People

Race Review 

The University published its Race Review in July 2025. An academically-led examination of the University’s historic links to slavery and racism, it is thought to be one of the most ambitious, wide-ranging and sustained consultations of its kind, and is the result of more than four years of dedicated research, community engagement and collaboration.

It has brought to light important, confronting and often uncomfortable accounts of our historical ties to slavery and colonialism, the legacy of racist teachings and ideologies, and current challenges we face around race and inclusion.

The Race Review will inform ongoing dialogue around these difficult issues and be a driver for sustained, meaningful change. To expedite this, the University has established a Race Review Response Group comprising a diverse range of staff, students and external partners.

This group will engage with the University community, embracing diverse perspectives to strengthen involvement. It will also monitor progress, advise on actions and ensure the University fulfils its commitment to enacting meaningful change in light of the Review.

Fair Work Statement 

Widening Participation 

Widening Participation

The University continues to take a holistic approach to widening participation (WP), actively engaging with individuals from WP backgrounds prior to application, providing information, advice and guidance during the UCAS application process and ongoing support during their studies. This whole-University approach ensures we continue to meet the Commission for Widening Access target of 10 per cent of our intake representing the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 20 (SIMD20) also known as the most deprived 20 per cent of areas in Scotland. This year, 11.3 per cent of entrants came from SIMD20 backgrounds, up from 10.7 per cent in the previous year.

There are also 54 care-experienced first-year students and a cohort of 222 care-experienced students across all years of study at the University of Edinburgh as at February 2025.

Corporate Parenting Plan update

In February 2025, we published our University of Edinburgh Corporate Parenting Plan Ð Implementation Report 2021-2024, covering the progress we have made since the plan’s publication in 2021.

The Children and Young People Act 2014 (Scotland) names universities as corporate parents and legalises our statutory duty for the wellbeing of care-experienced students. The progress that the University of Edinburgh has achieved in celebrating, including, and supporting our care-experienced and estranged students from pre-application, point of application, on programme transition, and onwards to graduation since 2021 has taken a significant collaborative effort from all parts of the institution. Our key collaborators are our care-experienced and estranged students as well as external partners, the Hub for Success (HfS), Who Cares? Scotland and Stand Alone.

Key areas of progress. We have:

• Increased our care-experienced new entrant intake from academic year 2021 (34 students) to academic year 2025 (51 students).
• Targeted and promoted employment and volunteering opportunities to our care-experienced and estranged students effectively. This has increased the visibility of our care-experienced and estranged students across the institution as well as beyond through partnership with the Hub for Success.
• Maximised our community building activities during each academic year by building effective partnerships with local theatres and the Edinburgh Festival.
• Grown our staff mentor offer to care-experienced and estranged students. We currently have 50 mentor-mentee pairings.
• Delivered over 150 hours of staff training has been delivered across the institution to a variety of staff audiences since 2022.
• Graduation costs: Since the 2022/23 academic year, we have supported 30 care-experienced and estranged students with graduation costs so that they can celebrate their achievements. 47 care-experienced students graduated in the last three years (10 in 2022, 18 in 2023, and 19 in 2024).
• Insights programme participation: In the academic year 2024/25, five care-experienced students took part in the University’s Insights Programme delivered by the Careers Service and Development and Alumni. Following a programme of support and activities, students spend a fully funded week meeting and networking with University Alumni working in a range of sectors.