SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE. Tuesday 21 st February 2012 at hours Room 116, Russell Square AGENDA

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1 SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE Tuesday 21 st February 2012 at hours Room 116, Russell Square AGENDA *Items are formal business; if members wish to discuss any issues arising from these reports they must inform the Chair by noon on Monday 20 th February. I II Welcome and introductions Minutes To approve: the minutes of the meeting held on November 2011 [attached] III Matters arising The actions from last meeting are summarised in Appendix A with a comment on progress for each. [Appendix A] [ ] Minute 5: Draft Guidelines on Trans Equality [Appendix B] [ ] Minute 32: Maternity Leave for International Students [Appendix C] [ ] Minute 35: A report on the first 5 years of the National Student Survey [Appendix D] IV V [ ] Minute 6.1: Prof. Al Ali attended the Promotions Panel on behalf of EDC, she will report back. [ ] Minute 6.3 Academic Promotions The Diversity Advisor has collated some examples of good practice schemes which support women returning form Maternity Leave. [ ] Minute 6.4: Academic promotions - The HR Director will report back on progress to February 2012 EDC meeting from those members. Annual Staff Diversity Report 2012 (data from ) Executive Summary and full report Annual Equal Pay Report 2012 full report Executive Summary [Oral report] [Appendix E] [Oral report] [Appendix F1] [Appendix F2] [Appendix G1] [Appendix G2] VI Annual Student Diversity Report 2012 (data from ) Executive Summary and full report Tables [Appendix H1] [Appendix H2] [Appendix H3]

2 VII To consider: EDC s Spring term report to Academic Board and Resources and Planning Committee [Appendix J] VIII To consider: The new draft Equality & Diversity Sub-strategy [Appendix K] IX Human Resources Report To receive: an oral report from the HR Director [Oral report] X Diversity Report To receive: an oral report from the Diversity Advisor [Oral report] XI Date of next meeting: The date for the next meeting of the Equality & Diversity Committee is Tuesday 15 th May 2012 at hours in room 116 EDC Agenda

3 SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL & AFRICAN STUDIES EQUALITY and DIVERSITY COMMITTEE (EDC) Tuesday 21st February 2012 Room 116, College Buildings MINUTES Members: Professor Anne Pauwels (Chair) Professor Nadje Al-Ali* (UCU representative) Mr. Avanle Ali* (SU Black Students Officer) Mr. Donald Beaton* Dr. Mandy Bentham Dr. Hong Bo* Ms. Antonia Bright (Unison representative) Professor Stephen Chan* (Dean, Faculty of Law & Social Sciences) Ms. Patricia Crampton* (Birkbeck, External member) Ms. Zoë Davis Dr. Kai Easton Ms. Sian McGee (SU Women s Officer) Mr. Peter Mitchell Dr. Antonello Palumbo* Ms. Deb Viney (Executive Secretary) Mrs. Serena Yeo EDC minutes _chair approved In attendance: Miss Suzanne Green (Minute Secretary) Ms. Seema Sanyal (Human Resources Manager) Dr Chris Ince (Deputy Secretary) * Those people whose names are marked with an asterisk were unable to be present and their apologies were noted. 1. Welcome & Introductions The Chair opened the meeting and thanked the members for attending. A number of apologies were noted. The Chair introduced and welcomed Dr Chris Ince, the new Deputy Secretary. 2. Minutes The minutes of the meeting held on 25 th October 2011 were accepted as a true record with no amendments or corrections. 3. Matters arising The Actions from the last meeting [Appendix A] The committee noted Appendix A containing an update on the outstanding Actions from the last meeting, which were not covered by Agenda items. Page 1

4 The HR Director & the Diversity Advisor gave a brief update on Minute 31.i Analysis of the ethnicity & qualifications of staff applicants, they had met twice with some consultants from Birkbeck in November. A short report would be brought to the next meeting in Summer term. The draft guidelines on Trans Equality [Appendix B] The Diversity Advisor introduced this paper. She outlined the changes that had been made following consultation with the LGBQ students and pointed out the revisions to the wording, especially the footnote. The committee noted the contents. Maternity Leave for International Students [Appendix C] The Diversity Advisor outlined the background to this paper. The position from the UK Border Agency is very clear; if an International Student becomes pregnant during the course of her studies her study visa would not normally be extended. The Director of Academic Development suggested a change to the 1 st paragraph, to clarify one point of contact to wording such as in the first instance. The committee discussed whether the School or Union could lobby on the issue of maternity leave for International Students. It was suggested that lobbying could be done via the University of London or National Student Unions or possibly the UK Council for International Student Affairs, of which Paul Webley, Director of SOAS, is Chair of the board of Trustees. Action: The Diversity Advisor to discuss the issue with the Director. The Report on the first 5 years of the National Student Survey [Appendix D] The Diversity Advisor outlined the contents of the report. She advised that there were no specific cause for concerns. There had however, been more variable responses from EU and International students than from home (UK) students, suggesting the EU & International students have a more variable experience at SOAS. The Director of Academic Development advised that EU / International Students Nationally were dissatisfied with assessment feedback. She reported that the School had dropped out of the 1 st quartile for the first t time (down from 89 to 86%) Overall both EU and International Student response rates were low, with the National response rate being 51%. The school s overall response rate was 60%. The Diversity Advisor confirmed that she would provide a breakdown of the NSS results based on Age, Disability, Ethnicity & Gender and that each report will have an Executive Summary for the next meeting. The committee was asked to note that the school needed to improve its response rates for the various sub-groups and is actively seeking ideas on how this can be done. The 2012 National Student Survey is underway, and a response rate of 24% was recorded in the survey s third week, which is an improvement on last year. The full survey and its breakdowns will not be available until August / September. Page 2

5 Promotions Sub-Panel - oral update Professor Nadje Al-Ali was due to give an oral report on her attendance at the Promotions Sub-Panel. However, as Professor Al-Ali was absent from EDC this action was deferred. Academic Promotions - Minute 6.3. Post-maternity leave schemes [Appendix E] The Diversity Advisor reported that the information on the specialist post-maternity leave schemes had been received by submitting a query to one of the national lists. The HR Director reported that Scheme 3 was currently under review in its own institution. The 3 rd scheme in particular had been very successful at generating research income from STEM subjects, though it was noted that more research funding is available for these subjects. SOAS will need to decide whether it needs such a scheme and what form it should take. Academic Promotions. Minute 6.4 The HR Director reported on progress. The promotions sub-panel chaired by Professor Nirmala Rao had met once and the meeting was attended by Professor Al- Ali. At that meeting, it was agreed to revise the reference template in accordance with the suggestions of Professor Al-Ali and it was noted that the revised template would be in use from the next academic session. The HR Director reported that the sub-panel will meet once more and then its recommendations will go forward to the Promotions Panel and then to the HR Committee which meets in May. A statistical update report of aggregated data from will be provided for that meeting. It was noted that the Academic Performance Framework working group, chaired by Professor Graham Furniss, has met once. The intention is for the Framework being developed to indicate the outputs expected / required at specific career stages for academic staff and across academic disciplines. It was noted that a lot of progress had been made but that further work is required. 4. Annual Staff Diversity Report Executive Summary & full report [Appendices F1 & F2] The Human Resources Manager presented the papers. This was the 6 th full annual report on Staff Diversity. She highlighted that due to changes to the legislation, involving the removal of the statutory retirement age, retirement data had been dropped, but maternity information was now included in the report. For religion, belief and sexuality there was not currently sufficient data, but it was hoped to be able to include this information in next year s report. It was also noted that this year an Executive Summary had been provided for the first time. It was highlighted that there was little overall change since last year, mainly due to the substantial drop in staff turnover, down to 3.93% overall where 10% staff turnover is normally considered healthy. It is likely that the drop in staff turnover is due to the current economic climate. Page 3

6 The committee noted that there were two particular areas of concern: Drop in take up of training 23% (down from 34%) Drop in completion of SDR s (37% completion) It was noted that HR Committee will be discussing the drop in SDR completion rates at its meeting on 23 February. It was also noted that HOD s do not have authority to defer SDRs to every second year. The School regulations made it clear that it is normal practice for an SDR to be completed every year, with exceptions for maternity leave or sabbatical leave. A lengthy discussion ensued around whether training could be made compulsory. It was highlighted that if training were made mandatory, it would be difficult to manage those who did not wish to attend, and it would require additional resource to police non-attendance. It was noted that Recruitment & Selection training was already mandatory, but that some academic staff said they did not want to attend because they had been trained by their previous institution or they had considerable interviewing experience. The Human Resources Manager stated that support from HODS and Deans was required. The Director of Academic Development reminded the Committee that the Quality Assurance Agency asks HEIs how they can ensure that recruitment processes are carried out correctly. It was suggested that a positive approach, outlining the benefits of training on career direction might help. Another suggestion was that circulating an from the Director, encouraging staff to undertake training and explaining the benefits to the School might be an option. It was noted that the issue of SDR completion would be discussed at the HRC Committee. Action : The HR Director to report back to the next meeting on the SDR discussion at HR Committee. Action: The Director of Academic Development to look at the policy regarding training in the Institutional Action Plan and report back to EDC. 5. Annual Equal Pay Report 2012 full report & Executive Summary [Appendices G1 & G2] The Human Resources Manager presented the papers. This was the 3 rd annual equal pay audit. Overall the gender pay gap had decreased from 12.7% to 12.0%, which is lower than the national pay-gap (-20.3%). It was noted that this was a very positive trend. Each pay grade had also been analysed, which was felt to be helpful and was well received. It was also noted that grades for G10 Senior Management would be considered in future. 6. Annual Student Diversity Report 2012 Executive Summary & full report [Appendices H1, H2 & H3] The Diversity Advisor introduced this report. She highlighted that: Page 4

7 the SOAS age cohort was younger than the national average, with fewer mature students (even compared to other research-led institutions. students from BME backgrounds were much better represented than national average. the gender mix is stable at 60% Female and 40% Male. Even though SOAS met its benchmarks, there was under-recruitment of disabled students, especially at PG level, compared to the national average. an attainment gap [measured in terms of proportion of students attaining each award classification] between black and white students still exists. This is in keeping with the national picture and some additional analysis on the SOAS data last year confirmed that there was no difference (e.g. in prior qualifications) in these groups at entry to SOAS, so the effect occurs during students time at SOAS. The committee discussed whether there were sufficient resources in place to effectively support a potential increase to disabled student numbers. It was noted that students often disclose to the Disability Service but refuse to allow the information to go to Registry, so sometimes the official statistics under-report the population of disabled students at SOAS. It was reported that the new OFFA access agreement will be revised annually, so there is an opportunity to include some action points in the agreement. It was then agreed that the draft recommendations in the Executive Summary report would be re-written, particularly numbers 1 & 3. Action: The committee requested that the report should go to the Academic Development Committee drawing their attention to the ethnicity gap in attainment and requesting that they recommend to the School whatever actions are appropriate. Action: The Diversity Advisor to revise the recommendations within the Executive Summary for the May 2012 committee meeting. 7. EDC s Spring term report to Academic Board and Resources and Planning Committee [Appendix J] The committee noted the contents of this report. 8. The new draft Equality & Diversity Sub-Strategy [Appendix K] The report at Appendix K was introduced by the Deputy Secretary, who lead the Public Sector Equality Duty working group. He explained the context of the new substrategy and raised that, given that the SOAS vision was being changed to reflect new challenges, the sub-strategies would also need to change as the School s vision evolved. The contents of the new sub-strategy were approved. 9. Human Resources Report The committee received an oral report from the HR Director. It was reported that the HR Directorate had been extremely busy on a range of projects, with 64 objectives Page 5

8 featuring in their strategic plan for this year. It was noted that this had now been reprioritised and the objectives reduced to a more manageable (but still challenging) 35 objectives. The HR Director highlighted: The Pulse Survey - a condensed Staff Survey of 40 questions, run by Capita is due to be launched in late February. All staff would be encouraged to participate in it. The data from the survey would be capable of being benchmarked against the 2007 data. Key Performance indicators (KPI s) - If the current pilot of the Pulse Survey was successful this would be taken forward to Governing Body to endorse as the KPI for staffing matters. Payroll / Pension There was a consultation process underway to examine the proposed changes to the SAUL pension scheme, the consultation will close on the 9 th March. Discussions with the Trade Union and Executive Board had also been undertaken on this issue. School Promotions The current round of School Promotions was underway. Academic Performance Framework - see Minute 6.4 Grievances It was reported that there had been a spike in grievances over the Christmas period, which has impacted service delivery across HR and taken up considerable time with the Managers involved in these cases. 10. Diversity Report The Diversity Advisor reported that the Anti-Harassment contacts had been receiving training. Posters and publicity for the contacts would be going up around the School at Easter. 11. Date of next meeting The date of the next meeting is Tuesday 15 th May 2012 at 1.15pm in Room 116. Note: no restricted business was discussed at the meeting. Page 6