Changing University Cultures (CHUCL) is a project designed to help universities evolve their cultures to ‎promote equality and diversity and address issues such as bullying and harassment‎.

We work with university staff and managers to encourage deep thinking and reflection on university cultures and how to bring about substantive sustainable change.

Our programme involves two phases: the first develops an in-depth understanding of the institutional culture using a mix of sociological methods; and the second, based on our innovative Grounded Action Inquiry methodology, works directly with small groups to reflect on the institutional culture and build capacity to bring about change.

We work at different levels within universities in departments, schools, faculties and units.

We developed our methodology through commissioned projects at Imperial College London and Sussex University, and we are currently working in a number of other institutions.

The CHUCL team comprises Professor Alison Phipps and Dr Liz McDonnell from the Sociology department at Sussex, and Jess Taylor who is an organisational development consultant with fifteen years’ experience.

To find out more about CHUCL, visit our website.