Why the EDI conversation needs to move to belonging, fairness and inclusion for all.

By Jeff Greenidge, Director for Diversity and Governance at AoC

Over the past decade, further education colleges have made significant progress through their commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Using data-driven approaches, colleges have become better at understanding the disparities that exist in access, participation, achievement and progression. EDI frameworks have helped institutions identify where barriers exist, target support effectively, and meet important legal and moral responsibilities. 

That awareness is important and the progress matters; it is a huge step forward and that should be recognised. 

The world around us is changing. Political debate has become increasingly polarised. Public conversations about identity, culture and belonging are often framed in ways that create division rather than understanding. At the same time, colleges are working with learners whose experiences are shaped by a growing range of social, economic and personal challenges. 

The conversation has evolved. Not away from EDI, but beyond it. EDI has given colleges an essential framework for understanding inequality. Yet there is a risk that over time the discussion can become overly focused on compliance, reporting and metrics. 

I have sat in a 45-minute EDI training session and indeed failed one online EDI course, as if a complex and deeply human subject can be meaningfully understood through a short presentation, a handful of statistics and some multiple choice questions. 

Data is important. But culture cannot be measured entirely through dashboards, and belonging cannot be reduced to percentages or what the board looks like. 

When EDI becomes solely about characteristics, targets or compliance requirements, there is a danger that the lived experience of learners and staff becomes secondary to the process itself. Colleges may know who is represented, but not whether people genuinely feel valued. They may measure participation but not always understand whether individuals feel they belong. 

The next stage of the FE journey should centre on belonging.  

Belonging asks a different question. Rather than simply measuring whether people are present, it asks whether they feel seen, respected and able to thrive. The AoC Equity Exchange encourages practitioners to share their experiences challenges and success stories, and it is inspirational to see the impact of students’ sense of value and worth through the purposeful measure taken by colleges. The Student Commission for Racial Justice supported by leaders unlocks is powerful evidence of what works well and not so well for students in this arena. 

A learner may be represented within a dataset but still feel isolated in a classroom. A member of staff may belong to a protected group yet feel unable to contribute fully within their team. Equally, individuals who fall outside traditional EDI discussions may also experience exclusion, disadvantage or disconnection. 

Belonging recognises that people perform better, engage more fully and achieve stronger outcomes when they feel connected to the communities around them. 

This is not a radical idea. It is simply the good educational practice I learned on my PGCE a few years ago! 

Alongside belonging, FE should embrace a broader conversation about fairness. 

Fairness goes beyond equality of access. It focuses on equity of experience and opportunity. This is not semantics it is an acknowledgement that learners arrive at college with very different starting points and face very different barriers. 

Those barriers may be linked to protected characteristics such as race, disability, sex or sexual orientation. But they may also be connected to poverty, locality, family circumstances, prior educational experiences, caring responsibilities or wider social disadvantage. 

Anyone who works in colleges knows that people's lives rarely fit neatly into the ILR categories. 

The reality is that learners experience multiple, overlapping factors that shape their opportunities and outcomes. A genuinely fair system recognises those complexities and responds to them. 

The most important shift is moving towards inclusion for everyone. 

One of the criticisms often directed at EDI is the perception that it focuses on some groups at the expense of others. Whether that perception is justified or not, FE cannot ignore it. 

Colleges are uniquely placed to bring people together from different backgrounds, generations, cultures and communities. Our role is not to create competing groups but to create shared spaces where differences are respected and common purpose can flourish. 

An inclusive college should therefore be a place where every learner and every member of staff feel that they matter. 

Not because they belong to a particular category. 

But because they are part of the college community. 

It is important to be clear: this is not an argument against EDI. 

It is not about ignoring racism, homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia or any other form of prejudice and discrimination. Nor is it a call to step back from accountability, data analysis or targeted interventions where they are needed. 

Rather, it is about building on the foundations that EDI has already established. 

The sector must continue to understand disparities and challenge discrimination wherever it exists. But at the same time, colleges should deepen their focus on relationships, culture, belonging and lived experience. The objective should be both evidence and humanity. 

In FE, EDI has never been about imposing abstract theories or pursuing social engineering. It has always been rooted in a practical mission: widening participation, supporting diverse communities and helping people succeed regardless of their starting point. 

That is not ideology. That is the purpose of colleges. 

AoC and the wider FE sector have approached this work pragmatically. Data helps identify patterns, but professional judgement, local context and lived experience have always been equally important. The goal has never been to manufacture identical outcomes between groups. It has been to remove barriers, widen opportunities and support progression. 

Importantly, that work has always extended beyond identity alone. Colleges have long recognised the impact of socio-economic disadvantage, prior attainment, geography and personal circumstance alongside protected characteristics. 

The best colleges understand that inclusion is both sophisticated and deeply human. As anchor institutions within their communities, colleges have a responsibility that extends beyond qualifications and employment outcomes. We help shape the social fabric of the places we serve. 

That is why the future conversation should be about belonging, fairness and inclusion for all. 

EDI remains an essential foundation. The data still matters. The accountability still matters. The commitment to tackling discrimination still matters. 

But if FE is to meet the challenges of the next decade, we must also focus on something broader: creating environments where every person feels valued, respected and able to contribute. Not because it is fashionable, nor because it is ideological, but because it is how strong communities, successful organisations and great colleges have always worked.