UCL Equalities and Diversity Strategy 2011- 2014
1. UCL’s egalitarian ethos
UCL has been committed to inclusivity and diversity since its inception in 1826, when it
became the first English University to admit students regardless of their religion. It was
also the first to admit men and women on an equal basis.
Today, UCL is rated as one of the world’s greatest higher education institutes, with a
global reputation for excellence in teaching and research. The increasingly global society
represented and served by the University means that now, more than ever, we must
ensure our educational environment embodies the principles we advocate.
The University is committed to developing and maintaining an institution where staff and
students from all backgrounds can flourish, and so we recognise the importance of taking
a proactive stance in creating equality of opportunity and promoting diversity.
This Strategy outlines the key equality objectives at UCL. Whilst senior management
colleagues and I accept full accountability for the delivery of the Scheme, and take
seriously our role in promoting it, the University community as a whole shares
responsibility for its application.
Malcolm Grant
UCL Provost
2. The business case
UCL recognises that equality of opportunity and the promotion of diversity are not only
ethically fundamental, they are crucial to its academic, social and business success. An
inclusive environment provides an array of benefits, such as increased morale, an
expansion of the range of skills and experiences on our campuses, and an enhanced
ability to attract and retain talented staff and students from all backgrounds.
3. The legal context
The Equality Act 2010 requires public institutions to have due regard to the need to:

eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation

advance equality of opportunity
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
foster good relations between groups and individuals covered by the legislation
and those which are not
This strategy sets out the objectives the university aims to meet to enable it to fulfil these
duties. Information on the progress that is being made to meet the objectives will be
published each year.
4. Consultation and development of the Strategy
This Strategy was developed at the conclusion of an extensive review of equalities and
diversity. The purpose of the review was to:

Ensure that priorities were re-focused so that the university is tackling the most
relevant and significant issues;

Ensure actions are based on empirical evidence and the perspectives of
underrepresented groups;

Reflect on what the university has achieved;

Make sure that the equalities strategy reflects the university’s strategic direction;

Make certain that resources are being maximised to best effect.
The university functions examined for the review included: student admissions; student
support and welfare; teaching and learning; research; employment; governance;
management; and corporate services.
Extensive use was made of our staff and student monitoring data, as well as staff and
student surveys, HESA data for benchmarking against other institutions and census data
for local and national demographics.
Good practice from Russell Group universities and guidance from a number of sources,
including HEFCE, the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) and the Equality and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC), was also utilised.
The University has endeavoured to ensure that it involved and consulted with as diverse a
range of staff and students as possible. The following consultation groups were involved:

Two Race Equality Review Groups were established: one to look at employment
issues and one to look at student issues. The review was also supported by a
number of consultation activities, including semi-structured one-to-one interviews
and focus groups with staff and students;

The then Disability Committee and a Disability Equality Working Group, consisting
of disabled staff members;

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality Group;
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
Staff working on the Athena SWAN Charter for women in Science, Engineering and
Technology (SET) and a gender scheme consultation group.
5. University equality-related policies
UCL's equal opportunity policy is that in the recruitment, selection, education and
assessment of students, and in the recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, development
and promotion of staff, the only consideration must be that the individual meets, or is likely
to meet the requirements of the programme, course or post.
Furthermore UCL is committed to provide a learning, working and social environment in
which the rights and dignity of all its members are respected, and which is free from
discrimination, prejudice, intimidation and all forms of harassment including bullying. The
complete text of the university’s equal opportunities policy can be found here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/docs/equal_opportunity.php
In addition to the above policy, the university has in place a range of supporting policies
which relate to equalities issues. For example, these include:

A student disability policy

Policies against bullying and harassment, for both staff and students

A work-life balance policy for staff

A recruitment and selection policy
Links to some of the main equality-related policies can be found in the Academic Manual
(for students) at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/ and on the Human Resources
web pages (for staff) at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/a_to_z/
6. Understanding discrimination
UCL recognises that opposing discrimination necessitates an acceptance of the existence
of prejudice within society, an understanding of how it operates and the knowledge, ability
and confidence to challenge it.
Discrimination can be personal and institutional, overt or subtle, intentional or
unintentional. It can inform attitudes and actions (not necessarily consciously), which can
then become embedded in organisational structures.
Some common manifestations of institutional discrimination are:

'It doesn't happen here' - a denial of the possibility of discriminatory practice within an
institution in the absence of accurate data, or without consulting those most likely to be
on the receiving end of discrimination, or a refusal to accept such findings;

an approach which treats everyone the same and which does not acknowledge or
address the individual needs of different staff and therefore potentially marginalizes
their perspective;
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
abdication of one's personal responsibility for tackling discrimination, by not challenging
others' behaviour or attitudes;

failing to incorporate equality and diversity issues within day-to-day practice,
procedures and mainstream activity;

lack of awareness and understanding about how structures and individuals unwittingly
perpetuate discrimination, without attempting to be self-aware about one's own
assumptions, behaviour and attitudes, or to acquire new knowledge and act on it;

underrepresentation of specific groups within the organisation, particularly at a senior
and influential level;

a weak commitment in practice, to implementing the policies that institutions subscribe
to on paper.
7. Achievements since the first equality schemes
Cross-cutting achievements

Departmental activity - a wide variety of equality initiatives have taken place at
departmental level through UCL’s Equality Action Planning programme. Over 80
departments devised equality objectives and implemented a range of activities;

Improved data collection - UCL has greatly improved workforce and recruitment data
on the due to a move to an on-line recruitment system with more sophisticated equality
reporting mechanisms. Processes for capturing monitoring data for new non-UK
student entrants are significantly better and UCL now has data for a high proportion of
its students;

Staff training - online equality and diversity training is now compulsory for all new staff
and training is mandatory for Human Resources staff and student Sabbatical Officers;

Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) - key human resources policies have been
reassessed to gauge their impact on different equalities groups using UCL’s new
equality impact assessment template;

Bullying and harassment - the student anti-harassment policy and website have been
reviewed and improved and more student counsellors recruited. More staff harassment
advisers have been recruited, specifically from underrepresented groups.
Disability Equality

There is dedicated point of contact and expertise for disabled staff in the Equalities
Team, based in human resources;

A new post of Information Technology Disability Support Officer has been created;

Specialised services for students with mental health difficulties have been developed;
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
Information about disability on the Equalities website has been developed;

There have been improvements to the UCL estate, including more and clearer signage
and a more streamlined approach to fault reporting
Gender Equality

Women academics and researchers returning from maternity leave are now entitled to
a term’s sabbatical leave without administrative or teaching duties;

The university has achieved four Athena SWAN Silver awards and renewed its
university-wide SWAN Bronze award;

A high-profile gender equality event ‘Mind the gap’ was hosted by Provost;

Four mentoring schemes have been set up;

The Director of Human Resources has run staff engagement workshops on the
application and the criteria of promotions process, some specifically for women;

Thirty five women recruited as non-professorial members to Academic Board;

UCL ran an all-staff survey in 2009 which evidenced, among other things, the
widespread uptake of flexible working practices by both men and women;

The proportion of female and male students getting first class degrees has gone up,
with 27% of females now achieving firsts.
Race Equality

55 departments have undertaken race equality training;

An Institution -wide research initiative, titled the ‘Grand Challenge of Intercultural
Interaction’ has been launched. This programme examines the causes and features of
social and cultural diversity, assesses their implications, and devises novel strategies
to address them.
8. Equality objectives
Going forward, the University’s cross-cutting equality objectives are:
1. To ensure firm, visible leadership and commitment on equalities and diversity from the
university’s most senior figures – recognising the current lack of diversity at senior
levels at UCL, it is crucial that there are Senior Equality Champions to speak
knowledgeably and openly about diversity issues and question policies and practices
that may disadvantage underrepresented groups;
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2. To ensure greater understanding and engagement with equality and diversity issues
throughout the university – by means of providing bespoke face-to-face equalities and
diversity training in faculties and running equalities and diversity events;
3. To widen the range of staff and student equalities monitoring data collected and
develop a framework of equality performance indicators – to enable UCL to measure
progress on equalities and diversity and the impact of its interventions.
4. To provide a supportive working environment for staff with dependents – in particular,
to reduce by a third the number of meetings and events occurring outside the core
hours of 9.30am to 5pm;
Recognising how discrimination impacts on different groups, UCL has devised the
following specific objectives:
Age Equality Objective
5. To review UCL’s approach to age equality and careers in academia - in the light of the
removal of the default retirement age and the Equality Act 2010;
Disability Equality Objectives
6. To improve priority areas of the UCL campus - to make it more accessible to all staff,
students and visitors;
7. To provide coordinated and seamless support to disabled staff - and for improvements
to this support to be measurable in UCL’s attitudinal staff survey data;
8. To improved staff disability disclosure rate to above the sector average – and gather
data on the range of disabilities that affect UCL staff.
Gender Equality Objectives
9. To advance women’s careers at UCL– by means of mentoring and other
developmental programmes so that UCL moves towards its Gender Equality Target of
getting 50:50 men and women into grades 9 &10 by at least 1% each year;
10. To recruit and retain more female staff and students into Science, Engineering and
Technology (SET) disciplines – by remaining committed to the Athena SWAN Charter
for women in SET.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality Objective
11. To get into and remain in the Top 100 of Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index – by
continuing to deliver on UCL’s annual LGBT action plan and working with LGBT
students.
Race Equality Objectives
12. To recruit a more ethnically diverse staff body – only 21% of our staff at grades 1-8 are
from a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) background, which is still lags 10% behind our
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Race Equality Target to employ 31% BME staff at these grades, in line with
economically active workforce of Greater London. 39% of staff at the Local Authority,
Camden Council, are from a BME background;
13. To enhance career development opportunities for BME staff – to improve the
representation of BME staff at senior grades;
14. To increase the proportion of UK-domiciled BME students from under-represented
target groups – to continue to support UCL’s work on Widening Participation;
15. To ensure the university’s academic and non-academic support services meet the
needs of students from diverse backgrounds – by raising awareness among teaching
and student welfare staff on equality and diversity and student issues.
Religion and Belief Equality Objective
16. To explore the meaning of ‘secularity’ on campus - to promote tolerance, and secure
positive and open relations through dialogue between different religious groups on
campus in the context of the university’s traditions and principles, and against a
background of increasing recognition within UK higher education of the need to
develop an improved understanding of the language used to deal with faith.
9. Reviewing and Reporting
Progress on the implementation of the Equalities and Diversity Strategy and
accompanying Action Plan will be reported annually to the university’s committees and
Council.
For improved transparency, an Equalities and Diversity Report will be produced annually
and published on the university website in December. The report will contain monitoring
data and commentary and will also describe the steps the university has taken to fulfil the
objectives set out in this Strategy.
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