Equality, diversity and inclusion

The university is a Disability Confident employer

After many years as a Two Ticks employer, the university has moved to adopt Disability Confident, a new government scheme to support equality and diversity in our staff recruitment practices. This move enables our ongoing commitment to employing people with disabilities and health conditions, as well as ensuring these employees have every possible opportunity to progress at the university.

Disability Confident is a voluntary scheme which has been developed in partnership with disabled people’s representatives. It is a Jobcentre Plus initiative for employers who are taking action to meet commitments regarding the employment, retention, training and career development of employees with disabilities. These commitments are integral to the university’s strategy promise: enabling our staff and liberating talent.

As a Disability Confident employer, we:

• undertake the Disability Confident self-assessment
• take all of the core actions to be a Disability Confident employer
• offer at least one activity to get the right people for our business and at least one activity to keep and develop our people.

What do we mean by disability?

Under the Equality Act 2010, disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

As under the Disability Confident scheme, we offer our assurance that, should applicants with disabilities meet the minimum criteria for a post, they will be shortlisted for the post and given an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at interview.

The university is a member of Advance HE

The Athena Swan Charter

Athena Swan recognises commitment to addressing unequal gender representation across academic disciplines, professional and support roles, and to removing obstacles faced by women.

The University of Brighton holds a silver Athena Swan award. It joined the charter in 2012, achieving its bronze institutional award in 2013, and was reaccredited in 2016.

The Race Equality Charter Mark

The University of Brighton achieved a Silver Race Equality Charter Award in September 2025 – a powerful recognition of the fundamental roles that equity and inclusion play in everything we do. This makes us only the sixth university nationally to hold this prestigious award, highlighting our significant progress in advancing racial equity and diversity and our commitment to furthering these causes in the years ahead. To achieve a Silver level award, the university has demonstrated:

• work to ensure that policies and practices support an inclusive culture and do not negatively impact on staff or students due to their race or ethnicity
• the inclusion of intersectional analysis considerations in the evaluation of institutional and qualitative data, improving our understanding of intersectional inequalities and impact
• the implementation of actions to address race equity by developing and closely monitoring action plans which will support us to address intersectional inequalities where issues have been identified.

Stonewall Diversity Champion and in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers

The university is a proud member of Stonewall’s Proud Employers programme which means that we follow its best practice in creating an inclusive workplace for LGBTQ+ employees. Between 2005 and 2025, Stonewall ran the Workplace Equality Index (WEI) which was the UK’s leading benchmarking tool for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace.

The university last submitted to WEI in 2024 where we ranked 14 out the Top 100 Employers and were awarded Gold employer status. Our position recognises us as one of the top employers for LGBTQ+ people in the UK amongst private, public and charitable organisations that have applied to the index.

Staff Equality Network Groups