Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences

Diversity & inclusion

Diversity is critical for world leading teaching and research. Working alongside people with different experiences and perspectives encourages innovation and creativity. It brings exposure to a breadth of knowledge, working styles and techniques and prompts us to develop ideas and consider decisions from multiple points of view.

We are committed to embedding inclusivity within the culture of the Department of Chemistry. We have created a fair and inclusive environment for all staff and students, so that everyone has available to them the support and opportunities they need to achieve their full potential.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is mirrors that in King's Strategic Vision for 2029.

Athena SWAN

In 2020 we were awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze Award for our achievements in ensuring equality, diversity, and inclusion principles are embedded into the core of our Department. We were commended particularly for the gender ratio of our undergraduate students (60%), postgraduate students (50%), and academic staff (40%), as well as for our inclusive recruitment strategies and the work we put into ensuring internal and external events such as seminar series are equitable.

Race Equality Charter

In line with King’s commitment to tackling racial discrimination (as part of the recent Race Equality Charter Bronze Award) we are actively working towards ensuring our successes in promoting gender equality is extended to include all underrepresented groups in STEM.

Race equality at King's

Professional Skills for a Globalised World

We developed a course on Professional Skills for a Globalised World in collaboration with the Department of War Studies and the Department of Informatics, including sections on the importance of diversity and inclusion, managing biases, consideration of how our words and actions can impact others, and details on the small steps we can each take to create a more inclusive environment. This course is mandatory for all students on our Chemistry Undergraduate courses

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What we are doing

Our Department Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee oversees all of our activities and feeds into the Faculty Equality and Diversity Committee. As part of continued reflection and development, we continually monitor the mood within our department through yearly surveys and respond with decisive action plans as and when necessary.

The Department of Chemistry is proud of the achievements it has made since its reopening in 2012. Notably, our gender parity among its academic, research and teaching staff, and the proportion of female students on undergraduate courses are all above national benchmarks and have been since 2015 – although this is something we continually monitor. We run a Women in Science project across the faculty.

We work in a number of areas:

Proactive and inclusive recruitment. We take steps to make sure our job adverts are gender neutral in language and actively seek diverse candidates for these positions.
Promoting career progression at all levels. We have established support and mentoring structures for postgraduates, postdoctoral researchers, and our early career academics. In addition, our committees have strong representation from all stages of careers to enable inclusive decision making.
Nurturing collegial communities. We encourage and promote the creation of networks to foster cohesive communities within our department. This includes the postdoc community, POC networks, and active involvement in the King’s parents and carers network.
Inclusive working environment. We promote a healthy work-life balance in our department with flexible working options, core hours (1000 – 1600) for meetings and seminars, protected lunch breaks, and meeting-free Fridays.