IDEA Framework

• Our past plans and actions that focus on issues and individual identities (such as gender or disability) have served us well, but a more holistic approach is required.  
• The diversity of our learners and staff needs to better reflect the broader population in the communities we serve, particularly when we consider distribution across our disciplines, our work roles, and in progression through RMIT
• Our students and staff want to see visible diverse role models, to believe that they can stay, succeed and progress. 
• They also want us to make sure that everyone who comes to RMIT is aware of our value of inclusion, that we are working to identify and address structural and systemic barriers and inequities, and their drivers, and that we support all staff and students to develop their inclusive practice. 
• Because we have not always considered the needs across our diverse community when we are planning new programs, policies, or services, not all staff and learners can participate equitably from day one, so we undertake costly and inefficient remediation or individual provision to ‘make things work’ for individuals. 
• There is an opportunity for us to commit to designing for universal provision for all people, personalised where needed to support the ways individuals learn and work best. 

In order to achieve inclusion, diversity and equity, we need to: 

• Drive an intersectional whole-of-institution approach, sharing and celebrating our good practice and aligning around common aspirations 
• Embed ‘Responsible Practice’ in our thinking and doing, by every member of our community
• Be ‘inclusive by design’ by planning for the diversity of the community from the outset in whatever we do
• Support insight and action on inclusion, diversity, equity and access across all locations and operations in the RMIT Group
• Have the flexibility to respond to emerging needs and priorities 

The IDEA framework identifies five domains of Inclusive Excellence that define the aspirations and priority action areas to drive action across RMIT Group. Through the domains, we will address systems, processes, policies, capabilities and cultural norms to progress our goal of being “Inclusive by design” for everyone, everywhere, all the time.

Across these five domains, our aspirations are:

• Access, participation and success: We aim to build a more diverse student and staff profile with equity in retention, success and outcomes. 
• Culture, capability and leadership: We will create an environment where all individuals are supported, are respected, feel a sense of belonging.
• Education and research: We will demonstrate best practice in inclusion, diversity, equity and access through our education and research. 
• Infrastructure, service and operations: We will provide inclusive facilities and services, and plan, resource and communicate our IDEA aspirations and achievements. 
• Community and partnerships: We aim to engage reciprocally and in partnership with the communities we serve, promoting equity, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing. 

Implementing the IDEA Framework will involve working with Colleges, Portfolios and entities to identify their current maturity level in IDEA to ascertain locally led leadership priorities. 

The first horizon of implementation will include 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 iterate across the three horizons of the framework.

Evaluating our impact will include continuous feedback from our learners, staff and key partners.

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.

Achievement of our aspirations will require a whole-of-RMIT approach. There is a wealth of good work already happening across the Group, enabled through existing diversity-focussed networks, committees and working groups. These will support the implementation of this Framework, along with a forum for information and practice sharing.