BANGOR UNIVERSITY
AN OVERVIEW OF EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY DATA MONITORING
For the Equality and Diversity Task Group – June 2008
1
Gender:
Staff
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, (HESA), the number of
female academics working in UK universities has reached a record high in 20062007. Of academic staff at all levels 42.3% are female and there has been a
rise in the number of female professors from 16.7% previously to 17.5%.
Further more the statistics also show that more female academics worked part
time (41.8%), compared to their male counterparts (26.8%). The staff profile of
Bangor University reflects this national trend, for example:
 Recruitment
o Over all there were more female than male applicants and of those
appointed 61% were female.
o Only in the category of temporary full time employment did male
candidates outnumber female, however, of the 86 appointments
made in this category 45 were female.
 Staff Profile
o 57% of employees in the reporting period are female.
o 52% of academic staff is male and 54% of academic related staff
is female. There are more males in senior academic grades than
females.
o The breakdown between other categories of work is traditional, for
example:
 86% of clerical staff are female
 73% of cleaning staff are female
 83% of catering staff are female
 74% of technical staff are male
 All porters, ground staff and craft staff are male.
o There are more female employees in the College of Education and
Life Long Learning. 72% of staff in the School of Life Long
Learning is female. There are more female employees in the
College of Health and Behavioural Sciences, which includes the
traditionally female pre-registration nursing. However, the
exception in this College is the School of Sports and Health
Sciences where 71% of staff is male.
o There are more male employees in the College of Physics and
Applied Sciences and, in particular, in the School of Electrical
Engineering. There are more male employees in the College of
Natural Sciences, particularly in the Schools of Ocean Sciences,
Biological Sciences and SENR.
o There are more females in Central Administration work.
o There are more employees in the College of Life Long Learning
and College of Behavioural and Health Sciences on part time and
temporary contracts. This reflects the nature of the courses on
offer by the Colleges.
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o Data to 2006 indicated that 27% of female academics worked part
time compared to 14% of their male colleagues. This reflects a
national pattern of more female academics working part time.
o 14% of professorial grades are female, and this indicates a rise
from 12% in the previous period for which statistics are available.
Analysis of Flexible working statistics.
o There is a trend towards taking longer maternity leave.
o The non-maternity return rate has increased with approximately
15% not having returned at the end of their maternity leave period
in 2007 – a 100% return rate in previous years. It is noted that the
non-returners are mainly lower grade support staff, rather than
professional staff.
o A decrease in flexible working applications: the difficulties faced by
managers in implementing flexible working due to changing
service requirements, coupled with the lack of availability of high
quality affordable nursery care in the area.
Analysis of pay related comparisons will take place following the
implementation of the Framework Agreement as part of an equal pay
audit.
Students:
 Bangor University has a higher percentage of female students than Wales
and the UK as a whole (Bangor University 63%, Wales 56% and UK 57%).
However, this does reflects the trend in Wales generally since the 1960s
which has resulted in more females than males being in higher education at
the present time.
 There are more female students in the College of Arts and Humanities and
the College of Education and Life Long Learning and Behavioural Sciences.
There are more male students in the College of Physical and Applied
Sciences. This reflects the UK trends for students at 'A' level through to
higher education.
 The Schools with the highest percentages of female students are, Cymraeg,
Social Sciences, Education, Life Long Learning, Health Care and
Psychology. The Schools with the highest percentage of male students are,
Computer Sciences, Chemistry and Electronics. This reflects Wales and UK
trends.
 A national (whole UK), research project funded by the Higher Education
Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Higher Education Funding
Council for Wales (HEFCE) and undertaken by the Equality Challenge Unit
and the Higher Education Academy showed that females are more likely to
obtain higher degree classification than males, except when it comes to
attaining a first. At Bangor, on average, female students get slightly higher
degree grades, for example getting first or 2:1 61% females and 46% males.
Slightly more females than males obtain first class degrees (12% compared
to 11.5%).
JE May 2008
2
Ethnicity
Staff
 There has been very little change in the profile of applicants over the
reporting periods 2003-2007. The last reporting period indicated that 86% of
applicants were from a white ethnic background and that 93% of
appointments were from applicants from a white ethnic background. It should
be noted that recruitment for cleaning posts are not included in these
statistics.
 Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) applicants were most likely to apply for
Research, Academic and Knowledge Transfer Partnership and Technical
positions, and this is reflected in the appointments made.
 There has been very little change in the ethnic profile of the University with
the profile for the last reporting period indicating 92% of employees were
from a white ethnic background and 4.3% were from a BME background.
3% of staff chose not to disclose their ethnic origin.
 The University gender profile indicates more female employees than male
employees and this is reflected in the ethnic profile, with 65 female and 54
male members of staff from a BME ethnic background.
 Staff from a BME background are represented in the following categories:
o Academic – 3.5%
o Academic Related staff – 1.8%
o Research staff – 6.5%
o Clerical staff – 2.6%
o Cleaning staff – 20%
 Cleaning staff from a BME background are predominantly of Chinese
ethnicity, reflecting the number of students choosing Bangor as their place of
study from this ethnic background and seeking temporary part time
employment while they study.
 Cleaning staff from a Chinese background have a similar gender balance, 13
female and 11 male, whilst cleaning staff from a white ethnic background are
predominantly female.
 All staff earning over £77k are male and white.
 The number of Chinese staff earning less than £19k, reflect the number of
female and male staff from a Chinese ethnic origin.
Students
 There has been a steady increase in UK domiciled students across the
reporting periods 2001/02 to 2006/2007, from 8505 to 9499.
 There has been very little change in the UK domiciled student profile in the
last reporting period, 89% from a white ethnic background with 3.2% from a
BME background. These percentages have shown very little change over
the reporting periods 2001/02 to 2006/2007.
 The College of Business, Social Science and Law has the highest
percentage of UK domiciled BME students (7%), with the School of Life Long
Learning having the smallest group (1%). This is likely to reflect the more
local student catchments of the School of life Long Learning.
 There has been a steady improvement in the numbers choosing not to
declare ethnicity, from 16% in 2002/03 to 7.8% in 2006/2007. However, this
continues to be higher than the UK and Wales percentage.
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The College of Education and Life Long Learning show the highest number
of students choosing not to declare their ethnicity and this continues to reflect
the nature of the courses offered by this College. .
There has been very little variation between the percentages of white and
BME UK domiciled students gaining degree classes over the last six
reporting years.
International Student numbers continue to increase with 913 students
registering in Bangor for the 2006/2007 academic session.
The largest increase in International Students has come from the Far East.
The largest number of International Students are recruited by the College of
Business Social Sciences and Law, with the Business School accounting for
310 International Students.
3
Disability
Staff:
 The new HR software package coupled with a data cleansing exercise has
resulted in more accuracy in the reporting of the University’s staff profile.
 The new HR software package is being developed to include improved
reporting across sickness, staff progression and staff training and
development.
 Based on the HESA data for the last reporting period 2005/2006, those
employees choosing not to provide information regarding disability declare
is higher in Bangor University at 8%-13% compared with Wales and the UK
as a whole, (Wales 2%-3%, UK 8%-10%). However, it is anticipated that the
data cleaning exercise and the new HR software will encourage employee
data reporting.
 There has been very little change in the number and the percentages of
those choosing to declare a disability earning less than £19k or more than
£40k.
 Data is now available based on impairment type. Consideration will be
needed in forthcoming reporting periods regarding the use of this data.
 The disability and gender profile, the disability and full time / part time
employment and the disability permanent / temporary profile of the
University remains similar between reporting periods (Tables 7,8 and 9).
JE May 2008