People

Fostering an inclusive workplace

We champion equality, diversity and inclusion in all we do and we know that people are at the heart of Cambridge. Over the past five years, we have made significant progress in fostering an inclusive workplace that supports our core mission as an education and research organisation.

This year’s colleague survey results showed higher-than-ever levels of belonging in the organisation, which we view as a key indicator of a healthy workplace culture.

We developed our first strategy for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging in 2021 following a colleague engagement survey that provided a new understanding of people’s experiences at Cambridge. Our resulting strategy was revised in 2025 with a focus on improving data collection, integrating our approaches to inclusivity into everyday practices, and increasing accountability to product groups, three of which have dedicated heads for inclusion.

The strategy focuses on two main areas:

Products

Globally diverse, accessible products and services with impact

People

Globally diverse and inclusive - where every colleague can achieve their potential

More people sharing better data about inclusivity is a key goal for the organisation, as it helps us identify areas where we need to improve and focus our efforts.

Cambridge offers flexible hybrid working arrangements tailored to different functions and contexts, and provides a global Employee Assistance Programme with counselling in local languages.

Health and safety are prioritised through comprehensive policies, colleague and contractor training and an active Mental Health and Disability Ambassador Network, along with specialised support groups such as Long Covid and Climate Cafes.

Inclusive recruitment: we have developed training for hiring managers on inclusive recruitment, which has been completed by colleagues from 22 different countries.

Pay transparency: We continue to embed a fair and transparent approach to pay progression, where managers and colleagues work together to consider competence in role, ensuring that pay aligns closely with the external market. Salary ranges are published internally so colleagues can see where they are in the range

Pathways to Progression is our long-term programme to support our people’s development. It provides a clear pathway for building competence by developing skills that matter now and will be in demand in the future.

EDIB Academy providing training and resources. We have developed five programmes which have seen over 3,000 colleagues complete training on topics including conscious inclusion, LGBTQ+ and disability inclusion and trans awareness.

Support for staff networks globally: Supported by Executive Board sponsors, we have invested in staff networks for diverse groups across the organisation to make them more globally accessible and support employee experience.

“We have already made great progress as the engagement scores show. Thanks to better data, we now have greater visibility of the underlying issues and we’ve designed an action plan to address them.”

Mandy Hill, Group Managing Director, Academic, and Board sponsor for diversity

Reducing the gender opportunity gap

Cambridge has introduced a new ‘gender opportunity gap’ reporting approach that focuses on base salary to provide more accurate and timely insights on the Gender Pay Gap in comparison to the UK Statutory method. In our 2024 Gender Opportunity Gap Report, we found that:

In India there is a -10.8 percent gap in favour of women. In the Philippines there had been a slight improvement to the gender pay gap of 18.5 percent and in the USA there had been a decrease of three percent, with a 10.6 percent gap.
Our UK median pay gap increased from 8.5 percent to 10.9 percent, though still below the UK national average of 13.1 percent. This is being driven by movements in our workforce structure that have shifted the balance of roles within the organisation.

In 2023, we implemented a Global Action Plan to address pay differences between male and female colleagues. The plan was reviewed and strengthened in 2025, with new initiatives including inclusive recruitment training for all involved in hiring, advertising vacancies as flexible / hybrid by default, and clearer pay range principles.

Cambridge continues to embed inclusion across its global education work. Highlights include updated Science teacher resources for inclusivity, revised Accessibility principles for assessment materials and Training for Assessors, and a UK SEND Workshop that gathered insights from SENDCos to better support students with special educational needs. We offer our world-leading Evolve digital English course to colleagues around the world working to improve their English skills, supported by key learning partners.

Over the past three years we have welcomed over 90 interns through various programmes including 10,000 Black Interns, the Change100 internship scheme, Creative Access and the Crankstart Scholarship programme.

The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative removed publishing fees for authors in over 100 low- and middle-income countries. A landmark Braille project in International Education enabled a visually impaired candidate to achieve top grades, setting new standards for accessible assessment. These efforts were recognised with the Publishers’ 2025 diversity award, celebrating Cambridge’s commitment to inclusive publishing and talent development.

“Diversity increases our impact in education and research, and a sense of belonging improves performance and wellbeing. This is how we can reach more learners, reach more researchers, and really have a better impact on society.”

Stuart Kennedy, Chief People Officer

Accessibility programme delivers results

A cross-Cambridge accessibility programme spanning all groups has delivered significant improvements to the customer experience. The programme was part of Cambridge’s response to the European Accessibility Act and has enhanced the accessibility of both the online reading and purchasing journeys, introducing clear accessibility statements and strengthened customer support through targeted training and a dedicated accessibility mailbox. These changes benefit all our customers, regardless of location or ability.

“Our colleague engagement survey gave us a real sense of people’s experience of inclusion and what they felt. That was a benchmark that allowed us to look at what should we focus on.”

Serita Bonsignore, Global Director, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging