Equality and Diversity at the University of Stirling

The University of Stirling aims to integrate the promotion of equality and diversity into all its activities from key decisions on its mission and strategic objectives through to day-to-day operations. It does not tolerate harassment, victimisation or unjustified discrimination on the grounds of gender, race/ethnic origin, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital or civil partnership status, caring responsibility or other irrelevant characteristics, and is committed to working with diversity in a wholly positive way to promote fairness, inclusiveness, and good relations.

All staff and students (whether existing or potential) and visitors to the University's campuses should receive fair treatment whatever their relationship with the University.

The University is committed to paying due regard to equality in all its policies, functions and decisions. The equality impact of our policies is assessed. The University seeks the views of members of its community and liaises with external bodies, representative groups and users when developing and reviewing policies. All individuals and organisations with which the University has a contractual arrangement are expected to accept the principles of equality and inclusion, and not to be party to situations which could lead to unfair discrimination.

If you have any views on the University's equality and diversity work, or if you have an equality issue that you want to raise, please let us know by providing feedback. You can do this either by posting a comment in the comments box, or by emailing equality@stir.ac.uk

What's new?

Student anti-bullying and harassment policy approved

April 2012

At its meeting on 14th March, the Academic Council endorsed a new anti-bullying and harassment policy for students. The policy sets out what constitutes bullying and harassment - either of or by students - and explains the procedures that should be followed to report and tackle incidents of bullying or harrassment.

The policy can be downloaded by clicking here.

The University has a separate anti-bullying and harassment policy for staff. For more information, please visit the staff anti-bullying and harassment page.

New Scottish equality duties announced

9 March 2012

The Scottish Government has announced revised draft regulations for the public sector equality duty. These are available on the Scottish Government's website, along with a summary of the changes to the regulations originally proposed in September 2011 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/03/4239

In summary, the regulations will introduce new requirements upon Scottish public bodies to assist their fulfilment of the general equality duties brought in under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. The timescales for publishing equality outcomes and the first report into mainstreaming equality have been pushed back to 30April 2013 (from the original date of December 2012), in recognition of the delay to these regulations.

The regulations will be laid before Parliament later this month and should come into force from May 2012.

For information on how the University plans to respond to these duties, please email equality@stir.ac.uk

New equality and diversity policy approved

12 December 2011

University Court today approved a new equality and diversity policy. This replaces the old policy and Diversity and Equal Opportunities Statement. The policy was developed with input from a wide range of staff, including the Heads of Schools and Service Directors, and was overseen by the University Diversity and Equality Group. A draft version of the policy was published for consultation on the University staff and student portals during October.

The policy has been fundamentally updated to reflect the requirements and terminology of the Equality Act 2010. This version of the policy should replace all old versions.

The new policy can be downloaded by clicking here.

Public sector equality duty comes into force

5th April 2011

The new public sector equality duty came into force today. The duty replaces the previous equality duties for race, gender and disability, and it applies to all public bodies, including universities and colleges.

The duty was one of the key provisions of the new Equality Act 2010 which came into force in October 2010. It places a general duty on public authorities (including universities), when exercising their functions, to 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

For the purposes of the duty, there are eight protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.) From today, the University must pay due regard to the duty as it relates to these eight charateristics when carrying out all its functions.

From 5 April, the University will no longer be subject to any specific duties underpinning the general duty. The specific duties for Scotland were withdrawn for redrafting by the Scottish Government in March. The Scottish Government will undertake further consultation and will make regulations to impose new specific duties later in the year. This will take place after the election to be held on 5 May 2011. In the interim, the Scottish Government and the EHRC have advised public bodies to continue to embed equality into their work by building on their current systems and good practice while extending their consideration to encompass all of the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission will publish more detailed guidance in due course. The Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) will also produce a briefing on what the public sector equality duty means for Scotland when the new regulations are passed.

Statutory codes of practice

The EHRC codes of practice on employment, services and equal pay reflecting the Equality Act 2010 as commenced on 1 October 2010, come into force on 6 April 2011. The codes will replace five existing codes issued by the predecessor bodies to the EHRC. The three new codes are available on the EHRC website: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/legal-and-policy/equality-act/equality-act-codes-of-practice/

The Code of Practice on Further and Higher Education is due to be laid before Parliament in Summer 2011. The Code of Practice for the Public Sector Equality Duty is in the drafting phase and is due to be laid before Parliament in Summer 2011.

For further information on the new general duty and what it means for the University and its staff and students, please visit the EHRC website http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/legal-and-policy/equality-act or email equality@stir.ac.uk

Equality and Diversity