The Practical Guide to Nudging Inclusive Practice gives us a simple route forward. It encourages leaders, departments, faculties and professional services to start small, but act consistently: add REC checks to meetings, clarify support routes, use data before review cycles, strengthen inclusive recruitment practice and ask whose perspectives may be missing from decision-making.
This document is usable for departmental meetings, faculty executive discussions, annual planning, recruitment cycles and committee meetings.
Priority 1 - Belonging & Inclusion
What leaders could consider
Add a standing REC check to departmental and directorate meetings. Ask where staff and students may feel excluded, unheard or unseen, then agree on one action.
Useful Nudge/Implementation Tool
Make REC a regular agenda item, use a short belonging prompt at key meetings, and make visible a ‘you said, we did’ REC feedback loop.
Simple Check
Did we review staff and students’ experience this term, and are we clear on what needs attention next?
Priority 2 - Bullying & Harassment
What leaders could consider
Clarify reporting routes, response expectations and support. Brief managers and student-facing teams on how to respond quickly and respectfully.
Useful Nudge/Implementation Tool
Use clear prompts at the point of response, supported by a simple route map and named contacts to make the process easier to navigate.
Simple Check
Would a new colleague or student know where to go, and feel clear about what to expect from the process?
Find out more about Support & Report
Priority 3 - Student Recruitment & Outcomes
What leaders could consider
Review ethnicity-disaggregated access, continuation, attainment and award data. Identify one (or more) programme or stage that needs focused action.
Useful Nudge/Implementation Tool
Use timely data prompts before assessment and review cycles, alongside curriculum and student-support checklists.
Simple Check
What is our one (or more) evidence or data-led action this semester?
Find out more about the University's Widening Participation work
Priority 4 - Staff Recruitment and Progression
What leaders could consider
Use structured recruitment, inclusive wording checks and fair progression conversations. Review where hidden barriers may sit in criteria, process or sponsorship.
Useful Nudge/Implementation Tool
Use pre-panel prompts and regular feedback on progression patterns to support fairer recruitment and promotion decisions.
Simple Check
What barrier have we removed in this period/review cycle?
Priority 5 - Representation in Decision-Making
What leaders could consider
Review committee membership, succession planning and who is invited into the decision-making process. Treat representation and engagement as a governance issue, not a symbolic extra.
Useful Nudge/Implementation Tool
Review representation before appointments are made, and ask chairs and leaders to state how they will support inclusive decision-making.
Simple Check
Whose perspective is missing from the room, and what will we do about it?