UCL – London’s Global University 

UCL is a diverse community which values the freedom to challenge convention and to think differently. With over 14,300 staff and 44,000 students from 150 countries, we pursue academic excellence, and make a positive impact on real world problems. We champion innovation, creativity, and cross-disciplinary working in our teaching and research, and we are consistently ranked amongst the top 10 universities in the world. From our beginnings, we opened higher education to women and students from a wide range of backgrounds who had previously been excluded, and the commitment to expanding the diversity and inclusiveness of our student and staff body is fundamental to our work. The courageous attitude and disruptive spirit of our founders is still alive today.

UCL is an outstanding place to work. Everything that we do and achieve as an academic community depends on our people, and we aim to provide an empowering, values-based environment. We foster diversity of thought, mutual respect, and collaboration, and we actively encourage applications that will bring diverse experiences to the leadership of UCL. We are seeking an exceptional candidate for our Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – a senior and high-profile position within our organisation, leading an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team that is part of the President & Provost’s Office.

Reporting to the Pro-Provost (Equity and Inclusion), Professor Sasha Roseneil, you will lead a team to empower and inspire UCL’s faculties and departments to deliver measurable, progressive change on matters of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). A trusted advisor and advocate for change across the spectrum of EDI agendas, you will bring stakeholders together for frank and open discussion. You will promote a culture of disagreeing well on emotive topics, and that ensures that UCL advances our commitments to equality, diversity, and inclusion for all groups. This is a highly visible role within UCL, and one which is pivotal in developing effective working relationships between the central hub of EDI expertise and ‘on the ground’ delivery by stakeholder groups. You will encourage and support grassroots initiatives for change, as well as developing the central team’s expert advisory offer. The role is also a conduit for best practice gleaned from the professional EDI community beyond UCL, such that developing and maintaining a rich external network will be key to success.

UCL is seeking a collaborative and strategic leader who has a track record of having led Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion change in a large and complex organisation with influence at board or equivalent senior leadership level.  The ability to build effective working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders, and to influence decision-making that leads to change are key skills in this remit. You will have a broad outlook on, and be able to speak credibly to, the whole range of EDI issues. With an excellent understanding of contemporary EDI challenges and policy at a national (and international) level, you will know where and how to engage external sources of knowledge to complement your own and the team’s strengths. It would be desirable to have a working knowledge of the UK higher education landscape of law, policy, and debate in relation to EDI.

How to Apply

An executive search exercise is being undertaken by Perrett Laver in parallel with the public advertisement of the post.

In line with our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, we are using an innovative new approach in this recruitment process that involves an anonymised shortlisting process, in order to ensure the truly talented are brought forward and to remove the bias-generating signals that are so often given by applicants’ CVs.  Candidate suitability will be judged based on ten threshold criteria questions linked to the key skills for the role.  We ask candidates to submit responses to questions that will enable assessment in relation to the skills needed for success in post. We also ask for a full CV to be submitted, but this will not be available to the shortlisting panel at UCL as they make their initial evaluations of candidates’ answers to the questions. Therefore, these answers should not contain any identifying criteria, including name, current or past employers, etc.

To apply, please visit the microsite on https://www.perrettlaver.com/campaigns/directoredi

The closing date for applications is 9:00am GMT on Monday 11^th October.

For an informal discussion about the role or the anonymised application and recruitment process, please contact Fiona Dattan on fiona.dattan@perrettlaver.com or +44 (0)20 7340 6247.

Location: London, UK

We strongly encourage applications from under represented groups including women and those from a minority ethnic background, who we believe can bring much needed diversity of thought and experience to leadership roles

Salary: Commensurate with the seniority of the role

Inclusion

Perrett Laver believes that excellence will be achieved through recognising the value of every individual. A broad range of perspectives, backgrounds and opinions amongst our global community of colleagues is crucial in maintaining our culture of openness, intellectual curiosity, and creativity. We take an active role in supporting under-represented communities and groups in becoming better and more fairly represented in the leadership of all organisations. We also know that diverse and inclusive teams have a positive impact on our ability to identify, engage and secure candidates from these groups.

Our commitment to inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, identity, and experience drives us every day – for clients, for candidate identification and in the recruitment, development and retention of colleagues. 

To ensure inclusion on the basis of age, disability, ethnic or national origin, family circumstance, gender, gender identity, marital status, nationality, political or religious beliefs, race, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, we would like to specifically invite applications from under-represented groups.

Accessibility

For a conversation in confidence, please contact Fiona Dattan on fiona.dattan@perrettlaver.com or +44 (0)20 7340 6247. 

Should you require these documents in alternative formats, please contact Lina Franzen on lina.franzen@perrettlaver.com

If you have comments that would support us to improve document accessibility, or our application processes more generally, please do not hesitate to contact us via accessibility@perrettlaver.com