Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in MAPS: Moving forward

The in-person event held on 21st March 2022 was deemed a success. Several MAPS faculty and UCL speakers throughout the day included Michael Spence (UCL Provost and President), Sasha Roseneil (UCL Pro-Provost EDI), MAPS Vice-Deans for Education (Katherine Holt) and Research (Andrew Wills), MAPS Heads of Departments (Helen Wilson, Raman Prinja, Gianluca Baio and Paul Upchurch), MAPS Departmental EDI Leads (Niloufar Abourashchi, Sarah Mathews, Benjamin Joachimi, Maxim Balmer), MAPS students involved in EDI, UCL’s Student Union Equity and LGTBQ+ officers, a volunteer to the BME student network, and leads of local EDI projects.

The event aimed to highlight faculty and departmental efforts to create equitable and inclusive work and study environments. 

Attendees included undergraduate students, PhD students, academics and members of professional services across the faculty.

Chaired by Alexandra Olaya-Castro (a.olaya@ucl.ac.uk) (MAPS Vice-Dean EDI), the speakers were asked questions about the main EDI priorities in their departments or throughout UCL. The speakers also discussed their motivations for taking on EDI work and what their best EDI achievements were so far. 

Leads of local EDI projects funded by the Take Bold Action for Inclusion funding presented their projects, which cover a variety of EDI initiatives that focus on developing or strengthening inclusive environments for staff or students in the faculty. The presenters spoke about why their project was important and what they hoped their legacy would be. The funded EDI projects can be read in more detail here.

Initial feedback from attendees felt the most useful or helpful aspect of the session was:

Hearing from other Heads of Departments, showing there should be more collaboration between departments to gain new insights”.

Another attendee thought: 

“It was great that the Provost came and was prepared to engage with questions”.

Lastly, another attendee appreciated: 

“The discussion of ideas of how to recognise EDI as an activity an ensure it is valued, as it helps careers and is taken into account as ‘workload’.

The MAPS Faculty hopes to replicate this event in future to ensure ongoing discussions on our EDI approaches, challenges and advances.  

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported the organising team throughout.