Impact, reporting and governance

Our progress towards equality and inclusion at RMIT

Our progress towards equality and inclusion for our community of students and staff is assessed against rigorous external reporting and benchmarking requirements. We use these assessments to understand how we are progressing and where we still need to improve, and we are proud to have attained the following recognition:

RMIT is an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality, as assessed by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, since 2018
RMIT has attained the highest-available level of recognition, a Bronze award and Cygnet award, in the Athena SWAN strategy to support the access, retention and progression of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine disciplines
We received a Victorian Multicultural Award for Excellence in 2022 for our program of access and support for students who are people seeking asylum, the RMIT Welcome Scholarships
No 2 for University internationally for ‘reducing inequalities’ on the 2021 Higher Education Impact Rankings; top ten for all UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2020 we received the top honour – Employer of the Year – in the Australian Workplace Equality Index, in recognition of our achievements in LGBTIQA+ inclusion for staff and students
Australian Network on Disability: ranked second nationally in the Access and Inclusion Index in 2021, a comprehensive organisation-wide assessment of accessibility and inclusion provisions for our staff and students
A Gold Tier award in the 2021 Pride in Sport awards recognising RMIT Sport’s efforts in advancing LGBTQ inclusion, with RMIT student Alex Smyth also a finalist for the LGBTQ Out Role Model award in 2023.

Measuring the impact of our Inclusion Diversity Equity and Access (‘IDEA’) Framework

Evaluating our impact of our activity to enhance inclusion, diversity, equity and access will include continuous feedback from our learners, staff and key partners.

The first horizon of implementation includes the establishment of baseline measures to enable ambitious, but achievable targets with an overall goal of parity in representation, success, outcomes and experiences of the whole RMIT community. It is expected that measures and evaluation will continue to evolve.

This will include assessing our position as a leader in inclusion, diversity, equity and access against external benchmarks and peak body research, identifying and measuring learner and workforce demographics against comparative populations and analysing qualitative and quantitative feedback.

Governance

Our progress towards our commitments in our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) Framework is overseen by the RMIT Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, chaired by Professor Calum Drummond, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President, members of the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive (VCE).

Actions are driven by the Diversity and Inclusion team in the People group, Operations portfolio, led by Tara Waller, Senior Manager, Culture and Inclusion, Amy Love, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, and the Equity and Inclusion team in Students group, Education portfolio, under the leadership of Lara Rafferty, Associate Director Equity and Inclusion.

Work towards the goals of the RMIT Athena SWAN Action Plan is driven by Professor Kay Latham, Dean, STEMM Diversity and Inclusion.

Each of the priority areas of focus in the IDEA Framework has a working group comprising staff and students where appropriate to oversee implementation of the Plan. Progress against the Framework is reported to the VCE and Council via the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee in annual reports:

Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report (PDF, 762 KB)
Athena SWAN Annual report (PDF)

In addition, issues of student and staff diversity and inclusion are included in the RMIT Statistics at a Glance, the RMIT Annual Report, and the RMIT Sustainability annual report.

Impact, reporting and governance