BBC Three documentary – 28/04/2021

We deeply regret the student-led play took place and the pain and upset it caused our students and staff.

We recognise that we failed to foresee the depth of reaction and feeling amongst the medical cohort of students.

The event was organised, managed, and written by a student society. Cardiff University (and the School of Medicine) was not involved in the organisation or management of the event, nor were we consulted or advised of its content in advance.

As a University we didn’t seek to hide this serious racist, homophobic, sexist, EDI incident, and took immediate action to suspend those involved from clinical practice, we formally investigated and took 32 medical students through our Fitness to Practise procedures.

In addition, the Vice-Chancellor took the unprecedented step of commissioning an independent, expert panel to review issues of racism in the institution.

The panel, which consisted of the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a barrister, and Chief Executive of the Equality Challenge Unit, was given complete access to all available information and was supported to interview staff and students.

The independent report was published and made a series of recommendations which were accepted in full and their implementation was led by a dedicated member of staff reporting to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

We have since established our Disclosure Response Team, a team of specialist University staff trained to respond to disclosures of violence and abuse and established our Race Equality Supervisory Panel, to raise awareness of race equality, provide advice on relationships between staff and students and further encourage the reporting of racial harassment.

This work was referenced in a recent EHRC report as best practice and is included in the new UUK guidance both as a case study and with the inclusion of the ‘Race Equality: Resource Guide’. We have also updated our Student Complaints Procedure.

The issues of racism raised by the event are taken extremely seriously, and at the most senior level of the organisation as we continue to work to ensure a cultural transformation across the University.