Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Organisation

Steps Cranfield has taken to reduce inequalities are summarised in our annual Equity, Diversity and Inclusion report.

For the second year running we were recognised in the Top 30 Employers in the UK by the charity Working Families, reflecting our innovative, flexible and family-friendly policies and practices that support parents and carers.

In January 2023, Cranfield’s executive leadership team signed individual pledges supporting race equality as part of Race Equality Matter’s Big Promise. We established a men’s mental health community and support network as a forum.

We also launched a new Report + Support tool which makes it easier for staff and students to seek support and report behaviours such as bullying, harassment and discrimination which are not acceptable and have no place at Cranfield.

Financial support

Recognising the financial difficulties facing students a hardship fund and several scholarships continued during the year. Current opportunities can be found on our funding pages. For example, in 2023 we introduced Commonwealth Shared Scholarships for master’s study to support students from developing countries who would not otherwise be able to study in the UK, and the Joe Nellis scholarship fund.

Research

Research highlights focusing on inequality include:

• New research into working patterns during the Covid furlough scheme which suggests that both employers and the Government could be missing a trick by not making part-time working easier and more available.
• Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online aims to characterise, manage and mitigate online risks minority ethnic communities experience when accessing digital services in the areas of housing, health and energy. The report of its first workshop was published in 2023.
• Environmental and social benefits of regenerative agriculture for tropical perennial agroecosystems.
• Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES).
• EWA-BELT – Enhancing East and West African Framing Systems.

Outreach

Outreach addressing inequality in 2023 included:

• A special event ahead of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED). Aiming to inspire the next generation into careers in aviation and engineering, children from Milton Keynes Academy were able to tour an aircraft as part of the event.
• Funded through the RAEng Ingenious awards, pupils at four schools across the Milton Keynes area will receive a series of visits from Cranfield University experts to learn about materials engineering.
• Our 2023 nominations to the Earthshot Prize address inequalities.

Organisation

In 2021/22, we introduced several new staff and student networks to sit alongside Step Up (supporting women) and our Early Career Researchers. These new networks aim to support minority groups and include: EmbRace (race/ethnic diversity), Cranfield Disability Network, Q at Cranfield (LGBTQ+ community), and Parents and Carers. Cranfield also actively supports Black History Month. Find out more in this blog post.

Financial support

Recognising the financial difficulties facing students, we made available a Student Hardship Fund and the Cranfield Postgraduate Loan Scheme. The Sue White Fund is available for African students, together with several scholarships, including the Santander Master's scholarship for female students and Chevening scholarships. Further examples can be found on our funding pages.

Research

A consortium of researchers, including experts from Cranfield University, launched a major study to investigate the impact of the rapid move to online public services on minority ethnic communities. The £3.3 million project is part of UKRI’s Protecting Citizens Online programme, initiated in response to the 2020 Online Harms White Paper.

Research highlights in this area included:

• Environmental and social benefits of regenerative agriculture for tropical perennial agroecosystems.
• Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain.
• EWA-BELT – Enhancing East and West African Framing Systems.
• Study on the global imbalance of wind energy diffusion.
• PhD student Calvin Cowell is developing his research into the effects of financial inclusion on ethnic groups with a view to improving financial access to disadvantaged and underserved groups.
• Research on the potential of urban green spaces for supporting horticultural production looks at how this might reduce inequality.

At Cranfield we value diversity and recognise the new perspectives that this can bring to our working, learning and teaching community.

Through our diversity initiatives and policies we are creating a culture in which everyone is able to fulfil their potential.

Our Learning Support Officers help, guide and support students with specific learning support needs or impairments.

Our Students' Association has an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Officer. Cranfield’s Senior Diversity and Inclusion Business Partner leads the University’s Diversity and Inclusion function and is responsible for the management, development and implementation of the University’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and action plan.

In 2021 we began the process of establishing our EmbRace Network and Working Group to support ethnic minority staff and started our Disability Network to help identify and support actions and interventions to make Cranfield a more inclusive University for disabled staff and students. We also joined Stonewall and developed communications to support LGBTQ+ staff and students. Our 'First Time Line Managers' programme and 'Managers Essential Pathway' have ED&I embedded into them so that managers are aware of how ED&I impacts decision-making and the employee lifecycle. Staff can find out more on our intranet site.