Our principles
In 2020, we set out four principles designed collectively to constitute the moral compass that guides our actions in support of public good.
Principles are by definition enduring and do not change in the short term, even as circumstances do. So we reaffirm and restate those principles here.
The principles set out may well be subject to challenge as our external environment changes. But moral compasses do not change. Our commitment to these principles remains as firm – and enduring – as ever.
Interdisciplinarity
Collaboration across conventional academic disciplinary boundaries was a founding commitment of the University. It was central to the ambition of discovering and applying knowledge for the ‘amelioration of human life and conditions.’
We continue to have one of the strongest practices of interdisciplinary collaboration in the UK, including, for example, leading edge programmes in the bioeconomy, the safety of new technologies, health economics, digital creativity, and the human impact on biodiversity.
These strengths would not exist without creative thinking across the sciences, social sciences and humanities. They speak to – and we reaffirm – the value of a comprehensive, research-intensive university.
“Interdisciplinarity is a feature that helps to distinguish York – as well as aligning to UKRI priorities – and how we encourage and promote this is crucial.”
Inclusion
Caring about widening access to higher education ‘more than almost anything else’, and doing our work ‘regardless of class, creed or race’ were striking phrases used by our first Vice-Chancellor, Lord James. Commitments to what we now call EDI are over sixty years old at York.
They are not recent responses to regulatory change or charged social debates. They have never been understood as deficit models requiring ‘remedies’ to be applied to individuals, but focus rather on establishing an environment in which all can achieve their potential. They do not prescribe behaviours to follow but rather rest on the presumption that differences of background and experience spark creativity and innovation that will benefit the University. Their aim is to nurture the environment in which that innovation can take place.
“We need to be even more aware of the increasing diversity on campus; you've got a lot of students with different accessible needs and neurodiversity, and I think it's really important to make sure that all the modules and the degrees are accommodating, especially when it comes to submission and support.”
Internationalism
The University has from the outset viewed international engagement in ways that go beyond the crudely transactional approaches we sometimes see in universities and increasingly see in international politics. Our students were and are to be ‘citizens of the world.’ International academic cooperation was and is characterised by ‘friendliness, cooperation and idealism.’
The University has always shown a spirit of humility and a presumption of mutual benefit in its engagement across national and cultural boundaries.
These guiding commitments are all the more important today as the University builds new kinds of initiative in different parts of the world in a period of great international instability.
“There is a lot of ambition and innovation at York but people don't always perceive that... We need to be ambitious and innovative at a global level.”
Environmental Sustainability
There is a clear preponderance of scientific data and expert opinion - including many contributions from York - that global environmental conditions are deteriorating, and that this limits the prospect for our societies to flourish, and causes harm to many.
For those reasons, environmental sustainability will remain a strong theme in our research and student education, and in our University operations.
“By weaving sustainability into everything we do, we can give students the tools they need, push our research further, and genuinely lead the charge toward a healthier and more resilient future.”
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