The BDes Sound for Moving Image programme recruits directly into Stage 3, articulating from HND (or from mature students with relevant experience). The rapid jump from Further Education to Higher Education means that Equality Diversity and Inclusion is an urgent priority in this programme, to ensure students are empowered, inspired and motivated – as they may never have expected to be welcomed into an art school, due to societal inequalities experienced. We support students to conceptualise and justify the use of innovative methods and creative making with sound and moving image in order to interrogate personal, cultural or societal issues.

This presentation showcases teaching methods that celebrate neurodiversity; accessible multi-sensory activities to foster collaborative creativity (such as analogue experimental film generation using optical devices and improvised music practices using “noise-makers”). Also featured are curricula on gender diversity and social justice, through critiquing the male gaze in cinema and the colonialism or class disparities in soundscape practices – then spotlighting artists who propose alternative inclusive practices.

The presentation weaves together insights from the 2024 Equality Impact Assessment, the 5-year reflection on an Associate Student Scheme in a Further Education College written with Widening Participation, and key reflections and strategies conceived during EDI staff and student development activities co-led by staff from GSA Library, International Foundation Programme, Architecture, and Marketing and Recruitment. Together we discovered methods to build pro-active inclusive recruitment practices (sharing diverse student voices in recruitment materials) and continue de-colonising curriculum (spotlighting role model practitioners from minoritized groups in curriculum).