reduce the gap in representation, experience, progression and reward between those with and without the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We will focus on four programmes of work built around external charter marks and accreditation schemes. These schemes provide a framework to structure our work and give leverage to address issues substantively and with support from all parts of the University. We will also adopt an intersectional approach towards this work, identifying and addressing gaps arising from the intersection of two or more protected characteristics.

Gender equality

The University holds an Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze award alongside School level awards for all of our STEMM Schools. Our aim is for all Schools to hold an Athena SWAN award by 2025. Our institutional action plan [PDF 200KB] now covers all gender equality actions in a single place, including our gender pay gap action plan.

Race equality

The University joined the Race Equality Charter in December 2018 and is working towards an application under the Charter by July 2023.

LGBTQ+ equality

The University became a Stonewall Diversity Champion in 2018 and submitted its first application to the Stonewall Diversity Index in 2019, with the aim of becoming a top 100 Employer by 2025.

Disability equality

The University joined Disability Confident at level 1 (Committed) in May 2019, achieved level 2 (Employer) in 2021, with the aim of becoming a Disability Confident Leader by 2025.