Imperial in 2023–24: Our people and community

We are committed to continuing to improve our staff experience, including prioritising the career development of all our staff.

Our strategy sets out our plans to launch the new Imperial Future Leaders Academy, which will bring together Imperial’s skilled organisational development professionals with academic and external experts to create a new suite of innovative academic management and leadership development programmes for our early-career staff.

The results of our 2024 staff survey were published in July and there were many positive takeaways. Overall employee engagement is 75% positive (2022: 74%) and Imperial colleague engagement is above the benchmark for higher education institutions (71%), and for Russell Group universities (70%). Eighty four percent of respondents said they were proud to work at Imperial and 78% said they would recommend Imperial as an organisation to work for.

Total remuneration

Our Total Remuneration Package is an interconnected framework encompassing all the components and benefits we use to compensate and reward our people including pay, pension, and a number of other financial and non-financial benefits. It is subject to ongoing review and developments to ensure it maintains value and relevance throughout the employee lifecycle.

Our people are our most important asset and are at the centre of delivering our mission to achieve enduring excellence in research and education in science, engineering, medicine and business for the benefit of society. Ensuring they are rewarded appropriately is critical to maintaining our success. More than half of our annual expenditure goes towards our people and in 2023–24 we spent £700 million, encompassing all elements that make up our Total Remuneration Package.

We undertake a benchmarking exercise each year to review Imperial’s salaries against the Russell Group, London Higher Education Sector, agreed relevant benchmark comparators, and London market pay rates. The annual Equity and Achievement Pay Review processes allow managers to address equal pay and internal benchmarking disparities in their area and to reward staff for exceptional contribution and achievement. Imperial also enters into local pay bargaining with our Joint Trade Unions (UCU, UNISON and Unite) to determine the annual pay award and a two-year pay dispute was successfully resolved during the year.

We have published our Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports for 2024. The data shows that the median ethnicity pay gap has increased from 9.5% in 2023 to 13.2%. The mean ethnicity pay gap has also increased to 19.5%, higher than 15.7% for 2023.

Number of staff

Academic and research 3,821

Professional, technical, operational, and learning 4,680

Total 8,501

In terms of gender, the median and the mean gender pay gap have both increased, from 6% to 10.3% for the median and from 14.1% to 14.8% for the mean. We know we need to continue to do more to find ways to close both the gender and ethnicity pay gaps. Work is underway to better understand the reasons for the latest trends and to develop plans to address these. This will include continuing to focus on the recruitment, retention, and progression for female and minority ethnic colleagues, particularly in senior roles – and in alignment with our Race Equality Charter and Athena Swan action plans, introducing additional initiatives to reduce the pay gaps.

A healthy and sustainable work-life balance is essential. To support this, we offer a generous annual leave allowance, in addition to special leave and family leave provisions, beyond the statutory entitlements to further support our people when they need it the most. In December 2023, the University Management Board agreed for all enhanced family leave and pay provisions (for maternity, shared parental, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity/maternity support leave) to be a day one right, in addition to increasing the level of Family Emergency Leave from three to five days, both effective from 1 August 2024.

Imperial is also proud to have been ranked a Top 10 Employer for Working Families for the second time in 2023. We offer two main workplace pension schemes, USS and SAUL, more information on which can be found in the financial review on page 100.

Recognising staff excellence

Our annual Staff Recognition Awards ceremony is a celebration of the many achievements of colleagues across Imperial’s faculties and departments. The awards recognise the vital contributions that both individuals and teams have made to the University community, as well as recognition for project support and excellence across education, research and societal engagement among others. These are meaningful accolades as nominations are submitted by peers and colleagues.

The awards include:

• President’s Awards for Excellence in Culture & Community, Education, Research, and Societal Engagement
• Julia Higgins Medal and Awards to recognise significant contributions to the support of women in academia at Imperial
• Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Health and Safety
• Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Animal Research

Staff and students who have been nominated by their managers, peers and colleagues for their exceptional contributions to the University within the last year are also invited to the annual Imperial Garden Party.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

In September 2023, Dr Wayne Mitchell and Professor Lesley Cohen were appointed as new Associate Provosts for Equality, Diversity and Inclusions. Their appointment recognises the significant contributions they have already made to EDI at Imperial and their shared vision for embedding these values even deeper into the foundations of the institution. In May 2024, they hosted the Imperial Cohesion event series to support and develop the community at Imperial engaged with EDI work.

Imperial’s diversity networks aim to represent different staff groups at Imperial to inform and develop policy, raise awareness of issues, organise events, and act as a safe space.

There are a number of staff networks at Imperial including:

• Able@Imperial: open to all disabled staff, as well as those who support disabled dependents, and staff who have an interest in disability in the workplace.
• Imperial 600: the network for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) staff and postgraduates.
• Imperial As One: open to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff, and those with an interest in race equality.

We are constantly striving to make sure Imperial is a diverse environment where people and ideas can thrive. So, we were particularly proud to secure a place in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers List 2024. Imperial placed 33 out of 246 institutions in the recently published Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI). This recognition of our ongoing commitment to inclusion for LGBTQIA+ individuals is testament to colleagues dedicating their time to delivering training and initiatives that support our inclusion ambitions.

“We are pleased Imperial has been recognised for its work on LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and we recognise the ongoing efforts that are needed to continue improving the experience of our community.” Professors Lesley Cohen and Wayne Mitchell Associate Provosts for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Imperial’s Communications Division received Blueprint Ally status, recognising efforts to improve diversity in all areas of their work and operations. The Blueprint diversity mark aims to promote racial diversity in public relations and communications. Originally set up for communications agencies, the scheme expanded to include in-house teams, and Imperial’s Communications Division is the first to receive the mark in this category.

Members of the Communications Division's EDI Working Group have pioneered several initiatives including the Imperial As One Media Academy, a training programme offering expert media training for minority ethnic staff and students, a style guide for writing about ethnicity, a tailored internship programme for under-represented groups, and a pilot flexible holiday programme to accommodate dates with meaning for a range of faiths, beliefs and lifestyles. 

Together with our community 

Imperial's commitment to world-changing impact starts here across our nine campuses with staff and students working with our local communities. Our flagship annual event, the Great Exhibition Road Festival, saw over 50,000 people visit our South Kensington Campus and surrounding community. The weekend festival included hundreds of interactive exhibits, music and dance performances, creative workshops and informative talks – with a record-breaking number of people registering to attend the festival in 2024.  

On our White City Campus, local families were welcomed as part of our West London Healthy Home and Environment Study (WellHome study), with researchers providing an interactive experience showcasing the science behind improving indoor and outdoor air quality. The Study works in partnership with over 100 local homes to investigate indoor and outdoor air pollution and its impact on asthma. The WellHome study focuses on children with asthma or allergies and families from minority ethnic groups and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The purpose of the “Day in the life of a scientist” event was to strengthen relationships with families taking part in the WellHome study and create a welcoming space where participants can engage with real science, breaking down any potential barriers between the research team and the households. The day gave families the opportunity to learn about air pollution using pipettes to explore chromatography, testing water quality, and other techniques used by the Environmental Research Group.

Researchers are also partnering with local authorities and healthcare trusts to tackle air pollution in Hammersmith and Fulham. This collaboration signifies a shared commitment to using cutting-edge research to improve the well-being of residents in the community and beyond.

10,000 STEM activity packs given to local charities

Imperial’s Public Engagement team distributed their 10,000th STEM activity pack this summer featuring engaging activities for local children. Packs are distributed by partnering with local charities including youth groups and food banks working with families most in need. Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, when school children had reduced access to hands-on learning, the Public Engagement team have continued to distribute 2,800 packs a year.