The Race Equality Charter (REC) survey has been redesigned to ensure that applicants are supported to consult with their staff and students; this consultation is critical to a deep understanding of the race equality context.
The updated survey consists of brand-new questions, a significantly reduced number of mandatory question areas, and a fresh new survey design using modern survey development principles that evidence suggests can improve response quality.
Want to know more about the Updated Race Equality Charter?
To offer increased flexibility, Advance HE have now provided a range of options:
- 12 core question areas: these identify aspects of race equality that we ask all applicants to explore with their staff and students and to present their findings in their Race Equality Charter application. We have provided suggested wording for these questions, with guidance for how to tailor terminology for context and how to best capture responses. If members explore these core aspects in existing surveys or consultation exercises, they are welcome to use the findings for their Race Equality Charter application rather than duplicate the question in a new survey, as long as they ensure that the question achieves the intended purpose of exploring the aspect of race equality identified.
- 17 optional question areas: these complement and are linked to the themes and subthemes of the core survey questions. Applicants can choose to include in their consultation exercises any of the optional questions according to their institutional needs.
- Additionally, the previous REC survey questions remain available in their original format and design to support longitudinal data collection for any institution already using these questions. Some of these question areas have been embedded in the list of optional questions using the updated survey format.
Aim of the Pilot
To ensure the updated survey is as effective and supportive of universities’ race equality work as possible, we are undertaking a pilot with a number of early adopters who wish to run the survey in their institutions in the 2023/24 academic year. The outcomes of the pilot will be reviewed with the Race Equality Charter Governance Committee in the autumn of 2024.
The aim of the pilot are to:
- Provide support to early adopters of the updated survey in running the survey and analysing their findings;
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the survey as a tool for assessing how inclusive a member’s culture is for people of all ethnic groups;
- Identify risks and opportunities for the wider roll-out of the survey, including what support members would like from Advance HE.
Any applicant planning on using the updated survey questions during 2023/24 can register your interest in taking part in the pilot exercise so that we can learn from your experience and feedback.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with the team at racecharter@advance-he.ac.uk.
