Celebrating belonging at the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion conference

14 Jul 2023

Colleagues consider their own belonging at the annual EDI conference

On Wednesday, 5 July the Directorate of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) held their annual internal EDI conference entitled Embedding Belonging in the Workplace. 

Together with colleagues, the morning was spent discussing the conference theme of ‘belonging’ as well as what has been achieved over the past year, what needs to be done to achieve our aims set out in the EDI strategy and productive next steps. 

Chancellor Nazir Afzal shared his own experiences and the impact of these on his belonging.  

Banji Adewumi, Director of EDI, said: 'It was wonderful to see so many people at our second EDI conference since the creation of the Directorate in 2021.  

We have achieved so much over the past year – for example, further embedding EDI into our practice and procedures; creating safe spaces to listen and progress EDI; conducting benchmarking exercises to measure and reflect improved culture and practice across the University – but we know there is still a lot to do. Reflecting on our Chancellor’s comments, we need to embed EDI into how we work so that it is seen as part of what we do and not an add on or nice to have. 

I encourage you all to reflect on how you belong and how you can help others to belong in our University community.'

B for belonging 

More information 

If you were unable to attend the conference but would like to share your reflections on belonging, please email equalityanddiversity@manchester.ac.uk