Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A university's self-assessment team pulls five years of staff data disaggregated by ethnicity across recruitment shortlisting, promotion panels, pay, and attrition; runs staff/student focus groups on experiences of racism, exclusion, or bias in the institution; and submits a Bronze application setting out a 3-4 year action plan with named owners and deadlines. Once holding Bronze and able to evidence delivery and measurable impact from that plan, the institution can apply for Silver renewal.
- Is an instance
A small specialist research institute without a large in-house EDI or HR analytics team joins Advance HE's REC pathway for small and specialist institutions and research institutes -- a pilot launched in September 2023 offering peer-to-peer support and adapted guidance for organisations of that size and structure -- to build and submit its first REC application rather than attempting the standard process unsupported.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
An institution that publishes a general public commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, or that holds a different Advance HE charter such as Athena SWAN (which evaluates gender equality, not race equality), has not thereby achieved REC status. REC is a separate, distinct charter with its own membership sign-up, self-assessment evidence base, and award -- holding one Advance HE charter says nothing about standing under another.
Editorial commentary
The Race Equality Charter (REC) is an award-mark framework administered by Advance HE, the UK charity that supports higher education and research quality and equality practice. REC exists to help universities and research institutes identify, and take measurable action against, structural barriers to race equality affecting staff and students. It sits alongside Advance HE’s better-known Athena SWAN Gender Equality Charter as one of the sector’s principal equality charter marks, using a comparable self-assessment-and-award structure but evaluating race equality specifically rather than gender.
Origins and the 2023 update
Advance HE (formerly the Equality Challenge Unit) began developing REC through sector consultation from 2010, trialled a draft framework with volunteer institutions from 2014 (eight institutions received Bronze awards in that trial), and formally launched the Charter in January 2016. Following an independent review and further sector consultation, an updated Race Equality Charter took effect from the 2023/24 academic year: new institutions signing up from 1 August 2023 use the updated materials directly, and all applicants were required to use the updated framework from January 2025 onward. The stated aim of the update was to give applicants clearer guidance on what is expected at each stage and to streamline the framework while keeping it rigorous.
Who can join, and the application process
To apply, an institution must first be an Advance HE member and must sign up to the REC’s principles before it can begin working toward an award. The typical pathway is:
- Convene a self-assessment team (SAT) representative of the institution’s staff and student body.
- Analyse quantitative data on staff and student ethnicity across recruitment, progression/promotion, pay, and attrition, alongside relevant national comparators.
- Gather qualitative evidence — surveys, focus groups, and other input capturing lived experience of racism, exclusion, or bias within the institution.
- Write a time-bound action plan with specific, owned actions addressing the priorities the data and qualitative evidence surface.
- Submit for review by an Advance HE REC panel.
Nearly all institutions without an existing award are expected to apply first at Bronze level; applying directly for a higher level requires an exceptional case agreed with Advance HE in advance.
Award levels
REC currently has two award levels — Bronze and Silver — unlike Athena SWAN’s three-tier Bronze/Silver/Gold structure. A Bronze award recognises that an institution has a solid evidence base, has identified its priorities, and has a credible plan and genuine commitment to act, even where actions are not yet fully implemented. Silver requires the institution to evidence real delivery and measurable impact from a prior action plan, typically at renewal.
The small and specialist institutions / research institutes pathway
Because the standard REC process assumes the scale of HR and EDI infrastructure typical of a large university, Advance HE launched a dedicated pilot pathway for small and specialist institutions and research institutes in September 2023, offering peer-to-peer support, adapted operational guidance, and access to REC resources scaled to smaller organisations. The pilot’s first Bronze award under this track was reported publicly; Advance HE has indicated further cohorts continue to run. Standalone research institutes — as distinct from university faculties or departments — are the intended audience for this pathway, making it directly relevant to research-institution research administrators evaluating whether and how to pursue REC.
Why it matters to research administration
REC status is increasingly referenced in institutional environment statements, funder equality-monitoring returns, and research-culture self-assessments in the UK, in the same way Athena SWAN status is commonly cited in REF (Research Excellence Framework) environment statements as supporting evidence of a supportive research culture. Holding a REC award is not, however, a formal eligibility gate for any major UK research funding scheme in the way an earlier NIHR policy briefly made Athena SWAN Silver a requirement for some funding streams (a requirement NIHR dropped in September 2020) — research administrators should verify current funder-specific expectations directly with the relevant funder rather than assume REC status is a hard prerequisite anywhere, since funder equality-evidence requirements change periodically.
REC vs Athena SWAN
The two charters are run by the same organisation, share a self-assessment-plus-action-plan structure, and are frequently pursued in parallel by the same institution, but they evaluate different protected characteristics and are entirely separate applications, memberships, and awards: Athena SWAN addresses gender equality (and has a Gold tier REC does not); REC addresses race equality specifically. An institution’s REC status says nothing about its Athena SWAN status or vice versa.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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