Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Here at Aston University, we foster an inclusive ethos and are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

We are very proud of our diverse student population and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential. 

The Careers and Placements team can offer you confidential advice about any aspect of your career search. There's also a range of support services throughout the university that you may benefit from using. Whether you want advice on finding inclusive employers, sharing personal information about your background in applications or understanding your rights, we are here to help.

We’ve also rounded up some information and advice, handy resources, sources of support and details of employers who are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce.

Your rights

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects jobseekers and employees from discrimination on the basis of certain characteristics such as age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. The Act means that you should be assessed in exactly the same way as every other candidate, based on competencies for the job you are applying for. The Act also protects you from direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have put together this helpful video series that explains what classes as discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Finding inclusive employers

Many employers will proactively be looking to recruit a diverse workforce and create an inclusive environment. Here are some things to look out for to see if a particular company is inclusive:

  • Take a look at the company’s policies about things like equal opportunities or bullying and harassment.
  • See if any employee support networks exist. This could be things like an LGBTQ+ staff network or a networking group for women and minority genders.
  • Check to see if the company is part of the Disability Confident scheme, which is a government scheme designed to encourage employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. You could also see if the company supports the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme.  
  • Find out if the company has a Diversity Champion or any staff-led groups who are striving to make the workplace as diverse, inclusive and accessible as possible.
  • Do some research to see if the company is on a ranking list such as The Times Top 50 Employers for Women, The Stonewall Top 100 Employers list or the Social Mobility Employer Index.
  • Some companies run insight events or offer work experience programmes for under-represented students. Go along to one of their events to find out more and ask some questions.
  • You may be able to find some real-life employee experiences to get a taste of what the workplace may be like. You could have a look for any case studies on the company’s website or see if there are any employees on LinkedIn who would be happy to chat with you about their experience. You could also reach out to Aston alumni through LinkedIn too, to see if anyone would be willing to share their experiences with you.

Equal opportunities monitoring forms

You may be asked to complete an equal opportunities monitoring form when you apply for a role – these are usually in the last section of the application form. The information gathered from these forms will not affect the recruitment decision-making process. Instead, the purpose of these forms is to help the company track who applied for particular roles and see how diverse the pool of applicants was. This data can then be used to help the company make any necessary changes to the recruitment process to encourage a more diverse range of people to apply in the future.

Get in touch

If you’d like to chat with someone about your career search and anything related to equality, diversity and inclusion, we are here to help. Head to Aston Futures to book a 1-to-1 appointment with us.