People
We aim to build a supportive, diverse and highly motivated staff community that will help us to retain talent.
Our staff are working towards enhancing our students’ experience and fostering a secure, communal environment. Through building strong relationships with our alumni and friends, we maintain a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and provide extra support for research undertaken by our staff.
Achieving true equality, diversity and inclusion across our staff and student communities is a challenge we continue to face, and we have a way to go. Our drive to achieve this is reflected in activities such as our submission to the Race Equality Charter in summer 2021, and our Shifting the Lens series celebrating diversity at Imperial, as well as new scholarships targeted at further diversifying our student community.
2021–21 in focus
Student satisfaction at 84%
The most recent National Student Survey results revealed student satisfaction at Imperial is now 84% – an increase of three percentage points on the previous year – and we have moved 80 places up the rankings. We topped the rankings for both London and Russell Group universities, with staff and students successfully collaborating to create a good student experience. Imperial continues to invest in providing the best possible experience for students.
Portable labs for learning
“The pandemic and lockdowns forced us to pivot fast. When students could not attend labs, we mailed hundreds of ‘Lab in a box’ kits to students worldwide.”
Provost Ian Walmsley writing in the New York Times
The creativity and ingenuity of our community gave rise to many innovative solutions to bridge the gap between in-person and online learning. Among them, the Department of Physics’ staff and students worked together to create ‘Lab in a box’ portable labs, which were then mailed to students across the world so they could complete experiments remotely. Many other departments tailored their own ‘Lab in a box’ kits and rolled them out to hundreds of students.
The 2021 Alumni Awards
Awards for alumni changemakers Yvette Stevens and Dr Abdullah Dafir Albeyatti.
Our alumni community of game-changers and problem-solvers continue to make a real impact across the globe, as well as at their alma mater. They volunteer their time as mentors, participate in events and support us with donations. The 2021 Alumni Awards recognised the extraordinary achievements of eight winners and two highly commended alumni. The contributions of these extraordinary people – including Ambassador Yvette Stevens and Dr Abdullah Dafir Albeyatti – to science, engineering, medicine, business and society were recognised in three award categories: Distinguished Alumni, Emerging Leader, and Entrepreneur.
“It’s good to be a role model, and show young girls what you’ve achieved, because you’re not standing there telling them to do something you didn’t do yourself. I think that’s really important.”
Ambassador Yvette Stevens, (MSc Electrical Power Systems and Machines 1974), Winner of the Distinguished Alumni Award 2021
Working Together Task Group
Imperial’s Working Together Task Group is creating a positive working environment.
Imperial’s search for excellence has, at times, been wrongly interpreted as at odds with our values, such as mutual respect.
This has manifested in unacceptable behaviours, including during pandemic-era periods of heightened pressure. The Working Together Task Group was established in January 2021 to listen to our community and deliver concrete proposals that will help set the conditions for a positive working environment and culture for our staff and students.
This ranges from managing workloads, to how senior leaders act, job security and processes for raising concerns. The Provost’s and President’s Boards have committed to a series of improvements, including leadership transparency and better two-way communications on issues facing the community, a consultative leadership approach, and building a stronger sense of community and pride, as well as celebrating under-recognised contributions. Imperial as a whole is working to nurture mutual respect in interactions with, and between, different parts of our community, as well as beyond, into the wider world.