Activate 2023/24 end of year celebration event
Equality, diversity, and inclusion matter – in research and higher education, as with society at large. As well as being the fair and ethical thing to do, promoting an environment that is truly diverse and inclusive, and where (real) equality of opportunity is championed, is key to maximising our contribution to society. It is only by benefitting from the diverse range of talents, perspectives, and expertise of the whole population that we can address the complex challenges we are currently faced with. However, and despite ongoing work across the Higher Education sector to improve diversity among the student population, inequalities remain a critical issue in access, participation and outcomes for both students and staff.
Imperial is committed to improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic students and staff within Higher Education, as detailed in our Race Equality Charter Action Plan. One of the actions Imperial committed to was to create a cross-departmental mentoring scheme for PhD students from ethnic minorities, with an initial focus on black students. That is where Activate stems from.
The cross-Imperial Activate Student Mentoring Programme is a mentoring programme dedicated to supporting under-represented groups at Imperial. In 2023/24, the programme was led by Laura Lane and Dr Caroline Hargreaves (Graduate School). Activate seeks to:
• Improve experiences
• Increase retention
• Develop a peer community
• Support career development
• Create a deeper sense of belonging
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. (...) It was great developing skills related to mentoring, such as communication and listening. It was also great to see the mentee grow through their achievements, and they also benefitted through obtaining a PhD position with guidance from our sessions. Feedback from a mentor
Throughout the year, Activate mentors (Imperial staff, alumni and PhD students) and mentees meet for a minimum of six mentoring meetings. There are also a number of cohort and community activities, available to both mentees and mentors, which aim to create a sense of community and allow for networking and peer learning, as well as an end of year celebration all are invited to. Importantly, mentors take part in a tailored training programme to support effective mentoring partnerships, and mentees are also supported through additional dedicated training. Matching is mentee-led, with mentees encouraged to seek someone outside their academic field, as a way of broadening their exposure. The programme framework was designed by a working group established especially for that purpose, with representatives from a broad range of key stakeholders, including the Graduate School , People and Organisational Development, Outreach, Student Services and, crucially, students themselves.
Since its creation in 2022/23, Activate has been growing, a testament to the success of the programme. In its first year, it was open to Undergraduate and Master’s recipients of the Presidential scholarships for students of Black heritage, and PhD Students of Black heritage; 19 mentoring partnerships were established. In 2023/24, it was additionally offered to PhD students of Black, Asian and Minority Ethic groups, with a total of 26 mentoring partnerships being developed. In 2024/25, a second stream will be created: mentoring will also be available to recipients of Imperial’s Master’s Scholarships to support disabled students and disabled PhD students. Over that academic year, work will be done to develop resources to further expand the programme to include women, forced migrants, and students who are care-experienced or estranged students, to be launched in 2025/26.
The Activate Mentoring program has been invaluable in enhancing my student experience (…) and a sense of belonging within the Imperial community. Feedback from a mentee
The Activate model is accessible, adaptable, flexible, and enduring. Training workshops are delivered online and include a combination of core sessions, designed to set out the principles and expectations around the programme, and sessions which are tailored to each stream, so that content is most relevant to each audience. These currently include workshops on how to open up conversations about race and disability, power, unconscious bias, and the social model of disability.
Activate has led to a number of unexpected connections and positive outcomes. Programme resources have been widely shared across Imperial and externally. The Founder and CEO of With Insight Education commented “the opportunity to see good practice from others in the sector was insightful, helping me in our programme design and implementation process” and the Imperial Award Manager also found the Activate resources “to be highly suitable for our peer mentorship within the Imperial Award framework (...) I am currently engaged in tailoring the content of this training to suit the specific requirements of the Imperial Award.”
Overall, the programme has received really good feedback, with both mentors and mentees highlighting the positive impact Activate has had on them. However, there is still more work to be done: underrepresented groups still face significant challenges securing (real) equality in our society. We hope that programmes like Activate will help us to one day eventually achieve that.
It is a real pleasure to see mentors and mentees build effective partnerships, support and learn from each other. I am excited that Activate is helping our community to come together and I am immensely grateful to all those who helped to get it off the ground, to those who contributed towards the mentor and mentee training and most of all to our wonderful mentors and mentees.
Laura Lane, Head of Strategy and Operations (Graduate School)
This work was funded by Research England's Enhancing Research Culture grant.