Mission statement
The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre is central to the commitment of the University to help create a racially just society, and to promote social and community cohesion. This involves opposition to all forms of discrimination and exclusion. It also involves support for those citizens actively working to oppose racism and to help achieve a just and inclusive society. The thinking and practice underpinning the Centre's work is that racialist attitudes are not inevitable and that they can be challenged and overcome through principled educational action. To these ends the University aims to develop the Centre as a major research resource and foundation for educational excellence and outreach.
Objectives
- To develop the centre as the premier of its kind in the North of England and to provide a high-quality service to all of its users, reflecting the University's aspirations of excellence and inclusivity.
- To make the library resources available in an accessible and open-to-all library, with its own dedicated study space, thus raising the University's profile as an international and academic centre of the study of race and ethnicity.
- To collect publications, information and documents about black history, culture and experience, locally, nationally and internationally, to inform academics and practitioners, and to stimulate local debates both within the University and elsewhere.
- To enhance the profile of local minority ethnic groups by facilitating the collection and use of their heritage, in partnership and cooperation with other academic and community bodies.
- To disseminate resources to the community at large through celebratory events, conferences, seminars, presentations, publications, workshops and networks.
- To publicise the true experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Britain and encourage a more well-informed and humane response to their needs.
- To enhance teaching and learning within The University of Manchester and other regional universities by providing alternative resources and research opportunities to students, and by offering a personalised learning experience, thus increasing their social engagement and responsibilities as citizens, in line with the University's expectations.
- To manifest the University's commitment to research by maintaining and developing a prestigious and internationally recognised online journal, Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journal.
- To work with schools, colleges and other providers of education to create an awareness of racial justice, to develop curriculum enrichment and the affirmation of black experiences, promoting good practice and innovation.
- To support the widening participation objectives of The University of Manchester, in promoting further education and higher education to BME young people and those in sectors previously excluded from the opportunities of a university education.
- To provide advice, support and partnership working to local BME, anti-racist and public sector organisations and to act as a gateway between these organisations, the University and other service providers.
- To promote the University's Equal Opportunity Policy by practising equality of opportunity, by valuing diversity in the appointing and maintaining of staff, and by encouraging and supporting all staff in professional development.
- To work in partnership with the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust in joint educational projects and ventures.
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