Our charter marks, awards and affiliations
Committing to gender equality
We hold an institutional Bronze Athena Swan award, recognising our commitment to gender equality
Committing to race equality
We have retained the Bronze award for the Race Equality Charter
Teaching excellence
We hold a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence for our Learning and Teaching Innovation Centre (LTIC)
We hold ourselves to account and benchmark our work by pursuing various charter marks, awards and affiliations that demonstrate exceptional public service and social responsibility across the range of protected characteristics.
Race
We are one of 38 Universities in the UK to hold a Race Equality Charter Mark Bronze award, first earned after the Pilot in 2015, and retained in 2021. The Race Equality Charter (REC) Mark aims to inspire a strategic approach to making cultural and systemic changes that will make a real difference to minority ethnic staff and students.
Disability
Herts is committed to supporting staff and students living with a visible or non-visible disability. We are currently at Level 2: Disability Confident Employer, of the Disability Confident Scheme. We are also one of only 17 UK institutions to partner with Stammerers Through University Consultancy (STUC) aiming to improve the experience for our students and staff who stammer.
We are a member of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower to support staff and students living with a non-visible disability. We are also proud to be in partnership with Neurodiversity in Law, an organisation helping to eliminate the stigma often associated with people who think differently.
We are currently undertaking a self-assessment in order to develop our Disability Action Plan.
Gender
The Athena Swan Charter is a national initiative that recognises commitment to tackling gender inequality in higher education and research. The University of Hertfordshire holds an Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze award and is committed to working towards the silver award. Several of our schools hold additional Athena SWAN awards, including:
Silver Awards
- Health and Social Work (2018)
- Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics (2018)
- Life and Medical Sciences (2023)
Bronze Awards
Research equality
We have held the HR Excellence in Research (HREiR) award since 2010, recognising our efforts to enhance working conditions for our researchers. Among other aims, the principles of HREiR include promoting diversity and equality in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of researchers.
Sexual Orientation
The Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme ensures that all LGBTQ+ staff are accepted without exception in the workplace. We are proud to have renewed our membership of the programme in 2021 to further embed LGBTQ+ inclusion for our staff and students. We recently submitted for the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index in November 2023 and we await to receive our feedback.
Mental health
We are committed to the Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter, which provides a framework that supports the mental health of students and staff.
Our staff can also receive free professional counselling, legal advice or guidance in areas such as debt management via our partnership with experts HealthHero Assist. We have used our affiliation with HealthHero Assist, and relationships with the NHS and the Samaritans, to offer workshops and training to staff, supporting them in managing their own mental health and for managers, that of their team members.