Diversity and inclusion

We seek to recruit and support staff and students with a diverse range of identities and backgrounds to lead diverse and innovative research and teaching.

Establishing an equitable workplace serves our desire for fairness, allowing staff equal opportunity regardless of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, cultural background, age, disability, class, values and belief systems.

Furthermore, research shows that diversity promotes innovation and creativity, and sharpens problem-solving.

Unfortunately, statistics demonstrate that women and many minority identities are underrepresented at universities.

To report incidents of discrimination, sexual harassment or bullying

BioSciences Diversity and Inclusion Committee

This committee is responsible for developing and monitoring strategies that will attract staff from all backgrounds and promote equity for all staff within the School.

Staff can access more information about the committee on the School of BioSciences shared drive, including committee members and contacts, terms of reference and meeting minutes.

All BioSciences committees include a Diversity and Inclusion representative, and many responsibilities will be transferred to the People and Culture committee.

Indigenous diversity and inclusion

The School of Biosciences has made it very clear from its values statement that it supports Indigenous diversity and inclusion and deplores discrimination of any kind, including that based on race.

The School would like to especially emphasise that it wholeheartedly supports the University of Melbourne's Reconciliation Action Plan and the Faculty of Science's Indigenous Strategic Plan.

In order to support our values statement 'that the School seeks to foster the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities', we urge all staff and students to familiarise themselves with both these documents.

Seminar series

The School recognises the positive impact that speaking invitations have on the career and profile of scientists. We also recognise that some sections of the scientific community are often under-represented in seminar programs, and that this can adversely affect the diversity of the scientific community in the long-term.

The University of Melbourne is committed to the principle of equity and the School’s Speaker Invitation Policy is to ensure quality and equality in the seminar series. Invitations for the School of BioSciences Seminar Series will be made to outstanding researchers who represent the broad diversity of Australian and international communities.

We aim to achieve a balance across gender by having an equal number of female and male speakers, and to invite speakers representing a range of ethnic backgrounds, career stages and research topics.

See the seminar calendar for upcoming events.