April 2004/14
Good practice
Guidance for managers

This report is for information and guidance

Equality and diversity monitoring in higher education institutions

A guide to good practice

This is a good practice guide for higher education institutions about monitoring for equality and diversity. It offers various approaches to data collection, data analysis and target setting with the aim of maximising the volume and quality of data returns within institutions.

Contents, foreword and executive summary (read on-line)

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Contents

• Foreword
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Background
• Scope of the guidance
• Rationale for monitoring of equality and diversity
• Legal context
• Using this guide
• Data and monitoring
• Data collection
• How to collect the data
• Data sources
• Monitoring disability, sexual orientation and religion
• Equality targets and benchmarks
• Setting and monitoring equality targets and objectives
• Comparative data
• Annex A    Sources of HESA staff and student data
• Annex B    Sources of UCAS data
• List of abbreviations

Links and further information can be found on the Equality Challenge Unit’s web-site – www.ecu.ac.uk – where a section has been dedicated to the support of this publication.

Foreword

All public bodies in England, Wales and Scotland, including HEFCE and further and higher education institutions, are in the process of addressing the general and specific duties outlined in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, and have started addressing the 2003 Employment Equality legislation. It was these new and challenging requirements which led us to commissioning this good practice guide.

We recognise that the key to improving equality and diversity in every aspect of higher education life – be it learning and teaching, student access, employment or training – is effective monitoring for equality and diversity. We also recognise that the legislative responsibilities are increasing for employers and providers of education, and our wish is to support the sector to meet those duties.

The key message we would like leaders and equality champions to remember from this guidance is that mainstreaming equality and diversity values into all activities of institutions is critical to the success of each individual initiative. However the guidance is a toolkit for equality practitioners, and while it focuses on the complex area of monitoring, it also covers other areas of implementation such as target setting. Further guidance is planned on issues such as conducting equality impact assessments and action planning.

Without leadership and mainstreaming, monitoring cannot be fully effective. It is the responsibility of the governors, leaders and managers to ensure this is happening throughout the institution. Some excellent case studies are included in this guidance to demonstrate how particular institutions have approached this and other issues.

We have worked closely with the Higher Education Consulting Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Equality Challenge Unit and an expert task group drawn from the HE sector to prepare this guidance, and we are extremely grateful for their help, guidance and expertise. It has enabled us to identify a wide range of case studies and resources from across the sector. We are also grateful to the higher education institutions who provided information about their monitoring initiatives. By doing so they have enriched this guide with real experiences and allowed us the opportunity to share and celebrate their good practice.

Sir Howard Newby
Chief Executive
Higher Education Funding Council for England

Executive summary

Purpose

1.    This document provides good practice guidance to higher education institutions about monitoring for equality and diversity. It offers various approaches to data collection, data analysis and target setting with the aim of maximising the volume and quality of data returns within institutions.

Key points

2.    All public bodies in England, Wales and Scotland, including HEFCE and further and higher education institutions, are in the process of addressing the general and specific duties outlined in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, and have started addressing the 2003 Employment Equality legislation. These new and challenging requirements led us to commission this good practice guide.

3.    The guidance covers a wide range of equal opportunities areas, including race, sex, disability, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. It gives information about the legal requirements in each of these areas as well as the requirements placed on higher education institutions by the higher education funding councils and other organisations such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service and the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

4.    The guidance focuses on data collection, but also includes advice and information on:

• equality targets and objectives
• comparative data
• benchmarking
• improving the implementation of equality and diversity.

5.    This guidance is not prescriptive and includes case studies from different types of institution in order to demonstrate the various ways in which institutions are conducting equal opportunities monitoring.

Action required

6.    This document is for information and guidance.