In today’s rapidly evolving world, higher education institutions are often lagging behind societal transformation. Institutions are, rightly, under increased pressure to create inclusive curricula and learning environments. For example, recent events such as the death of George Floyd have resulted in institutions increasing their efforts to decolonize curricula [1]. These initiatives and curriculum transformations matter as the effectiveness and impact of education are intrinsically linked to its inclusivity. Literature proposes comprehensive inclusivity training for faculty [2] and adapting curricula through utilizing inclusive language and resources that negate biases [3]. Inclusive curricula and learning environments are not mere educational buzzwords; they represent the fundamental principles that underscore equitable access, diverse perspectives, and the empowerment of every learner. The sticky issue for institutions is that often we do not know what excludes learners; faculty have blind spots. With inclusivity being part of regulatory requirements, it was critical that we address issues, and ensure student voice was central to any initiatives. As Lawrie et al. state, pedagogies should meet the diversity of learners’ needs, and should not create barriers for particular students or student groups [4]. There are many barriers and enablers to inclusive education, one of which is student voice not being heard [5]. It is for this reason that creating an inclusive learning environment is an institutional priority at the University of Manchester (UoM).

The UoM sought to address this issue within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health, where there are more than 11,000 undergraduate and postgraduate learners, on over 100 courses. Some courses are regulated by professional bodies including, but not limited to, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, medicine, and dentistry. An inclusivity reporting initiative was launched in 2022. This initiative enables students to report areas of curricula or elements of student experience that either lack inclusivity or are shining examples of inclusivity. Using a form that has been embedded into virtual learning environment of every programme, students can report issues quickly and easily. Students are also provided with a direct link to the form that can be accessed out with the virtual learning environment.

The form, available as supplementary material (Supplementary Information), enables staff and students to let us know of any issues in their curriculum or assessments which may have cultural implications, be triggering, sensitive, or unfair. These could include references, reading lists, physical resources, scenarios, or assessment items. These issues might be related to accessibility, socio-cultural context, lack of representation, or values. Examples could include the presence of stereotypes, language that is not inclusive, items that assume local or cultural knowledge, limited or no diversity in reading lists or course materials, or activity that excludes particular groups. Users are also advised that they may want to let us know when there is an opportunity to celebrate contributions from underrepresented groups. Users are also encouraged to suggest a solution to their issue or highlight good practice from elsewhere that we should consider adopting.

When issues are reported, they are discussed with the relevant teams to consider what actions might be appropriate. We take great care to inform users that the form does not supersede our complaints or appeals procedure. It is a reporting system which will help us better understand the content of our teaching and make changes where appropriate. When a student raises an issue, it will come through to a Faculty email inbox. The Vice Dean for Teaching triages the response, sending through to the most appropriate person in the School or Programme. Some issues will require action, others will not. Where action is not appropriate, a response as to why will be provided to the student. We log responses so that we can audit, evaluate, and review. We encourage anyone submitting the form to provide their name and email so that we can reply to them with a summary of any action taken, but anonymity is permitted. The entire student body also receives an email from the programme lead to explain the issue raised and the decisions. All staff have received guidance regarding the form, its purpose, and examples of submissions and responses. A workflow is provided in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Workflow

Full size image

The form has been well received by students. Table 1 summarises some recent submissions and the actions taken, under headings taken directly from the form. From the submissions over the 18 months that the form has been active for, it has become evident that sex, sexuality, and gender are problematic areas of the curricula for students. Faculty names and unit codes have been redacted.

Table 1 Examples of inclusivity reporting
Full size table

One area that we have worked hard to develop is closing the feedback loop with students. We have achieved this in two ways. Firstly, we host Student Townhall events where the issues raised on the inclusivity forms are tabled as agenda items. Secondly, we have an active ‘You Said, We Did’ campaign. These announcements to students ensure we are accountable and communicate where change has been made, or why we cannot make a change in response to a specific issue. For example, some students raised concerns, based on their religious objections, about transgender health being taught. In this case, inclusion in the curriculum is essential so we did not remove the teaching. Instead, we issued a sensitivity warning to students.

The form has been well received by students and faculty. A testament to this was in the qualitative section of a national student survey where students stated that we had ‘created an environment where everyone belongs and can be themselves’. A Director of Education within a school stated that, “The inclusively reporting form is helpful because when we design and deliver teaching, learning and assessment, whilst we try to do so in an inclusive way, we do not always know how this is received and understood by our diverse student body. The form allows staff to see their teaching from the perspective of the received message which is powerful in understanding where we need to develop our teaching practices to be truly inclusive of those we teach.” Students reported that, “The inclusivity reporting form has given us students a direct channel to teaching leadership to let them know about specific instances when programme content or process does not feel inclusive.” Senior leaders have said that, “the developing log contributes to wider understanding of burning issues and hotspots across our diverse study body and portfolio of programmes. We also hope to provide opportunity for students to feedback when inclusion is being done well, so we can help colleagues and programmes lead by example.”

In sum, we hope that ensuring that inclusivity is at the forefront, that raising issues is easy and accessible, and that solutions are both transparent and clearly communicated will improve the student experience in our institution. Further, this matters for health inequities, as our current students are our future policy makers. Ensuring inclusivity is respected, on their radar, will assist with tackling the troubling inequities in society. We need a diverse workforce to care for a diverse society.