Research, both nationally and at the University of Kent, shows that reading lists that consider the diversity of the student body improve engagement and help to develop key graduate attributes. A minor change to your course materials could make a major change to the way a students, or a group of students, responds to the course.
Toolkit
Use our Diversity Mark toolkit to help get you started on diversifying your reading list. The toolkit includes:
- resource lists
- best practice at the University of Kent and elsewhere
- tips for exploring the scholarly landscape.

Diversity Mark award
Diversity Mark is an institution-wide award that is given to those modules that can offer a diverse and inclusive range of resources for their students via their reading lists.
The award is given to individual convenors or schools that undergo a process of review and reflection with their students to ensure that they have considered authors and perspectives from divergent backgrounds such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, internationalisation and socio-economic contexts within their discipline.
This award will be visible in Moodle and will indicate to students enrolled, or considering enrolment to a particular module, that there are diverse resources represented in the reading list.
Criteria to receive this award is providing evidence that:
- the reading list has had diverse and inclusive resources added
- student feedback has informed the process
- there will be a continued practice in developing your teaching and learning resources
Help
If you are interested in achieving this award then contact us and we can guide you through the steps:
- award criteria and application form (pdf)
- contact your liaison librarian
- or contact the Student Success Network: studentsuccessproject@kent.ac.uk
Find out all the ways you can get in touch: