The Equality Act 2010: Opportunities and
responsibilities
Gary Loke
Equality Challenge Unit
University of Exeter: October 2012
Our work
= Established in 2001 to promote equality for staff in
higher education in the UK
= Remit extended in 2006 to include students
= Funded by the 4 UK higher education funding
Councils, Universities UK and GuildHE
= 18 staff, covering 9 protected characteristics
45 years of legislation
= From the Race Relations Act 1965 to the Equality Act
2010
= Changing understanding over time:
Developing understanding of concepts: direct, indirect,
victimisation, harassment
Cultural and systemic barriers
= Equality of what? Opportunity or outcome?
Exploring the fundamental concepts
Who is covered by the Equality Act?
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Age
Disability
Race
Religion or belief
Sexual Orientation
Sex
Gender reassignment
Pregnancy and maternity
Marital or civil partnership status
Harmonisation and increased protection
= Act covers England, Scotland and Wales
= Some changes in definition of discrimination
 Association
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Perception
Extension of protection to new characteristics
New types of disability discrimination
Strengthening the powers of employment tribunals
(under review)
= Harmonised voluntary positive action measures
= Third party harassment (under review)
= Pre-employment health questionnaires
Prohibited conduct
= Direct discrimination
Treating someone less favourably than someone else
because they have a particular characteristic
= May occur if:
an HEI only shortlists male job applicants for an interview
because they assume women will not fit in
Prohibited conduct
= Direct discrimination in admissions is always unlawful, except in
limited circumstances in relation to age where it can be justified
if there is a genuine reason for having concerns about the age of
people on a course and imposing a particular age requirement is
appropriate and necessary as a result.
= Example
A university refuses admission to a 16-year-old applicant for a
teaching course on the grounds that he would be unable to
undertake the teaching practice elements of the course. This would
be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim and
therefore lawful age discrimination.
Prohibited conduct
= Association
= Discrimination based on association can occur if, for
example:
a student, whose child has attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, is refused access to a graduation ceremony
because of fears about the child’s behaviour
Prohibited conduct
= Perception
= Discrimination based on perception can occur if, for
example:
a mental health and wellbeing officer refuses to work with
a student because they believe the student to be gay
irrespective of whether the student is gay or not
Prohibited conduct
= Indirect discrimination
Working in a way which might seem to treat everyone the
same – if, in practice, what you are doing is putting people
from a particular group at a disadvantage.
= May occur if:
an employer who requires staff to commit to working
from 8pm to 11pm every evening indirectly discriminates
against women, who are more likely to be primary carers
of children
Prohibited conduct
= Discrimination arising from disability
= Treat a disabled person in a particular way that, because of their
disability, amounts to treating them unfavourably when the
treatment cannot be shown to be justified.
= For example,
An employer dismisses a worker because she has had three months'
sick leave. The employer is aware that the worker has multiple
sclerosis and most of her sick leave is disability-related. The
employer's decision to dismiss is not because of the worker's
disability itself but because of something arising in consequence of
her disability (the disability-related sick leave).
Prohibited conduct
= Harassment
Unwanted conduct (linked to one of the protected
characteristics) which has the purpose or effect of violating
a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile,
degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
= May occur if, for example
a member of staff makes comments on a student’s
ethnicity in a way that makes the student feel
uncomfortable.
Prohibited conduct
= Victimisation
Treating someone less favourably because they have
complained, or brought a case, of discrimination, or
supported someone else’s complaint/case.
= May occur if, for example:
a student alleges that they have encountered racism from
a tutor, and as a result they are ignored by other staff
members
Prohibited conduct
= Reasonable adjustments
= The three requirements are to avoid substantial
disadvantage to disabled people in relation to:
physical features e.g. providing inclusive access to lecture
theatres
provision, criteria or practice e.g. providing alternative
formats of lecture handouts
auxiliary aids e.g. providing computer screen-reading
software for students with a visual impairment.
= There is an anticipatory duty to provide reasonable
adjustments for students
Prohibited conduct
= Positive action
Allows HEIs to adopt voluntary positive action measures
to:
alleviate disadvantage
reduce underrepresentation in particular
activities
meet particular needs.
= Examples include training and encouragement
Now measures extended to students, and recruitment and
promotion
Scope
= It is unlawful to discriminate against employees or
people seeking work. This applies in respect of anything
done in the course of a persons employment for
example:
Terms of offer
Access to opportunities for promotion
Transfer or training
Receiving benefits (including pay)
Facility or service
Dismissal
Scope
= The act prohibits the governing body of an HEI from
discrimination against a person/student in relation to:
admissions
the provision of education
conferment of qualifications
access to any benefit, facility or service
exclusions
Scope
= Services
= The service provider must not discriminate against a
person:
as to the terms in providing the service
by terminating the provision of the service
by subjecting the service user to any other detriment
= Services provided may include careers and employment
services, childcare services, health services, libraries,
and conference and events services.
Case studies
Public sector equality duty
... in the exercise of its functions, (an institution) should have due
regard to the need to—
= eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other
conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act;
= advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a
relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share
it;
= foster good relations between persons who share a relevant
protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
Advancing equality of opportunity
This involves considering the need to:
= remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people
due to their protected characteristics
= meet the needs of people with protected characteristics
= encourage people with protected characteristics to
participate in public life or in other activities where their
participation is low
Fostering good relations
= This involves the need to:
= tackle prejudice
= promote understanding between people from different
groups
Range of ‘functions’
= Staff employment, recruitment and selection
= Performance reviews and line management
= Career development
= Student admissions
= Student retention, performance and success
= Pastoral care
= Catering, accommodation, building accessibility, campus
safety
= Procurement, finance, information technology
Specific duties for England
The specific duties aim to support HEIs meet the
general duty. To meet the specific duties English HEIs
will need to:
= publish information about employees an evidence
relevant to their
= Set equality objectives
Race
Higher levels of representation nationally
= BME students increased from 14.9%
in 2003/04 to 18.1% in 2009/10.
= Increase in the proportion of BME
students across all sub-categories,
with the percentage of black
students increasing at the fastest
rate, from 4.4% to 5.9%.
However:
= Lower degree attainment than
white peers
= Lower continuation rates than
white peers
Source: ECU (2011), Equality in higher education: Statistical report 2011
The degree attainment gap
increased from 17.2% in
2003/04 to a peak of 18.8% in
2005/06 and was 18.6% in
2009/10.
The attainment gap is highest
between white and black
students, where the difference
was 29.8% in 2009/10.
Source: ECU (2011), Equality in higher education: Statistical report 2011
Race
Source: ECU (2011), Equality in higher education: Statistical report 2011
Disability
= Less likely to obtain a first or 2.1
= Students who were in receipt of DSA were more
likely to obtain a first or 2.1
= Lack of support for staff when compared to
students.
Gender
= Over the past 7 years, there has
been consistently more female
students than male students in
higher education.
= But there is considerable subject
segregation.
= Male students are more likely to
attain a lower 2nd or 3rd class
honours and withdraw.
Gender
= Overall 19.1% of professors are
women. This is more acute in
SET subjects at 15.1%.
= The mean and median salaries of
female staff are less than for
male staff in almost all
occupation groups.
Sexual orientation
Source: ECU (2009), The experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans staff and students in higher
education
Sexual Orientation
Source: ECU (2009), The experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans staff and students in higher
education
Religion and belief
= Limited data; discomfort around
disclosure
= Participation and access
= Accommodating religious
observance
Age
= Managing abolition of the default
retirement age
Questions
Discussion: communicating the issues
From Exeter’s equality objectives:
Develop an Equality & Diversity communications strategy
which will consider new methods to improve effectiveness of
communicating with both staff and students e.g. social
networking sites; plasma screens; website; E&D Newsletter;
E&D Coordinators; staff/student portals etc
= What are your key messages?
= How to involve students?
ECU contact details
7th Floor Queens House
55/56 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3LJ
Tel: 0207 438 1010
Fax: 0207 438 1011
info@ecu.ac.uk
www.ecu.ac.uk