In the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, we are working hard to create a positive work environment, fostering employee engagement, and nurturing a culture that aligns with our values and goals. Our People and Culture function co-creates a workplace which is fair, just and inclusive.
In line with the King’s Vision 2029, in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, we are striving to build an inclusive community where our students, staff and visitors feel welcomed and valued and where people’s experiences and outcomes are equitable across groups. As a faculty dedicated to delivering world-leading education and research in the biomedical and health sciences, we have a responsibility to ensure that our work is accessible and benefits all societal groups in the UK and globally.
Our People & Culture Committee comprises a core team of People & Culture Leads for each for each school and representatives from research and technical staff. Our work applies equality, diversity and inclusion principles including an intersectional approach to understanding people’s experiences across the nine protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation). The People and Culture team also work on projects relating to organisational development and learning and development across FoLSM.
Athena Swan Charter is a framework used to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE). When it was launched in 2005, it focussed on advancing the careers of women in science, in particular aiming to improve the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) in higher education. The Charter now works to progress gender equality more broadly and covers work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law, in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students.
The College holds a silver institutional award and the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine was awarded Athena SWAN Silver accreditation in November 2024 in recognition of our progress since our 2018 award and our ongoing commitment to achieving gender equality.
Athena Swan website
While Race Equality Charter awards are only awarded at institutional level, we are working on our race equality activity within the Faculty. We own a number of actions within the College’s Race Equality Action Plan, particularly focussing on improving inclusive leadership of our senior leadership teams and profile-raising events for Black staff and alumni. There is more we need to do to drive race equality across our community and we are committed to make strong progress.
Race Equality Charter website