UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Equality and Diversity Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on 17th May 2013
Present:
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education (Innovation, Employability and
Widening Participation) (in the Chair), Mr M Blair, Dr S Burrows, Ms K
Fisher, Ms B Hay, Mrs K Hughes, Rev. S Jennings, Mr S Lamb, Mr M
Potter, Mr N Shiers, Mr S Williams
Apologies:
Dr E Campbell, Mrs S Crooks, Professor A Dolan, Professor L Green,
Ms D Markham, Mrs C Martin, Ms A Preston, Professor S Rai, Mrs R
Roke, Dr M Shewring, Ms S Smart, Mr B Sundell, Professor PA
Thomas, Mr S Williams
Mrs S Beaufoy - HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity (Assistant
Secretary); Mrs L Walls - HR Manager – Administration (Equality
and Diversity) (Secretary); Miss S Miles – Assistant Registrar –
Student Records for item 14
In Attendance:
29/12-13
Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the Equality and Diversity Committee held on 12th
February 2013 be approved.
30/12-13
Matters Arising
(a)
Athena Steering Group
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
(i)
That four departments have achieved Athena SWAN awards Chemistry retained Silver status; Life Sciences and Engineering
both achieved Bronze awards.
(ii) That Warwick Medical School achieved Silver, making them,
along with Queens Belfast, the first medical schools to achieve
Silver status
(iii) That WMG have invited an Athena assessment panel to visit the
department to discuss their recent submission.
(iv) That the University has submitted for an institutional Silver award
in the April 2013 submission round, along with Mathematics,
Statistics and Computer Science who have all submitted for
Bronze awards.
(b) Proposed Charter Mark Scheme for Gender Equality
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REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
(i)
That the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) is developing and trialing
two new Charter marks: Race Equality and Gender Equality.
(ii) That the Gender Equality Charter will extend the principles of the
Athena SWAN award to all disciplines. It is anticipated that the
Gender Equality Scheme will be rolled out to non-STEMM
departments by 2014.
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
(iii) That Warwick Business School is undertaking some empirical
research on gender equity.
(iv) That ESRC have been approached to fund a one day workshop at
Warwick to discuss possible research projects to identify
underlying issues from data produced by STEMM disciplines, and
academia in general.
31/12-13
Equity Analysis on Merit Pay 2011/12: Further Analysis (BME, Gender
and Age) (EDC Paper 13/12-13) (Minute 24/12-13 (a) refers))
CONSIDERED:
A report from the University Reward Manager detailing further analysis
of merit pay data by ethnicity by grade and gender by grade.
RESOLVED:
(a) That a review of the merit pay guidance for internal moderation
groups be made for the next merit pay round, with a view to raising
awareness of protected characteristics.
(b) That a clear message be communicated to departments that the
merit pay data is monitored annually.
32/12-13
HESA Performance Indicators 2012: Participation of Students in
Receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) (Minute 18/12-13 (a
and b (i to iii) refers)
(a) Investigation into non-completion rates for disabled students
REPORTED: (by the Disability Coordinator)
(i) That it is intended to put management systems in place to gather
data and information on the level of support offered to disabled
students to assist them to complete their degree courses.
(ii) That an Annual Report on Student Support will be produced which
will investigate and report on non-completion rates.
(iii) That mechanisms will be put in place for students with disabilities
to be able to temporarily withdraw from their course of study,
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recognising that they may require extra time to complete their
studies.
(iv) That effective information on student support is available and that
students be encouraged to use the support provided.
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
(v) That Boards of Examiners are to receive disability awareness
training.
(b) The possibility of a residential pre-induction course for disabled
students
REPORTED: (by the Disability Coordinator)
(i) That a pilot pre-induction course for disabled students will take
place to help ease the transition into university life.
(ii) That a one day session will also be held in the summer for
disabled students to help them prepare for University life,
involving sessions on being an independent adult as well as
preparing for study.
(c) Processes in place for alumni students to use University facilities
REPORTED: (by the Disability Coordinator)
(i) That all alumni students have the same borrowing rights to the
library as visitors, and whilst other library facilities are available to
them, priority is given to current students.
(ii) That Warwick email accounts do not continue to be functional
once a student has left the University, however there is a facility to
have a Warwick forwarding account.
33/12-13
Review of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) (EDC Paper 14/1213)
CONSIDERED:
A paper on the review of the Public Sector Equality Duty.
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
(a) That the government had undertaken a review of the public sector
Equality duty and the specific duties, in particular in relation to
public sector procurement processes and the collection, retention
and use of diversity data by public bodies.
(b) That the Equality Challenge Unit had been consulted as part of
this review and had responded to the government on behalf of the
Higher Education Equal Opportunities Network.
(c) That the core message to the government was that more time is
needed for HEIs to embed practice to meet the current
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requirements of the duty, and that to change legislation at this
stage would be counter-productive.
(d) The final report of the review is expected in June 2013.
RESOLVED:
That the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity review the report to note
any impact that will affect Warwick’s policies and procedures and
report to the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee.
34/12-13
Summary of a Report from the Equality and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC) – Publishing Equality Information: Commitment,
Engagement and Transparency (EDC Paper15/12-13)
CONSIDERED:
A summary paper of a report from the Equality and Human Rights
Commission on Publishing Equality Information: Commitment,
Engagement and Transparency.
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser, Equality and Diversity)
(a) That the EHRC has responsibility for assessing compliance of
public bodies to promote equality across the nine protected
characteristics as set out under the Equality Act 2010.
(b) That an assessment of public bodies had been undertaken by the
EHRC between February and April 2012 covering 1,159 public
authorities, including all 130 Universities.
(c) That the EHRC assessment had found that 50% of the listed
public authorities in England assessed had published equality
information on both their staff and service users for 2011/12,
whereas others had only partially complied to meet the
requirement.
(d) That at the time of the assessment, 6% of the assessed public
bodies (72 in total) had failed to comply with the specific duty and
had not published equality information at all.
(e) That EHRC found that the performance of Universities was
relatively mixed and that there was considerable scope for
improvement against most of the measures assessed.
(f) That Warwick’s performance against the measured criteria was
reasonable, but areas of improvement were identified.
RESOLVED:
(a) That the identified improvements be made where possible.
(b) That the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity liaise with B Hay on
the methodology of composing strategic information into ‘plain
speak’ English language.
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35/12-13
HESA Data Collection (EDC Paper 16/12-13)
CONSIDERED:
A paper on the collection and monitoring of ‘sexual orientation’ and
‘religion and belief’ data of staff and students.
REPORTED: (by the HR Manager, Equality and Diversity)
(a)
That consultation had taken place with the Students Union on
whether the University should start to collect data on ‘sexual
orientation’ and ‘religion and belief’.
(b)
That the Students’ Union were supportive of the collection of this
data, subject to terminology and clarification of where the data
would be published.
(c)
That the Students’ Union had contributed to EDC Paper 16/12-13.
(d)
That the majority of other Russell Group Universities were now
collecting the data and that the data collection had not proved
problematic.
(e)
That HESA have not made the collection of this data mandatory for
2013/14, but have not made a decision for 2014/15.
(f)
That a recent review of the Chaplaincy had recommended for the
University to start to collect the data on ‘Religion and Belief’.
REPORTED: (by the Postgraduate Student Representative)
(g)
That the Students’ Union were pleased to have been consulted on
this matter.
(h)
That where English is not the first language, some of the HESA
terms are difficult to understand and do not fit with the Warwick
community.
(i)
That alternative fields have been suggested in EDC Paper 16/12-13
and mapped to HESA collection fields.
(j)
That there should be a ‘prefer not to say’ option for both categories.
(k)
That the Students’ Union wanted clarification on why and where the
student data would be published.
REPORTED: (by Rev. S Jennings)
(l)
That the Chaplaincy had some concerns over the terminology used
by HESA, in particular, ‘Atheist’ should be separated from ‘no
religion/belief’ and ‘spiritual’ should not be used and that a preferred
term would be ‘hollistic’.
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(m)
That the HESA description headings and the examples of religion
given are inconsistent and relate to pratictioners, e.g. Islam not
Muslim.
(n)
That the review of the Chaplaincy indicated that there needed to be
an increased drive for greater religious literacy on campus.
RESOLVED:
(a)
That the Equality and Diversity Committee in principle agreed to the
University starting to collect data on ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘religion
or belief’, however this was subject to the concerns of both the
Students’ Union and the Chaplaincy being addressed.
(b) That the HR Manager and HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity liaise
with the Equality Challenge Unit and other Russell Group
Universities to determine the HESA field titles used and to share best
practice.
(c) That the data collected would predominantly be used to inform the
workforce and student profiles and assist the University work with
those communities with the protected characteristics to ensure that
adequate support was in place.
(d)
That a communication plan be established for informing staff and
students on the proposed data collection.
36/12-13 Equality Objectives – Update on Progress (EDC Paper 17/12-13)
CONSIDERED:
A paper on the progress of actions against the Equality Objectives.
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
That in accordance with the specific duties of the Equality Act 2010,
progress on the University Equality Objectives is monitored and
published annually.
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
That an up-date on Objective 5 on Widening Participation will be given in
detail under the next agenda item, but that the University had undertaken
a full scale strategic review of widening participation.
RESOLVED:
That members of the Committee should send comments on the Equality
Objectives progress to the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity.
37/12-13 Widening Participation and Student Recruitment
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
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(a) That the Office of Fair Access requires all Universities to have
targets and monitoring in place to increase widening participation.
(b) That the University’s strategic review on widening participation has
examined factors such as how outreach activities can be enhanced,
employability factors improved, and the profile of achievements
published.
(c)
That Warwick was the first Russell Group university to undertake
widening participation work, but that in recent years other universities
were now doing more.
(d) That Warwick departments had a plethora of different student
engagement events and outreach, but more needed to be done in
terms of professional development for staff and students working in
the widening participation area.
(e) That it was intended to develop Warwick as a Centre of Excellence in
Widening Participation.
RESOLVED:
The Chair to circulate the Review on Widening Participation to members
of the committee for information.
38/12-13
Gender Neutral Toilets
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser - Equality and Diversity)
(a) That the University had been approached by the Trans*
representative of Warwick Pride for the provision of suitable ‘genderneutral’ toilet facilities.
(b) That the trans* community had suggested that the ‘disabled toilets’
across campus be re-labelled to include signage indicating gender
neutral.
(c) That the Estates office had sourced suitable signage at a reasonable
cost.
REPORTED: (by B Hay)
(d) That all toilet facilities (except those on the wards) at University
Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire were gender neutral and that
consideration should be given to making all toilet facilities at the
University gender neutral.
(e) That the proposed signage was unclear and indicated that the
facilities were available to everyone, which may then make the
facilities less available to disabled users.
RESOLVED:
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(a) That the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity further investigate the
best approach to gender neutral toilets, taking into account that it
was felt that some facilities should remain single gender.
(b) That the Estates Office, if not already doing so, should take gender
neutral toilets into account as part of the new building and
refurbishment planning.
39/12-13
RCUK Equality and Diversity Statement
REPORTED: (by the HR Manager – Equality and Diversity)
(a) That the HR Manager and HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity had
attended a Russell Diversity Group meeting, where a representative
from RCUK clarified their equality and diversity statement.
(b) That Research Councils would be examining how universities embed
equality and diversity into everyday business, such as holding
Athena SWAN or HR Excellence in Research accreditations.
(c) That Research Councils would be instructing their Programme
Managers to ensure that equality and diversity was considered at
departmental level.
RESOLVED:
That the HR Manager – Equality and Diversity liaise with the Learning
and Development Centre to ascertain if equality and diversity is delivered
as part of the PCAP training.
40/12-13 Equality and Diversity Training
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
(a) That the Equality and Diversity training provided by Laurence Harvey
continues to receive excellent feedback.
(b) That four training dates have been arranged for the next academic
year and these sessions will be publicised through the Learning and
Development Centre.
(c) That the Learning and Development Centre have purchased up-dated
interactive versions of two e-learning modules, ‘Diversity in the
Workplace’ and ‘Recruitment and Selection’, which will be available
to staff within the next month.
41/12-13 Stonewall
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
(a) That feedback from the University’s Stonewall Workplace Equality
Index submission had been received.
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(b) That whilst some of the feedback was useful, some of the suggested
recommendations would be difficult to implement, given that Warwick
tends to have an inclusive practice.
(c) That it is proving difficult to launch a LGBT Staff Network, due to lack
of staff willing to take on the role of organiser.
RESOLVED:
That the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity liaises with staff and students
to determine the value of being a Stonewall member and to report
progress at the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee.
42/12-13 Title Changes on Student Database (Minute 12/12-13 refers)
REPORTED: (by the Assistant Registrar – Student Records)
(a) That the University does not have a policy that states evidence is
required for a change of title.
(b) That the wording on the required form is misleading as it does not
differentiate between name and title.
(c) That changes to the SITS data base has to be undertaken by IT
Services and for changes to be made, a business case has to go to
the SITS Development Group.
(d) That due to the way the membership system was set up the title field
cannot be left blank, so student records staff put a full stop into the
field.
(e) That IT Services will be reviewing the SITs system within the next six
months.
RESOLVED:
That the Academic Office after liaison with the Students Union and
Services, makes a business case to the SITS Development Group
change the form format giving students a choice when they wish
change their title and name and to clarify what, if any, evidence
required.
43/12-13
IT
to
to
is
Departmental Disability Contacts and Accessibility of buildings (Minute
13/12-13 refers)
REPORTED: (by the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity)
(a) That the HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity and the University Fire
Safety Officer will be hosting the first meeting for all Departmental
Disability Contacts on Monday 22 May 2013.
(b) That the meeting will cover emergency evacuation from buildings for
disabled people.
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(c) That Disability Awareness training has been arranged for the
departmental disability contacts.
44/12-13 Equality and Diversity Network (EDC Paper 18/12-13)
RECEIVED:
A copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Equality and Diversity
Network held on 21 January 2013. (EDC Paper 12/12-13).
REPORTED: (by the Chair of the Equality and Diversity Network)
(a) That the Equality and Diversity Network continued to be well
attended.
(b) That a number of equality and diversity projects had been discussed
and the Network felt that an appropriate budget should be available
to ensure continuity of the equality work.
(c)
That it was important to develop religious literacy on campus, and
that there was a Christian Network in the Chaplaincy.
(d) That as requested under minute 26/12-13 of the Equality and
Diversity Committee meeting of 12 February 2013, that the timing of
lectures had been raised as a potential issue for staff with parental
responsibilities with the Timetabling Review group.
45/12-13 Any Other Business
(a)
How to Communicate Equality Work to Staff and Students
REPORTED: (by K Hughes)
That it was important to communicate and raise awareness across
campus on what equality work is being done.
RESOLVED:
46/12-13
(a)
That the HR Adviser - Equality and Diversity to feature in ‘My
Warwick Life’ in Communicate to raise awareness of equality and
diversity.
(b)
That the HR Adviser - Equality and Diversity investigate the option
of Equality and Diversity becoming a Warwick Advantage module.
Date of Next Meeting
TO REPORT:
That the date of the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee
will be in the new academic year, date to be announced.
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