Vice-Chancellor's Awards 2026

The 2026 Vice-Chancellors awards include a Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award that recognises colleagues who role model equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through their work, and have made a difference to EDI at Oxford.

Nominations are invited for outstanding people, projects and activities that demonstrate meaningful impact. This might include research projects, long-term initiatives, or cross-team collaborations that further an aspect of EDI knowledge, practice or engagement.   

Staff in all parts of the collegiate University are encouraged to nominate, whether they are academics, researchers, professional or support staff.  

There will be 13 categories in the 2026 awards, including a number of new and amended categories across a range of strategically important areas – bringing our people together and helping them share ideas and inspiration across all parts of Oxford. EDI is integral to the 2026 awards, and nominees in all categories are strongly encouraged to provide information about how their work aligns with the University’s EDI Strategic Plan.  

Recognising EDI at the 2025 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards

Last year, the Race Equality Working Group at the Department of Psychiatry (below) won the EDI Award for leading multiple initiatives to improve equity and inclusion for racialised staff and students, as well as a Race and Psychiatry Journal Club to promote academic discussion on issues of race and ethnicity in psychiatric research. To find out more about their EDI work, you can listen to their flash talk.

The Race Equality Working Group receive their award for their EDI work in the Department of Psychiatry at the 2025 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards

Nominations for the 2026 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards opened on 15 December 2025 and will close at noon on Monday 23 February 2026. The winners will be announced at a special ceremony hosted by the Vice-Chancellor on 4 June at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.   

Find out more and enter on the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards webpage.