Building an inclusive Essex: Highlights from our 2024–25 EDI Annual Report

Inclusion isn’t an add‑on it’s part of who we are. We’re proud of our diverse community and remain committed to creating a place where everyone feels welcome, supported and able to thrive.

Our 2024-25 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Annual Report recently approved by Council captures the progress we’ve made. Here are some of the key highlights.

Closing pay gaps and strengthening fairness

This year’s data shows encouraging signs:

• Our mean gender pay gap stands at 12.01%, and the median at 8.89%, both in favour of men.
• The bonus pay gap increased to 30.87% due to a freeze on non‑contractual bonuses, while the median remained at 0%.
• Importantly, analysis across grade bands found no substantial evidence of unequal pay for equal work, with most gaps within our ±5% target range.

We also continue to monitor ethnicity and disability pay gaps:

• Ethnicity: Mean gap of 0.72% in favour of White staff; median 2.99% in favour of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff.
• Disability: mean pay gap is 7.62% in favour of staff with a declared disability, reflecting improved disclosure and data quality.

Supporting student success

Our Education Strategy to 2028 and Access and Participation Plan guide our work to ensure every student (regardless of background) can achieve excellent outcomes.

The Education Committee reviews annual reports on access, continuation and progression, helping us stay accountable and focused on reducing inequities across the student journey.

Driving gender and race equity

We’ve continued to work on our Athena SWAN and Race Equality Charter action plans.

A joint meeting in June brought together staff and students to share updates on:

• The Transitions and Transformations Project, tackling structural inequities for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students pursuing academic and research careers.
• New approaches to student engagement in charter‑related work.
• Inspiring talks from two senior women leaders.
• A powerful reflection from a Black PhD student on the transformative impact of mentorship.
• Insights from Silver‑level Athena SWAN departments on embedding gender equity.

This collective work strengthens our commitment to intersectional equity and a culture where everyone can succeed.

Championing LGBTQ+ Inclusion and employee wellbeing

We’re proud to hold a Silver award in the Workplace Equality Index and following our resubmission in December 2025 under Stonewall’s new scheme called Proud Employers Accreditation we were pleased to be recently awarded the Champion level reflecting our sustained impact and leadership in LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Demonstrating our commitment to and provision of comprehensive approach to staff wellbeing, were awarded Silver in the Working Well Accreditation.

We continue to be a place of sanctuary

Essex continues to stand as a University of Sanctuary.

Our 60 Stories campaign celebrated decades of support for refugees, asylum seekers and displaced scholars. The Sanctuary Solidarities conference, hosted with Eastern Arc partners, brought together around 100 participants to explore cross‑sector collaboration and lived experience in shaping sanctuary policy.

A UNHCR Representative and Essex alumna opened the event, and Essex academics led a powerful session on trauma‑informed, rights‑based mental health support.

Better data, better understanding

Thanks to initiatives like Your Profile Counts, targeted outreach and improved data integrity, staff disclosure rates have risen dramatically. Disability non‑disclosure dropped from 58.77% to 5.03% (all staff) and from 44.60% to 2.37% (Grades 9–11). These improvements will be reflected in next year’s report.

Expanding EDI learning and engagement

This year we delivered a wide range of EDI training, including:

• Anti‑Racism training for staff and students.
• Refreshed Bystander Intervention training.
• Tackling Misogyny, Sexism and Sexual Violence (now in its third year).
• Lectures for Biomedical Science students.
• Sessions for YUFE partners on harassment, racism and disability.
• Review of key EDI policies has been undertaken

Looking ahead

Our commitment to EDI remains unwavering. We want every member of our community to feel seen, valued and supported.

We invite you to explore the full EDI Annual Report for a deeper look at our progress and priorities.