Race Equality Week
Race Equality Week (Monday 3 to Sunday 9 February) is a UK-wide initiative aimed at uniting organisations and individuals in addressing barriers to race equality in the workplace.
The theme for Race Equality Week 2025 is #EveryActionCounts.
Building on previous years' themes, the Race Equality Matters website emphasizes how every small step and action can enact real change towards race equality.
With this theme, we continue to encourage everyone to actively listen and learn from each other and use existing resources including the Let's educate ourselves page and Black Lives Matter reading list while planning the actions we can take on individual and institutional levels.
Our actions and initiatives
Staff Race Equality Forum
The Staff Race Equality Forum (SREF) is one of the University’s Staff Equality Networks. The Forum provides opportunities for peer networking, support and development among Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and the promotion of University values around inclusiveness.
SREF has conducted two listening exercises - one in 2019 and the other in 2022 - with our Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff members to understand their experiences. The exercises led to the development of new guidance and policies to enable individuals as well as foster a more inclusive culture. SREF is open to all staff members who are passionate about promoting race equality.
Find out more about the Staff Listening Exercise
Race Equality Coordination Group
As an institution, we acknowledge the significance of not losing sight of the important work around anti-racism, which is why we established the Race Equality Co-ordination Group (RECG) in 2020. As part of this, we have agreed an anti-racism statement and set ourselves ambitious and impactful targets. The University has implemented actions that address the under-representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic student population in York and in UK Higher Education. Our race equality initiatives include:
- Our Black Access scheme
- Our status as a University of Sanctuary
We are in the process of renewing the aims and objectives of RECG to ensure that we embed our race equality actions in our everyday practice in line with the University's new EDI Strategic Objectives.
Get involved
5 day challenge
We're encouraging everyone in our community to take part in the Race Equality Matters 5 day challenge. On each of the five days you'll take part in a different challenge, each taking around five minutes with videos, articles or activities to help you reflect and take actions which will lead to change.
Online EDI modules
We provide online equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) modules, which were developed in collaboration with AdvanceHE. The eLearning package explores themes of oppression, the impact of harassment and discrimination on individuals, and the important role we play by being an upstander and as staff members in an education setting. These topics are presented with real-life examples from staff and students from Higher Education Institutions, with links to additional resources and learning materials.
The module is available and mandatory to all staff members. We urge everyone to take the module to update our knowledge in EDI, to take actions against any forms of discrimination, and to support our communities with empathy.