Equality and Diversity Policy

Brasenose College is committed to fostering an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity, and maintains a working, learning, and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected.

Brasenose embraces diversity amongst the members of its community and seeks to achieve equity in the experience, progression, and achievement of all students, academic members, and support staff through the implementation of transparent policies, practices, and procedures, and the provision of effective support.

The College recognises that equality should be embedded in all its activities and will seek to promote awareness of equality and foster good practice. Brasenose is committed to a programme of action to support its equality policy, to monitor its effectiveness, and to publish information on progress towards its equality aims.

In exercising its policies, practices, procedures, and other functions, Brasenose College will have due regard to its duties under the Equality Act 2010 and to the protected characteristics specified within it, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities, contract type, and working hours. The characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010 are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status (in employment), pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, and sexual orientation.

In particular, Brasenose College will:

• Encourage applications for study and employment from the widest pool of potential candidates, especially where representation is disproportionately low;
• Take steps to meet the particular needs of individuals from protected groups where these are different from the needs of others;
• With respect to students, seek to attract applicants of the highest quality and potential, regardless of background. Decisions on the admission of students will be based solely on the individual merits of each candidate and the application of selection criteria appropriate to the course of study;
• With respect to staff, ensure that entry into employment and progression within employment are determined primarily by criteria which relate to the duties of a particular post and the relevant salary scale; and support career development and progression, where possible in a small organisation, to encourage diverse representation and participation at all levels.

Brasenose College expects all members of its community to treat each other with respect, courtesy, and consideration and does not tolerate any form of bullying or harassment. The College’s Policy and Procedure on Harassment Policy is available at:

https://staff.bnc.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Harassment_Policy_copy_copy-June-2016.pdf

This policy applies to all members of the Brasenose College community, including students, academic members, support staff, applicants, associate members, and visitors.

All members of the College community are expected to act in accordance with this policy and to treat colleagues with respect at all times.

All visitors to the College, including contractors, and people operating on behalf of the College, whether on College premises or elsewhere, have a responsibility to behave in accordance with the principles of this policy.

Our commitment. Brasenose College will:

• seek to embed equality in all its activities
• have regard to its obligations under relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty 2011
• publicise this policy, and any relevant codes of practice and guidance
• use an evidence-based approach where possible to inform its activities to increase equality and to measure the impact of any changes
• develop equality objectives and an action plan, and report on progress towards attaining those objectives
• monitor and publish anonymized equality data on its academic members, non-academic staff, students and applicants
• offer training to increase awareness of equality and diversity issues and requirements

Governing Body

The Governing Body sets Brasenose College’s strategic objectives for equality and diversity.

The Principal with the support of the Equality and Diversity Officer and the Governing Body will provide leadership on equality and diversity and oversee the development of equality policy frameworks and their application in the College, working with College committees the Equality and Diversity Committee, and relevant colleagues as appropriate.

College Officers and Heads of Departments are responsible for the day-to-day implementation of this policy and for supporting the delivery of Brasenose’s College strategic objectives for equality and diversity within the College constituency for which they are responsible. All managers are responsible for ensuring that equality is embedded in the work of their teams.

All academic staff should promote an inclusive research and learning environment to support and encourage all under-represented groups. Teaching content and resources should demonstrate sensitivity to equality and diversity issues.

All non-academic staff and students have a responsibility to observe this policy.

The Equality and Diversity Committee reports to the Governing Body and will advise on the development of strategy for work on equality and diversity, covering staff and students and embracing all protected groups. Membership and Terms of reference for the committee are set out in By Law IV.

Staff and students should approach their line manager, HR or Senior Tutor respectively in the first instance to resolve concerns informally. If this is unsuccessful, a formal grievance or complaint concerning a breach of this policy may be made to the College.

The procedures for dealing with concerns about breaches of the policy are set out below in:

https://staff.bnc.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Harassment_Policy_copy_copy-June-2016.pdf

The Governing Body will review this policy on a three-year cycle.