A commitment to social justice runs through our teaching and research. Our values – Professional, Ambitious, Innovative, Inclusive – commit us to “acting with respect and integrity, and creating an environment where everyone involved feels proud, confident, challenged, and supported.” By acting with integrity, we seek to run our institution in a way that reflects the spirit of this goal.
Approach
Our highest governing body, the University Court, is founded on the principles of representative decision-making. It includes elected representatives from our academic and professional services staff, the Students’ Association, and trade unions, with meeting minutes publicly available.
As an institution, we are committed to effective, accountable, and transparent practice as a fair and forward-looking university. Our research adheres to the highest ethical standards. Please see our governance pages for full details.
We are committed to enabling public access to our information and to promoting fair work. We ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in our supply chains or in any part of our business. We have a strong policy on bribery and corruption.
Under the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Act 2016, we take our legal responsibility to uphold academic freedom seriously, and it is core to our academic regulations. We provide a neutral platform and ‘safe’ space for different political stakeholders to come together to discuss challenges – for students, through our inclusive curriculum, and for staff, through our values, inclusion networks, and our dignity at work policy and procedure.
We believe in public accountability and publish our annual accounts and strategic report each year.
We are proud to host Edinburgh Napier Students’ Association (ENSA), with space on every campus. ENSA represents students as part of our formal governance, and hosts sports, societies, advice, and wellbeing support.
We actively engage with our communities and local stakeholders throughout our work – it is part of who we are. Much of our teaching is practice-linked. Our Marketing and External Relations team connects with alumni and communities through social media, while our public engagement team and innovation hub share our research with the wider public.
We actively participate in the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and welcome local stakeholders – including residents, local government, and civil society representatives – to our annual stakeholder event. Our Assistant Principal leads external engagement with key stakeholders across government, public bodies, education, and the third sector.
Further, we are engaged in providing specific advice to government, for example by presenting evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee.
Research
We have three research centres actively working to strengthen national and international institutions to prevent violence, combat terrorism, and address crime. These centres also promote non-discriminatory laws for sustainable development. They are the:
- Centre for Military Research, Education & Public Engagement
- Centre for Child & Family Law & Policy
- Centre for Mental Health Practice, Policy and Law Research
Our School of Applied Sciences hosts the Scottish Institute of Policing Research, which contributes to strengthening relevant national institutions.
Teaching
Our Law department ensures that graduates are equipped to promote equal access to justice for all. Our graduates go on to work in some of Scotland's leading law firms and organisations, including The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
We are the only university in Scotland to offer a degree in Policing & Criminology. This programme was developed with input from Police Scotland. Alongside our undergraduate and master’s degrees in Criminology, it helps build capacity to combat crime.
Also highly relevant to this goal is our teaching in technology, delivered by our School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment. Sustainability is embedded in our ENhance Curriculum Enhancement Framework, which guides improvements across all our academic provision.
Examples