What is Stonewall?

is a charity that campaigns for the rights of lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and ace (LGBTQ+) people everywhere. They work to support individuals, change organisations and institutions, provide information and resources, and lobby for legal changes.

As part of our equality, diversity and inclusion commitment, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is part of . Through this programme Stonewall works with organisations and employers to ensure LGBTQ+ staff are accepted without exception in the workplace.

51³Ô¹ÏÍø has also signed Stonewall's  public statement, to express support for our trans staff, students, alumni and the wider trans community.

Stonewall Workplace Equality Index

To help 51³Ô¹ÏÍø develop as an organisation that is fully inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, we participate in the Stonewall . This scheme provides an external benchmark against which we can assess how we are doing.

The Stonewall Index requires organisations to undergo a review process and produce a report. This aims to make organisations think about their processes and culture to ensure that they are responsive to the experiences and perspectives of LGBTQ+ staff and students. The report asks about:

  • employee policy
  • the employee lifecycle
  • staff network groups
  • allies and role models
  • senior leadership
  • monitoring
  • procurement
  • and ‘customers’ (for 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, the latter group largely comprises our students).

What is 51³Ô¹ÏÍø doing?

Since 2017, the university has sought to bring a new focus to our engagement with the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. In the 2022 Index, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø became a Top 100 employer, ranking 96th; in the 2024 Index 51³Ô¹ÏÍø ranked 33rd. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø was also recognised with a Gold Award for its commitment and efforts to become an LGBTQ+ inclusive employer. This marks a significant improvement to the university's position in 2019, when 51³Ô¹ÏÍø placed 266 out of 447 organisations. Read more about 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's rise in the rankings.

Although we hope that the experience of LGBTQ+ people continues to improve year on year at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, we know we can still do better. Part of our submission to Stonewall Index is an action plan, which helps us to structure and prioritise the things that we need to do. Throughout the year, progress on this action plan is monitored by a Stonewall Action Committee, which includes representatives of our LGBTQ+ staff network, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø 600.

Our action plan is an ongoing process that we hope will result in real changes. Ultimately, schemes like the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index are worthwhile as long as they achieve this. We would therefore welcome input from staff and students who have encountered problems that we need to solve, or who have ideas that will help make 51³Ô¹ÏÍø fully inclusive.

What is 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's relationship with Stonewall?

The Stonewall WEI differs from other EDI benchmarking schemes (for example Athena Swan, Race Equality Charter, Disability Confident) in that it is run by a charity that not only seeks to support the LGBTQ+ community, but also advocates and lobbies on their behalf. Stonewall is therefore an active participant in social and political debates arising out of the frictions that can sometimes arise at the interfaces between different characteristics (for example sex and gender identity, sexual orientation and religious belief). 51³Ô¹ÏÍø acknowledges its right to do so in a free society.

At the same time, while we value the way that Stonewall’s WEI has helped to inform and structure the work we do to support our LGBTQ+ staff and students, our membership of their Diversity Champions Programme does not mean that we necessarily subscribe to the positions that Stonewall might adopt in public debate. Universities are places where critical discourse must be able to thrive, especially on difficult subjects. Such discourses demand care and consideration.

51³Ô¹ÏÍø regularly monitors its partnerships with external organisations to ensure that they can best serve our objectives. In doing so we seek to enact our commitment to academic freedom and our duty to protect freedom of speech, in accordance with the Education Act 1986 and Human Rights Act 1998, alongside our determination to create a diverse and inclusive culture at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø.