Loughborough University is proud to present its brand-new Inclusive Engineering Excellence Hub (IEEH), funded by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) as part of the Diversity Impact Programme.
Colleagues from the Engineering Schools have collaborated to develop the hub, which focuses on excellence in inclusivity for all engineering students.
Lower proportions of engineering students and professionals are female; have one or more declared disabilities; or come from low-socioeconomic or ethnic minority backgrounds.
Their outcomes may be compounded by leaky pipeline challenges, or the higher-than-average dropout rates of these minoritised groups at every stage of the engineering education and workforce ‘pipeline’, which leads to an increased risk of reduced attainment and reduced transition to advanced roles compared to majority peers.
The Inclusive Engineering Excellence Hub (IEEH) has been conceived to better understand and tackle these issues, providing a vision of better education and better engagement with minoritised engineering students throughout their higher education experience.
Co-developed with current students, the project aims to provide a community for engineering students with access to key services and organisations from across the campus. The hub will have a dedicated space for workshops and a study café, along with staff support to deliver end-to-end EDI activities and research encompassing the student journey from curriculum to career.
Professor Rachel Thomson, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education & Student Experience commented: “This will provide a unique chance for our three Engineering Schools to work together in the pursuit of equitable, accessible and inclusive opportunities for all our students.”
The IEEH launch event will take place in the West Park Teaching Hub on Monday 27 February.