Race equality at The Open University

The Open University is committed to advancing race equality and creating an inclusive University where staff and students are respected, valued and able to succeed.

In February 2026, The Open University achieved the Advance HE Race Equality Charter Bronze Award. The award recognises the University’s work to understand racial inequalities affecting its staff and students and its commitment to addressing them through sustained, evidence-informed action.

Achieving the Bronze Award is an important stage in our continuing race equality work. Our focus is now on implementing the commitments identified through the Race Equality Charter process, monitoring progress and embedding responsibility for race equality across the University.

What is the Race Equality Charter?

The Race Equality Charter, commonly known as REC, is a national framework managed by Advance HE. It supports higher education institutions to identify and address barriers affecting the representation, progression, experiences and outcomes of racially minoritised staff and students.

Participating institutions examine their culture, policies, practices, data and outcomes and develop actions in response to the inequalities identified.

Our Race Equality Charter journey

The OU’s Bronze submission was informed by institutional data, consultation and the experiences of staff and students.
The Bronze Award recognises that the University has developed an understanding of the racial inequalities present within the institution and has established actions to address them. It does not indicate that this work is complete.
Our next phase is focused on delivering the Race Equality Action Plan and assessing whether the actions are creating meaningful and sustainable change.

Our priorities

Our Race Equality Charter Action Plan is organised around seven strategic priorities that will guide our work over the five-year award period.

Priority 1: Leadership, governance and accountability

Strengthening leadership and governance to ensure race equality is embedded in decision-making, improving representation, developing inclusive leadership, and ensuring clear accountability for delivering our commitments.

Priority 2: Improving the staff experience

Creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel respected, supported and confident to discuss race, challenge discrimination and access learning, development and reporting mechanisms that promote equity and belonging.

Priority 3: Improving the student experience

Ensuring students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds experience an inclusive learning environment through improved support, opportunities to engage with race equality, and initiatives that strengthen belonging and success.

Priority 4: Research staff

Supporting research staff through fair recruitment, development, progression and career opportunities, while addressing barriers identified through institutional evidence and consultation.

Priority 5: Postgraduate research students

Improving the experience of postgraduate researchers by strengthening supervision, recruitment, support and inclusive research environments.

Priority 6: Associate Lecturers and Residential Academic Staff

Ensuring Associate Lecturers and Residential Academic Staff are fully included in the University's race equality work through equitable access to development, support and opportunities.

Priority 7: Embedding race equality across the University

Building sustainable approaches to race equality through partnership, continuous evaluation, monitoring and shared responsibility, ensuring progress is embedded across the institution.

Delivering our commitments

The University's Race Equality Charter Action Plan is being delivered collaboratively across Faculties, Professional Services, Nations and governance structures. Progress is monitored through agreed objectives, milestones and governance processes to ensure accountability and continuous improvement.

Looking ahead

Our next phase is about moving from commitment to demonstrable, measurable and sustainable impact.

Over the lifetime of the Bronze Award, we will deliver and evaluate the actions set out in our REC Action Plan, while strengthening accountability for race equality across Schools and Professional Services. We will embed REC priorities across the university to improve the quality, use and transparency of staff and student equality data, and address persistent disparities in experience, representation, progression and outcomes.

We aim to strengthen racial literacy and inclusive leadership capability and identify, evaluate and scale practices that are delivering positive and sustainable outcomes. Alongside this, we will share our learning and experience with the wider higher education sector and build the evidence, insight and institutional maturity needed to progress to the next stage of our REC journey.

Ultimately, our ambition is for race equity to be evident not only in our strategies, policies and awards, but in the everyday experiences, opportunities and outcomes of our staff and students.