Our strategy for the future
We are committed to building a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community and an environment which is equitable and safe; one where all members of our community can realise their potential.
Our framework to achieve this focuses on raising the voice, value, and agency of First Nations Australians, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities, those with disabilities and neurodiversity, and members of the LGBTIQA+ community.
The Public Sector Commission identifies these communities as important intersections of identity groups for inclusion, which at Murdoch we couple with gender equity principles to form our core target areas.
Governance and Reporting
The reporting structure for the EDI Sub-Strategy falls under the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC), which directly reports to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) chaired by the Vice Chancellor.
EDIC holds responsibility for overseeing various advisory groups, working groups, and communities of practice, including the Associate Deans of EDI Community of Practice; CALD Advisory Group; Disability, Neurodiversity and Chronic Illness Advisory Group; LGBTIQA+ Advisory Group; and Gender Equity Advisory Group. This structured approach aims to provide oversight and coordination to drive impactful change university-wide.
Key priority areas
Our seven strategic priority areas shape our commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, driving meaningful change across the University and into the wider community.
Further diversify our student and staff body.
How we plan to achieve this:
How we plan to achieve this:
- Identify, develop, implement, and monitor a range of tools to collect student and staff diversity data to benchmark, and identify gaps and strengths in population diversity across University, Office, College, School, Discipline and Departmental levels.
- Implement inclusive and targeted recruitment strategies that actively seek a diverse pool of students and staff.
- Implement initiatives to promote retention of diverse staff, such as mentorship programs and leadership/career development opportunities.
- Develop and implement tailored student success initiatives to increase retention and success of students from diverse backgrounds.
- Seek relationships with community organisations to provide access to education for students from economically disadvantaged, rural, or remote backgrounds.
- Encourage and advocate for diversity in leadership and management roles across the University.
Build a culturally safe and inclusive study and work environment.
How we plan to achieve this:
How we plan to achieve this:
- Collaborate closely with the EDI Committee, Advisory Groups, and key EDI stakeholder communities to advise on cultural safety and inclusion needs.
- Create physical and virtual spaces designed to cater to the needs of diverse campus communities.
- Increase visibility for the culturally safe and inclusive practices at the University
- Increase opportunities for cross-cultural understanding on campus.
- Review and improve our policies, procedures, and guidelines to ensure they meet the standards of best practices in EDI.
- Review and revise grievance processes to ensure cultural and psychological safety of people making claims based on discrimination.
- Support Colleges and Schools to regularly review and design inclusive curriculum, where applicable.
- Join an Advisory Group to help identify issues within the University and propose meaningful recommendations.
- Attend EDI trainings such as Intercultural Competency, Unconcious Bias, Beyond Black and White, and Ally Training.
Engage proactively in EDI initiatives, regularly tracking and reporting on university commitments.
How we plan to achieve this:
How we plan to achieve this:
- Develop and implement an EDI training program, monitor attendance, and collect feedback to assess effectiveness.
- Expand the LGBTIQA+ Ally network program to other equity groups. Encourage staff and students to become allies and monitor growth and engagement.
- Join and/or engage with state and national accreditation bodies and organisations supporting best practice in EDI, such as Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP or equivalent), SAGE Athena Swan, Australian, Workplace Equality Index (AWEI), etc.”.
- Curate a program of key events centred around diverse communities and their annual days of significance.
- Create a reporting framework with established intervals evaluating university-wide EDI initiatives.
- Attend Ally Training. Enrol in a staff or student session, encourage others to take the training, or organise a custom session for your school, area, or team.
- Download the EDI Calendar to help plan how you can recognise and celebrate diverse days of significance. Download via the EDI Staff page.
- Claim your free Diversity Council Australia membership and access their library of resources, research, and events. All Murdoch University staff have access to a DCA membership, simply create your individual login using your staff email address.
Develop/increase intercultural competency skills amongst students and staff.
How we plan to achieve this:
How we plan to achieve this:
- Establish a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Advisory Group consisting of diverse members to regularly convene and offer guidance, expertise, and recommendations for improving intercultural competency skills.
- Embed foundational intercultural communication competence (ICC) skills into course materials and syllabi through collaboration with curriculum designers and academic staff.
- Offer and significantly increase training opportunities in intercultural competence skills by increasing the availability of sessions and tracking participation rates.
- Develop and implement self-assessment tool(s) to identify unconscious biases, while monitoring its utilisation and the number of completed assessments.
- Develop and implement tools that prompt critical self-reflection on individuals’ cultural competency, while monitoring their utilisation and the number of completed assessments.
- Join the CALD Advisory Group. Help identify issues faced by CALD communities within the University and propose meaningful recommendations. Email edi@murdoch.edu.au to express your interest.
- Review course materials and identify ways to strengthen the course by incorporating diverse learning resources.
Improve accessibility across campuses.
How we plan to achieve this:
How we plan to achieve this:
- Establish a Disability and Neurodiversity Advisory Group consisting of diverse members to regularly convene and offer guidance, expertise, and recommendations for improving accessibility across campus.
- Implement UDL principles in curriculum design, ensuring that all educational materials and methods are accessible to diverse learners.
- Encourage teams across the University to develop plans for increasing accessibility for their staff and/or students and develop metrics to monitor progress.
- Invest in and promote accessible digital platforms, ensuring that websites, software, and communication tools are usable by all.
- Establish and report on accessibility plans for both physical and virtual campus spaces as required by government and/or accreditation bodies.
- Develop and offer an Accessibility Awareness Toolkit that provides resources and guidelines for the University community.
- Update campus services, such as maps and apps, to include dedicated accessibility features catering to people living with disabilities.
- Create an accessibility plan for your school/area. Identify accessibility issues in your area and develop a plan to address and remove these barriers. Reach out to the EDI team, or Access and Inclusion for support.
- Implement UDL principles when designing/reviewing curriculum to ensure that all educational materials and methods are accessible to diverse learners.
Develop and nurture an interdisciplinary community of practice for research and encourage projects to consider social impact.
How we plan to achieve this:
How we plan to achieve this:
- Encourage areas across the University to collaborate on research initiatives to foster a culture of interdisciplinary research.
- Identify and disseminate established tools to researchers to enable reflection on social impact of their research.
- Implement strategies to recognise, celebrate and showcase research contributions that advance understanding of societal inequalities and drive positive change.
- Identify and implement strategies to promote active participation by equity groups in research activities.
- Consider social impact when designing research.
- Engage with communities. Use inclusive recruitment strategies for participants, and involve community representatives and experts as collaborators early on in the process.
Collaborate with external stakeholders to develop reciprocal EDI initiatives with impact beyond the University.
How we plan to achieve this:
- Establish partnerships with government agencies, industry partners, community organisations and NGOs.
- Promote knowledge exchange with external stakeholders to exchange insights, data, and best practices to foster sustainable EDI initiatives.
- Facilitate networking opportunities between the University and external stakeholders to enable mutually beneficial EDI initiatives.
- Explore opportunities to engage with businesses and organisations to invest in projects that advance social equity and diversity.
How you can help:
- Collaborate with the EDI team. If you’re part of an organisation, business, or community group who would like to collaborate on an initiative, event, or networking opportunity, we’d love to hear from you.
- Engage with community organisations. Find aligned businesses and organisations when planning student placements, learning opportunities, and professional development.
Our roadmap to achieving these commitments
The Office of the PVC EDI supports all areas of the University in an advisory capacity to help develop, implement and measure their own contextually relevant EDI objectives. While the EDI team plays a pivotal role in terms of driving, evaluating, and reporting on progress towards the EDI sub-strategy, each area is encouraged to take ownership of EDI actions that align with their work portfolios, embedding EDI principles into everything we do.
Establishing the Office of the PVC EDI and designing the EDI Sub-Strategy.
- Co-designed our strategy with community. The EDI sub-strategy was designed in response to codesign workshops with key stakeholders from education, research, and engagement at Murdoch. The sub-strategy draft was shared with the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC), the PVC First Nations, the PVC Sustainability, the Associate Deans EDI and Learning and Teaching, and the various EDI Advisory Groups. The final draft embedded feedback from over 100 individuals, including a whole of University review, before being endorsed by the Senior Leadership Team and noted by the University Senate and Academic Council.
- Established the Office of the PVC EDI. After the appointment of Dr. Rebecca Bennett as the Pro Vice Chancellor EDI, the Office of the PVC EDI was created to support initiatives across the University and the creation of the EDI sub-strategy.
- Created the first EDI Advisory Groups. Advisory groups consisting of self-nominated staff and students were created to consult on issues across the University, and to co-design the EDI sub strategy. These groups included the LGBTIQA+, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, and Disability and Neurodiversity Advisory Groups.
- Introduced the Associate Dean EDI role in schools. An Associate Dean role was created to encourage schools to consider EDI when making decisions at the school leadership level, with uptake in the role growing each year since its creation.
Introduced over 20+ new initiatives towards our sub-strategy, including:
- Launched the EDI Sub-Strategy. In March, we launched our EDI Sub-Strategy, an ambitious roadmap for achieving the commitments outlined in the University’s Strategy, Ngala Kwop Biddi.
- Established the Gender Equity Advisory Group. Gender equity champions met for the first time in November as part of a new GE Advisory Group, ready to build momentum in 2025.
- Achieved Bronze Accreditation in the Australian Workplace Equality Index. In June, Murdoch received the Bronze accreditation, recognising our commitment to LGBTIQA+ inclusion, equality and equity, and to ensuring that we provide a welcoming and secure environment for all our employees and students.
- Received SAGE Athena Swan Cygnet Award for LGBTIQA+ Inclusion. In November, Murdoch’s first Cygnet Award was received for LGBTIQA+ Inclusion. This is the first of five Cygnet awards set out to be achieved by Murdoch over the next few years.
- Installed WA’s first Pride Crosswalk. In January, the first Pride Crosswalk was installed in WA at our Perth campus - a visible commitment to allyship and inclusion for new and returning staff and students.
- Hosted “Post-Referendum: What’s Next for Universities?” Murdoch University in collaboration with ECU and JCU, hosted a significant National Reconciliation Week panel. This hybrid event provided a reflective space for over 350 participants from 30 universities to discuss the evolving role of reconciliation in higher education, featuring insights from prominent First Nations leaders.
- Unveiled the first space on campus named after a woman. In February, our International Women’s Day event honoured Rosemary van den Berg, the first Aboriginal person to be awarded a PhD in Western Australia, through the naming of the Rosemary van den Berg room in Boola Katijin.
Introduced over 20+ new initiatives towards our sub-strategy, including:
- Launched our Reconciliation Action Plan.
Unveiled at a special celebration on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar, our new Innovate RAP was developed in close partnership with First Nations leadership and colleagues, and the RAP Working Group. The RAP outlines tangible actions across five key dimensions: race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity, unity, and historical acceptance. - Expanded the Office of the PVC EDI. In 2025, our office recruited new Strategic Projects Coordinators for the CALD, CaNDiD, Reconciliation, and Strategic Alignment portfolios, along with a Program manager for the National Gender-Based Violence Code. Additionally, we recruited a team of six EDI Student Partners - passionate Murdoch students who lend their diverse skill sets to support and design initiatives that align with our sub-strategy.
- Dr. Rebecca Bennett awarded Executive Leader of the Year. In June, Bec Bennet (PVC EDI) was named Executive Leader of the Year at ACON’s 2025 Australian LGBT+ Inclusion Awards.
- Achieved Silver Accreditation in the Australian Workplace Equality Index. In June, Murdoch was awarded its Silver LGBTQ+ Inclusion Award, in recognition of advanced work to support LGBTIQA+ Inclusion.
- Launched “Come As You Are” support network. In June, 11 members of Murdoch’s disability, neurodiversity and chronic illness community came together for the first “Come As You Are” session, a casual support network for staff and students.
The event was an opportunity to connect, share stories, and rest in the presence of community., and will continue for the remainder of the year with the intention of organically growing a safe community space into 2026. - Launched the Carer’s Network. Since March, the EDI team coordinates the Carer’s Network, providing a valuable space for parents and carers at Murdoch to connect, share experiences, and collaborate on EDI initiatives that support carers more effectively. We meet monthly, and it’s been exciting to welcome several new members.
- Redefining Success for International Women’s Day. In March, over 80 staff members joined panelists to explore
how women define success beyond traditional norms. The discussion was insightful and well- received, sparking meaningful conversations. - Moorditj Kaat Kadadjiny - Good Mind Learning. Murdoch University, Neami National, and Moorditj Koort held a First Nations Social Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) Suicide Prevention Forum, bringing together some of WA’s most respected leaders in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s SEWB and research space. It provided a rare opportunity to engage with thought leaders, frontline practitioners, and lived experience voices, bringing together over 200 attendees in person and online from across Australia.
Explore more initiatives in our 2025 Semester 1 progress report.
Reconciliation
At Murdoch, reconciliation is a shared journey, but not a shared burden. We recognise that allyship must be active, demonstrating respect and accountability in words, systems, and actions. We also recognise that truth-telling, justice, and structural change require non-Indigenous people to walk alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, listening, learning, and taking responsibility, in genuine partnership.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan reflects this commitment, calling on all of us to move beyond symbolic gestures and toward sustained, meaningful action.
