EMPS2 Network Panel Event For Welcome Week

Many events are held during Welcome Week at universities that focus on inducting students into their departments and settling them into university life. These provide numerous opportunities for students to find communities of shared belonging, a foundational aspect that is crucial for learning.

Our cross-department Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences Ethnic Minority Peer Support (EMPS²) network was keen to hold a Welcome Week event specifically for students whose ethnicities are minoritised in the UK. The three co-organisers – an undergraduate Combined Honours Mathematics and Physics student, a Mathematics post-graduate research student, and an Astrophysics post-graduate research student – opted to organise a network panel event with ethnically diverse speakers from academia and industry (public and private sector) invited to reflect on the importance of networks to their career journeys. They were supported by the Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Physics & Astronomy, who is also the department’s Academic Lead for Student Transition and Induction.

Panellists Mark Richards (Blackett Lab Family), Eleanor Wong (Met Office), Layal Hakim (University of Exeter Department of Mathematics and Statistics), and Bob Mudhar (private tech sector) spoke openly about the difficulties they had experienced in feeling like an outsider and provided hope and inspiration to the audience that, given time, they’ll find their community – even if they have to create a network themselves to find it! They also spoke about the different types of “networks” – informal and formal; supportive and professional – to build familiarity with what can feel a rather corporate term.

The network panel event was open to staff as well as students, with around 200 people attending the panel event in total. It has been interesting to hear the same element highlighted in the feedback provided by staff and student attendees alike: that people don’t have to share the same career paths or aspirations to benefit from being part of a shared network.