Equality Policy
1. The College is committed to the promotion of equality of opportunity in all aspects of its activity and seeks through its conduct and policies to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a legally protected characteristic (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation) and those who do not. It also seeks to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.
2. The College’s approach towards ensuring equality of opportunity is to meet the law’s requirements to fulfil its general and specific equality duties through the adoption of appropriate policies and procedures and the setting and pursuit of appropriate specific objectives to promote and advance equality, both in relation to access to the College facilities and its election or employment of Fellows and staff. It also has a wider and deeper commitment: to be an institution in which knowledge and learning are pursued in a spirit of collaboration and full mutual respect in a humane and fair environment and in which there is genuine equality of opportunity in relation to its employed staff.
3. The College actively seeks to remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics and, where appropriate, to encourage their candidature for Fellowships and staff appointments, meet any special needs they may have, and ensure there is no intentional or unintentional bias in the evaluation of applications and, if elected or appointed, in their treatment as employees. However, in decisions on election to its Fellowship, it has regard only to scholarly ability and to any other criteria its Statutes declare to be relevant to the particular category of Fellowship and in considering applications for staff appointments the College has regard solely to the individual merits of applicants.
4. The College is committed to promoting awareness and understanding through appropriate training and communication of equality issues amongst the Fellowship and its staff. Its terms of employment also forbid all forms of harassment and victimisation and make specific provision for receiving complaints and for following them up either by conciliation and other informal means or, where appropriate, by disciplinary proceedings.
5. The duties of the Domestic Bursar and Academic Administrator, in conjunction with the Academic Secretary and relevant committees, include:
- to assess the impact of all the College’s policies and procedures on Fellows and staff and, where applicable, other members of the University or public visiting the College;
- to lead on the development of the College’s equality policy and objectives and to review critically all College policies and procedures in respect of them;
- to monitor (by reference to certain relevant protected characteristics, race and gender) in so far as it is practicable without compromising the individual’s right to privacy in a small organisation, the election of Fellows, the appointment of Visiting Fellows, and the recruitment and career progress of staff; and
- to report annually on these matters to the General Purposes Committee, which in so far as is compatible with the College’s data protection obligations, will report on these matters to the Governing Body.
6. This Equality Policy is published on the College’s website and intranet. A copy is also available from the Bursary and incorporated in the Employee Handbook. Publishable equality data on the College’s website will be updated annually.
[Adopted by College Stated General Meeting 9/3/2013]