About this guidance

What is this guidance and who is it for? 

This is a guide for writing about ethnicity in official Imperial College London communications. 

It is intended as a resource for all Imperial staff and students who are writing official communications on behalf of the College.  

For example, you may be:  

  • involved in your department’s local equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) committee 
  • producing official material that includes diversity statistics
  • writing a news article covering Black History Month
  • or writing about College initiatives such as the IMPACT development programme for staff 

What is this guidance not for? 

This guidance does not extend to personal or informal communications and correspondence, including conversations, emails and messaging platforms such as Microsoft Teams (though staff and students may find it useful for those instances too). 

This guidance is not a College code of conduct for staff and students. For information about these, view the Human Resources ‘Policies and Procedures’ and the College’s Ordinances. 

We do recognise this guidance may be more useful to a broader range of situations and audiences. However, if you are looking to develop your understanding of ethnicity, we recommend that you explore the relevant training courses and resources the College offers. 

Why do we need this guidance? 

We want to create a shared understanding and standard within the College for official written communications. This is particularly important as Imperial continues to develop its work to address inequalities, for example using the Race Equality Charter to address institutional and cultural barriers. 

It is important for all of us, but especially those who are writing official communications about ethnicity, to be confident in our understanding and use of language. For example, you may want to learn more about concepts such as intersectionality, systemic or institutional racism, privilege, and allyship – more information is available on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre’s resources pages.   

We know that not everyone in the Imperial community will be familiar with current UK terminology when discussing ethnicity. We also recognise: 

  • Cultural differences: staff and students come from countries where terminology and language on ethnicity differ significantly.
  • Changes in terminology: terminology around ethnicity is evolving. There are some terms that people may find confusing or contentious, such as the acronym BAME for ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’.
  • Individual preference: people will have individual preferences, which we need to respect, but as an organisation we need to set out clear guidance on our preferred language.
  • Fear of saying the wrong thing: some people may hesitate for fear of using terms that may be offensive, but we want to encourage and enable people to write as inclusively as possible. This guidance aims to help you do this. 

At the same time, we want to be clear that our commitment to protecting free speech and academic freedom remain intact. The aim here is to help everyone realise the College value of ‘respect’ in all our official written communications around ethnicity. 

How was this guidance developed?

This guidance was created by a working group during 2021–22, with membership including representation from: 

Several resources and guides were drawn upon to develop our internal guidance. For examples of the sources, view the Useful resources page.

Input and feedback was sought from key stakeholder groups and the wider Imperial community, including students and staff, the College’s EDI Strategy Group and Imperial College Union Council before publication. 

Your thoughts?

This is a living guide that will be regularly updated. We invite our whole community to engage with us on building and improving it.  

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about this guidance, contact the Design and Editorial team at Style Guide (style DOT guide AT imperial.ac.uk) or on +44 (0)20 7594 6134.