As Professor Jane White moves on from her role as Vice-President (Community & Inclusion) we would like to take the opportunity to thank her for the many contributions she has made in post. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost will become our institutional lead on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) once Professor White moves on from her role on 31 August 2025.
Professor White has worked with colleagues both within the University and beyond our campus across the City of Bath and the wider region. She has played a valuable role in leading the University's EDI strategy, supporting wellbeing and other personnel matters, promoting activities which support an inclusive community and representing the University on relevant issues externally.
Professor White has worked with the University Chaplain on progressing our interfaith community including the creation of new faith spaces on campus. She has also been proactive in working with members of our community affected by international conflict.
Outside of the University, Jane has worked with local school, college and council representatives from the education sector across Somerset, Wiltshire and Bath & North East Somerset to address regional educational challenges and aspirations. Professor White will continue to play a key role in this area, in addition to her academic work, as Regional Education Lead.
In addition to her work on strategy and forming new policies, Jane also supported the creation of a number of new positions to support our EDI work, helping to mainstream and embed activity across the institution. The University continues to make real strides in this area, including celebrating its most successful Athena Swan round to date earlier this year, receiving five awards for improving gender equality.
The institutional leadership for EDI will now be held at University Executive Board level, with Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost Professor Marcus Munafò taking up this responsibility from September 2025 onwards. The new EDI roles across the organisation will continue to progress work under their remits.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost Professor Marcus Munafò said:
Ensuring that we are an equitable, diverse and inclusive University is central to ensuring that we can provide an environment where everyone is supported and can thrive personally and professionally. Jane has done exceptional work to extend our horizons, working across our whole community of staff and students, and beyond. This has resulted in real progress that we will continue to build on. I would like to personally thank her for all her efforts and achievements.