Overview

A recurring criticism often addressed towards organisational EDI initiatives is that they feel imposed and unidirectional (top-down). This session will challenge this discourse, introducing the SRHE EDI network as an initiative driven by compassion and collegiality in delivering meaningful content for all the HE communities that the Society represents. 

The session will start with the co-convenors briefly introducing the network, its mission, guiding principles and vision, including its planned events for the year. Emphasis will be placed on our common commitment to a) bring EDI at the forefront, linking it to the Society’s newly-established EDI Working group, b) engage in meaningful dialogue with all the various communities the Society aims to provide for, and c) deliver content that advances equity and inclusion.  The aforementioned commitment cannot be effectively addressed, unless we co-create with the various audiences we are supposed to deliver for. So, the audience will be called to engage in an interactive small-group brainstorming activity to share their input about what they would like to see included in the network’s activities.

Groups will be called to keep a record of their ideas and then share key points with everyone, after the end of the group-work activity. The co-convenors will review the input gathered and use this to plan the networks’ further actions and content. To close the feedback loop and honour the input of the session participants, the co-convenors will write a blog post to highlight how they will incorporate what participants shared in the network’s activities.

Schedule

Speaker bios

Dr Peny Sotiropoulou, mixed-methods researcher at Advance HE and SRHE’s EDI network co-convenor. Peny is a mixed-methods researcher at Advance HE, specialising in EDI considerations in Higher Education. She leads on the production and dissemination of Advance HE’s annual Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Reports to assist the sector in better understanding the main equality challenges for staff and students. Throughout her career, she has been involved in a wide array of EDI-related projects as well as programme evaluations. In general, Peny loves being involved in collaborative projects engaging various stakeholders, as she is a firm believer that co-creation and team-work in combination with evidence-based insights are the driving forces for positive meaningful change

Dr Yetunde Kolajo, Student Success Research Associate at the University of Kent and SRHE’s EDI network co-convenor. Yetunde is a dedicated educator, researcher, visionary leader and advocate for inclusive excellence with over two decades of experience advancing equity, research impact, and institutional transformation in HE. Proven capacity for effective board collaboration, strategic oversight, and delivering sector-wide change through research-led governance. Her research spans science education, pedagogical innovation, and inclusive teaching practices, with a strong emphasis on self-regulated learning, active learning, and student engagement in assessment and feedback. She is particularly interested in how educators’ pedagogical choices influence critical thinking and student success. Her ongoing research investigates the impact of visual representation in lecture slide images on student engagement, particularly for racially minoritised students in STEM disciplines. She is also involved in research on diversifying and decolonising the physics undergraduate curriculum.

Dr Nidhi S. Sabharwal, National Fellow, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and SRHE’s EDI network co-convenor. Nidhi has served as the Director at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. Nidhi’s research focuses on access and equity in HE, focusing on issues of college readiness, diversity, social inclusion and academic success of students from disadvantaged groups.  She has experience in conducting multi-state and multi-institutional research studies on equity in HE. Her most recent research projects include a national-level study on student diversity and social inclusion and an evaluation study of publicly supported coaching programmes in HE. She is the Co-PI for the collaborative project with University of Warwick on widening access to HE in India (WAHEI project). She has extensively published on issues in her research area, with close to 100 outputs ranging from books, chapters, and peer-reviewed journal papers to training modules and policy briefs.