Initiatives

Any member of Edge Hill University staff.

The budget for this year is £2,000. At a minimum we will award four grants of £500, although we would welcome applications for smaller amounts so that we can fund more projects.

We would strongly welcome part or match funding from departments to make the project bigger and better, although this is not a prerequisite for a successful application.

We have no explicit list of projects that the grant should be used for, but some examples include:

• staff courses and buying in training
• conducting research
• a public engagement event, lecture, seminar or campaign
• buying equipment, materials, publicity and others.

Yes – in general, the grants should be used to help implement the EDI Strategy. We would encourage an imaginative use of these funds. To help support our plans, we have already identified a number of areas where we would welcome projects. Applications must focus on one or more of the following areas of priority unless you can clearly demonstrate that your project will address an important issue that we have missed.

Our priority areas are:

• take positive action to diversify the workforce and remain an employer of choice
• take positive action to remove potential perceived barriers to career progression
• increase the number/awareness of different network groups
• fill knowledge gaps through CPD, leading and/or attending events/initiatives, local awareness raising
• efforts to reduce gender biases associated with certain roles
• be a visible ally to our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, LGBTQI+ and disabled community
• populate working groups that lead on/contribute to external charters/accreditations
• identify EDI objectives as part of the annual PDR.

General topics:

• Family Origin Equality, Racism, White Privilege, Making the Curriculum Inclusive.
• Intersectionality awareness for example, Gender, Disabled, LGBTQ+, Socio economics.
• Engaging with EHU’s initiatives and events associated with the Equality Act 2010, with a focus on the nine protected characteristics.
• Mental Health, Wellbeing and Resilience, speakers or trainer fees, organising a webinar.
• Transgender awareness and inclusive practices.
• Addressing any specific knowledge and skills gaps.
• Carrying our research, focus groups or online engagement.
• Buying materials to use in activities, in particular those that can be used again, investment in merchandise, for example, pin badges.

The EDI Steering Group will review the applications and choose a range of projects that best meet the priority criteria, and which cover as many different areas as possible. We may also decide that a project is too ambitious for the timeframe or that there is insufficient information to help us decide that the project will work or is needed.

If you’re not successful it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea, or a worthy project, just that we have a limited number of projects we can support. 

The project must take place in the 2023/24 academic year. If the project will end up running into 2024/25 then the grant holder will need to arrange for the remaining money to be rolled over.

Yes, the grant holder must provide an evaluation report on the project – how successful it was in meeting the original objectives, lessons learned and recommendations.

Applications will open on the 6 November 2023 and online application forms must be submitted no later than Friday 24 November.

Once the money has been allocated, there will be a full expectation that the project will be delivered on time and in budget and that a full evaluation will be shared once the project is complete. If there are any changes, you will need to inform the EDI steering group as soon as possible.

If you have any queries about this initiative, please contact [email protected].

An awareness-raising event for EHU students and staff. A three day event celebrating neurodiversity (focusing on SpLD related neurodiversity – dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD) with daily themes/activities/interactive events. Online and physical student resource packs to aid with study skills development, whilst promoting academic resilience and wellbeing.

The aim of Facilitating Inclusive Practice in UniSkills will be to increase awareness and confidence when met with diverse cohorts of students and it will focus on visual, hearing, interaction, and comprehension-related barriers and how staff can identify and remove them in hybrid and in-person sessions to enable everyone to participate fully.

The funding will purchase bespoke training by AbilityNet.

The aim of the session will be to increase awareness and confidence when met with diverse cohorts of students and it will focus on visual, hearing, interaction, and comprehension-related barriers and how staff can identify and remove them in hybrid and in-person sessions to enable everyone to participate fully.

What staff will learn:

• Best practices for how to plan and deliver accessible and inclusive classroom sessions.
• The importance of creating conditions in classroom environments so that all can participate fully.
• Insights into barriers that can arise in classroom environments including vision, hearing, physical, comprehension and participation related considerations.
• Using interactive and practical tasks, and real-life case studies to learn how technology can help achieve this.

Since purchasing bespoke training from AbilityNet using the EDI Innovation fund, our Student Engagement team have identified practical ways to create inclusive and accessible environments and fully understand the barriers students can face in hybrid or in-person sessions.

UniSkills is the centralised academic skills support at Edge Hill University delivered by the Student Engagement team in Library and Learning Services. It is a package of digital resources, classroom sessions, workshops, and 1-2-1 support designed to help students develop a range of essential academic skills.

After delivering all support online during the pandemic, alongside noticeable increases in students with ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Condition diagnoses, the return to face-to-face teaching reinforced the importance of ensuring all our provision is inclusive and accessible. By anticipating the needs of all students and demonstrating inclusive practice, should be able to remove any barriers to learning.

With the EDI Innovation funding we arranged for the Student Engagement team to have bespoke training from AbilityNet, a charity that supports anyone living with any disability or impairment to use technology to achieve their goals at home, at work and in education.

The workshop focused on visual, hearing, interaction, and comprehension related barriers and how we can identify and remove them in hybrid and in-person sessions to enable all students to participate fully. The workshop included:

• best practices for how to plan and deliver accessible and inclusive classroom sessions
• the importance of creating conditions in classroom environments so that all can participate fully
• insights into barriers that can arise in classroom environments including vision, hearing, physical, comprehension and participation related considerations. Our team drew on individual experiences to demonstrate why these arise and how to remove or avoid creating barriers in the first place
• using interactive and practical tasks, and real-life case studies to learn how technology can help achieve our goals.

Following the workshop, the team brainstormed ideas about how we could apply what we learned to identify practical ways to create inclusive and accessible environments and fully understand the barriers students can face in hybrid or in-person sessions. We:

• created a best practice inclusive toolkit to curate and share some of the lessons learned
• created an accessibility checklist on our webpages which surfaces what accessibility measures we provide in all our in-person and online appointments and workshops
• now include an accessibility question in our post appointment and workshop surveys to measure satisfaction with accessibility of the sessions
• send session recordings with captions post sessions (and are assessing how we can send resources (PowerPoint / handouts) to students in advance of sessions)
• provide transcripts for all recordings to give students options about how they want to digest the information
• liaise with the Academic Engagement team in Library and Learning Services to respond to feedback regarding accessibility from programme boards
• surface and promote accessibility in eResources within digital library embedded sessions
• monitor developments related to accessibility in the software/platforms we use to produce resources and materials
• added accessibility good practice as a standing agenda item at the Student Engagement team Community of Practice
• continue to have regular team awareness raising / training / forums to keep abreast of developments in this area.

Helen Jamieson, Claire Swanwick, Helen Briscoe

(Student Engagement team, Library and Learning Services)