Approach
We are proud to have been a living wage employer since 2021, to work with our unions (including for collective bargaining), to value diversity and inclusion in our workplace (and end discrimination). This includes action to monitor and tackle the gender pay gap. Our Fair Work statement details our approach to minimise zero-hour contracts and ensure the limited number of staff we have on these contracts have comparable contractual rights.
We have worked with our staff and students to develop our Equality Outcomes based on the Scottish Funding Council’s National Equality Outcomes.
We report on equal pay and our gender pay gap in our public annual strategic report and accounts.
Our University governance ensures we have taken steps to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the University's supply chain or any part of its business, and we are committed to working together with Universities Scotland to prevent gender-based violence. We have a commitment to a culture of inclusion and have clear processes to hear complaints.
We work to the HERA standard of role analysis, ensuring roles are appropriately rewarded and align to nationally agreed sector appropriate standards. Our staff can speak with our People team to appeal on employee rights and/or pay.
We have a supply chain code of conduct, ensuring equivalent rights of workers when outsourcing activities to third parties, and our Ethical Investment Policy, developed in response to our student voice, focuses on sustainability.
Research
Our research focuses on innovation for the real world, making a difference across the globe to businesses and organisations. Our Innovation Hub focuses on preparing businesses for the future, through innovative solutions, licensing, finding talent, and collaborative partnerships. We have specialist support for knowledge transfer partnerships.
Across the University, our research centres support productive employment and decent work for all, for example through our Tourism Research Centre, Centre for Arts, Media and Culture, and Business Innovation/Sustainability.
Our Business School has a number of research groups, all of which contribute to this goal, including Work and Equalities in Society (WEiS), Futures & Analytics Research (FAR) Hub, Intercultural Communication (ICC), Napier Applied Business Research for Society (NABRS), The Small Business and Enterprise Research Group (SBERG), and the Urban Innovation Policy (Unity) Lab.
Our academics have a track record of leading in this area, heading back to 2008 for example, with this research into a Scottish Living Wage.
Teaching
We believe anyone with the talent and potential to succeed should have the opportunity to study at Edinburgh Napier University. We actively support this through our Widening Participation team, and also ensure offers are based on our minimum entry requirements for students from the 20% most deprived postcodes in Scotland. Our support continues for students when they are with us through our comprehensive Wellbeing, Support & Inclusion offering.
Our curriculum is characterised by a focus on employability, as one of the five key themes in our Enhance Curriculum Framework. Our integrated Employability and Careers team offers a holistic service, including support for work placements across every programme, a Resilient Skills programme for all students, and tailored support for international, postgraduate and disabled students.
Some highlights of our teaching includes Teacher Education, where we offer postgraduate level courses in career support, and our nursing education includes fully integrated practice learning experience.
Our Business School is known as “The Business School for empowerment, enterprise and employability for all”. With a large international community, and commitment to the Principles for Responsible Management in Education (PRME), the School helps drive societal impact and accelerate pace towards the attainment of the SDGs. With the Buy Social pledge, our Business School supports bringing social enterprises into our supply chains.
Beyond traditional degree teaching, we offer a portfolio of CPD short courses across the areas we know employers value most and help provide creative, sustainable solutions to economic challenges.
Around the globe, our alumni community is an incredible force: over 186,000 individuals across 187 countries working in diverse industries to deliver impact for society and the environment.
Examples