The School of Agriculture, Policy and Development is committed to fostering a supportive, inclusive, and equitable environment for all staff, students, partners, and visitors, including those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act.
Our goal is to help every member of our community reach their full potential while promoting a workplace and learning culture that prioritises both physical and mental wellbeing. We believe that when people feel free to be themselves—within a culture of mutual respect and appreciation for diversity—they thrive and that such environments lead to greater success, creativity, and innovation.
How we support you:
We promote flexible working and good working practices, mentoring and coaching, mandatory unconscious bias training for those involved in recruitment, and extensive support for promotions.
We use a community-centred and data-driven approach, using staff and student surveys and datasets to inform, prioritise and evaluate the actions that we take.
Visit our EDI padlet to see what actions we have been taking recently. Please email us if you would like to showcase your EDI activity on the padlet.
As a School, we hold an Athena SWAN Silver charter mark, achieved in September 2024. Athena SWAN promotes representation, progression and success for all. It focuses specifically on the advancement of women's careers across higher education in all academic fields, but uses an intersectional approach and aims to promote inclusion for all.
We are also part AgRespect, pledging to stand against prejudice and to support diversity, equality and inclusion for LGBTQ+ people in rural communities.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team:
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team is comprised of representatives from staff and students and students across the School.
For further information, suggestions or comments relating to EDI in the School please email Emma Broomfield.
We have an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan 2024-2029, which we are following and continually developing in response to new data.
Read our Action Plan for 2024-2029 (PDF)
Learn about University-wide measures to increase Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Support for wellbeing:
Learn about support the University offers for staff wellbeing
Learn about support the University offers for students