Through joining the pledge, Queen Mary commits to:
- Not tolerating racist behaviour and calling acts out as racist
- Training employees on what being anti-racist means
- Addressing racial inequality and improving opportunity and access to services and employment.
Sheila Gupta, Vice-Principal (People, Culture and Inclusion) at Queen Mary University of London said: "I am enormously proud to sign the London Borough of Tower Hamlets pledge on behalf of our Queen Mary community; inclusion is fundamental to our diverse staff and students.
"We, as a University, are committed to promoting race equality, ensuring everyone can work and learn in an environment that supports their ambitions and in which they can flourish."
Queen Mary is currently developing a Race Equality Strategy and Action Plan, led by its Race Equality Action Group. This will involve developing and introducing new initiatives to further enhance the education and careers of BAME students and staff.
The Race Equality Action Group includes both students and staff who oversee the work on race equality. This ensures activity and initiatives are developed from an understanding of the experiences of those from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. They also offer recommendations and resources to help improve inclusivity at Queen Mary for everyone.
Queen Mary has publicly stated its mission to become the most inclusive university of its kind, anywhere, by 2030.
Additional activity to improve race equality includes voluntarily publishing ethnicity pay gap data annually, widening the Equality and Diversity team by appointing a Manager to lead the Race Equality Strategy, and investing in research partnerships to improve equality opportunities. For example, the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences has partnered with Google DeepMind to recruit a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Machine Learning to increase opportunities for Black researchers.
The University is also exploring several routes to encourage BAME students to take their education to postgraduate level.
