Forever Keele 17
Alumni volunteers wanted for new mentoring initiative
Keele University ’ s newly appointed Race Equality Officer , Hinna Sheikh ( pictured ), writes about her role and a new pilot programme for Keele Connect , Keele ’ s e-mentoring platform .
Advancing race equality at Keele University and breaking down systemic barriers is crucial to creating an inclusive campus for all students and staff .
Following on from Keele achieving the Bronze Award in the Race Equality Charter ( REC ) from Advance HE , colleagues across the University have been working on the Student and Staff Action Plans of the REC . My role is to oversee these initiatives , help in their implementation and work across the University to embed anti-racism into all that we do .
It is important for us as an institution to understand the very real barriers our students and staff face when it comes to racism in Higher Education and we are working to educate ourselves better in this manner . We are also launching new projects and initiatives to raise awareness , promote education on racism and its effects and help in breaking down systemic barriers . Such initiatives include ; a new race equality training module for all staff , relaunching our # NeverOK campaign which looks to end all forms of violence and discriminatory behaviour , delivering Faculty-specific workshops on Decolonising the Curriculum , and creating a Race Equality Allies training programme .
This is not an exhaustive list of what we are doing at Keele and we acknowledge that becoming an actively anti-racist institution is a process of learning rather than something that happens overnight .
Another initiative in partnership with the Keele Alumni Team is aiming to provide student mentees the opportunity to have greater choice in who they can pick as their mentor .
A Universities UK survey reported that the lack of representative role models for Black , Asian and other ethnic minority students at university is a contributing factor to the BAME Awarding gap . We want to contribute to closing this gap and one way is to provide current students with this choice in seeking a mentor .
Providing this level of choice for mentor support through Keele Connect will allow our Black , Asian and other ethnic minority students to create connections with alumni role models they directly identify with whilst developing their professional and personal skills .
This is an important pilot initiative , and we are asking our alumni if they would be willing to work with us by declaring their race / ethnicity as part of the mentoring process . Please note that this is optional , and the choice is completely with our alumni mentors as to whether they are happy to disclose any identifying characteristics .
We are very excited about this new pilot and the opportunities this will open for our Black , Asian and other ethnic minority students .
For more information on how you can get involved in this initiative , please email alumni . hq @ keele . ac . uk for further details .
What is Keele Connect ?
Keele Connect is an e-mentoring platform which allows all Keele students and alumni ( graduates of Keele ) to access mentoring and professional networking via a digital platform , online .
Keele Connect allows alumni to volunteer their time to help current students enhance their employability as well as to access support for their own career development , or simply to network with fellow alumni across the globe . It also offers an important opportunity for those alumni who wish to contribute to Keele , but can ’ t necessarily contribute financially , to do so on a voluntary basis
To access the platform , students and alumni will need to sign up and create an account . This can also be done via LinkedIn .
www . keeleconnect . org