16 OUR PEOPLE continued A DIVERSE, EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE BUSINESS Creating a place of belonging is important for our colleagues. It’s also about being representative of the communities we live and work in - so our students see themselves represented in our teams and our teams see themselves represented in our senior leadership. It demonstrates to our people that there are opportunities for growth and development irrespective of their background or identity. During 2024, we continued to make progress towards our gender and ethnicity targets for senior leadership and management, achieving 37% women vs. our 40% target, and 7% ethnic minority representation marginally down from 8% in 2023 vs. our target of 10%. Other key progress during 2024 included the ongoing evolution of our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training based on feedback from our employees. This includes a new version of our Instinctive Inclusion training, focusing on the skills of conscious inclusion and relevance to the PBSA sector. As a result, we have seen an increase in confidence in being inclusive and the learning has been recognised as a significant improvement over the previous version. This has helped us to achieve a 2-point increase in the feeling of belonging at Unite Students, and a 2-point increase in our employee’s perception of equity during our 2024 employee engagement survey, as well as an 18% increase in employees submitting diversity data, showing a growing trust in Unite Students acting on DEI. We have introduced new policies supporting menopause, disability, and other areas, reflecting our commitment to a workplace where everyone can feel safe, valued, and respected. REAL LIVING WAGE We honoured our commitment to keep paying the Real Living Wage through 2024, recognising the vital role our colleagues play in creating a Home for Success. Case study Developing our networks to strengthen employee voice This year we have put extra attention into our employee forum, Culture Matters, and our networks. We have refined the roles of our forum representatives and developed guidance to support them in engaging with the communities they represent. We have trained our Executive leadership team in how to be an Exec sponsor, with each of them taking on a network. This supports our senior leaders in listening to different experiences and bringing that forward into decision-making. THE UNITE GROUP PLC Sustainability Report 2024 GOVERNANCE APPROACH PROGRESS SOCIAL IMPACT LOOKING FORWARD APPENDICES GOVERNANCE APPROACH SOCIAL IMPACT LOOKING FORWARD APPENDICES PROGRESS