Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Oxford University Museum of Natural History is one of the largest and most visited university science museums globally, with more than 60 staff, 150 volunteers, and 830,000 visitors per year. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive culture that promotes equity, challenges discrimination and systemic barriers to success, and values diversity of all its staff and visitors. This is central to our vision, which entails using the Museum’s collections to advance, communicate and share the sciences of the natural environment with diverse local and global audiences.

We acknowledge that the UK’s science and the museum sector have not historically been welcoming to all. It is our responsibility to change this. We celebrate the important contributions made by women in science, promoting gender equality in our programming and exhibits. We deliver accessible learning sessions to a diversity of schools, particularly those in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. We are dedicated to ensuring that everyone feels safe, welcomed and valued, ensuring all public spaces are accessible, and creating resources and events aimed at enhancing Museum visits for people with a range of needs and abilities, including those with sight loss, autism and learning disabilities.

We encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds, train staff involved in recruitment to identify and combat bias, and have anti-harassment and bullying policies in place to protect our staff and visitors.

However, we recognise that more needs to be done to strengthen and celebrate the diversity of our workforce and audiences. A 2021-2022 report by Arts Council England highlighted that the UK museum sector is not representative of the country as a whole, with particularly low representation of Black and minority ethnic and disabled people across the organisations it funds. There is also a growing appreciation of the inherent and troubling links between natural history collections and colonialism, which are often not acknowledged in museum interpretation, but which we are now starting to redress.

We continue to make ongoing efforts to make the Museum more diverse and inclusive:

• Our Strategy for 2024 – 2029 has equity, diversity and inclusion embedded as core principles underpinning our work.
• We have an established Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Group to champion equity and diversity across all activities and at all levels of the organisation.
• We have increased the diversity of the Board of Visitors, which acts as a senior advisory group for the Museum.
• We have been awarded an Athena Swan Silver award reflecting our commitment to the importance of gender equality within our work spaces.
• We run a successful bursary scheme aimed at undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds who are ordinarily resident in the UK. Accepting circa. 8 students per year on a fully funded six-week project, offering an incredible experience for students looking to work in the museum sector. In 2024 the museum was awarded the title of Gold Standard Internship Host.
• The museum offers free taught sessions to SEND schools and has a number of free and subsidised formal and informal education opportunities for young people from target areas and the state sector in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties. The learning team work closely with the University colleges to offer free taught sessions to young people from groups that are underrepresented in higher education.

The Museum is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive space, in which everyone is treated with respect, courtesy and consideration. We will continue to welcome staff, volunteers and visitors from all backgrounds, including all members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Last updated July 2025