Public Sector Equality Duty – 2026 Report

At the heart of our College is academic excellence. We are also a caring and inclusive community and the two features go hand in hand. Diversity has for long been central to our values and heritage. For example, Brasenose has in recent years offered an international fellowship. Such fellows as Nicholas Kurti and Sir Otto Kahn Freund who came as refugees enormously enriched and enhanced our reputation.

Today we make provision for students or academics at risk or stateless, for example from Syria or Ukraine.

To maintain its success and enhance its achievements, Brasenose depends upon the excellence and diversity of its staff and students. Equality of opportunity is applied to the processes of selection and retention of staff and students.

Our aim is to treat all with respect and fairness to promote an inclusive institutional culture that recognises the benefits of a diverse learning community for students and staff alike.

As a discrimination lawyer, I have been involved in several of the leading cases on the public sector equality duty. I have also sat as a judge in some of the cases. It therefore gives me great pleasure to write this introduction for what is a very important document. As a College we are subject to the Equality Act 2010 as an education provider, employer and provider of goods, facilities and services.

I hope you will all take time to read the scheme carefully. It is important that everyone plays their part in this endeavour.

If you have any questions please direct them to Kirsten Morgan, HR Director: hr@bnc.ox.ac.uk

1. Background to the Single Equality Duty and College Responsibilities

This document sets out the College’s statutory responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty and covers the various elements of the Equality Act 2010. These include consideration of the nine protected characteristics defined in the Act: age, disability, gender re-assignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. In addition, the Act covers marriage and civil partnerships with due regard specifically required to avoid unlawful discrimination in employment.

The aims of the general duty of the Equality Act 2010 underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and Brasenose aims to meet these, namely to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment (including third part and sexual harassment), victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Foster good relations between people from different protected groups, including tackling prejudice and promoting understanding.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people from different protected groups, including:
• removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics;
• meeting the needs of people with protected characteristics;
• encouraging people with protected characteristics to participate in areas where their representation is low.

Responsibility

The responsibility for consideration of equal opportunity matters currently rests with the Equality and Diversity Committee which meets once a term, and in turn reports to Governing Body which has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the general equality duty is met.

Representation on the E&D Committee is from members of the College community:

• Chair: The Equality and Diversity Fellow, who is also a member of Governing Body.
• Members: The Principal, the Senior Tutor, the Chaplain, the Dean, the Tutor for Graduates, two Tutorial Fellows, the Human Resources Director and the JCR and HCR Presidents and the student E&D Representatives. External advisers are also invited to share their expertise.

The E&D Committee is responsible for the promotion, development, implementation, monitoring and review of the Public Sector Equality Duty in relation to employees, students, visitors and others closely associated with the College. All staff with managerial responsibility have a duty to ensure they undertake to make themselves aware of the requirements and to take forward specific actions under this Scheme.

2. Progress on integrating equality and diversity into College procedures

Reporting

The College produces this report each year and reviews and updates its PSED Action Plan. The Specific Aims of the Action Plan are to ensure that all employees who have managerial responsibilities receive equality awareness training, and to enhance the College’s analysis and review of equality data on employees to identify which areas may need further investigation or action.

The Report and Action Plan are both published on the College’s website, in accordance with the reporting requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Actions

Training

A wide range of training in different formats has been provided on equality, diversity and harassment awareness each year, including for Officers of the College. In 2023 there was an emphasis on managing diversity within teams, including specialist training sessions on mental health awareness, supporting neurodiversity in our community and working with people affected by trauma. From2024 to the current day the emphasis is on meeting the requirements of new legislation, with a focus on prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace including from third parties.

All new employees must complete an online course in Equality and Diversity and on sexual harassment awareness annually. Professional and Support staff complete this via our online training platform, iHasco (and is a requirement for successful completion of probation) and annual renewals are automatically triggered.  Academic staff must complete the online University training ‘Harassment in Higher Education’.

From Trinity Term 2026, all academic staff are sent a communication each term to advise of the requirement to complete the university harassment training on an annual basis.

Those academic staff involved in student admissions are also requested to complete the following:

• Undergraduate admissions at Oxford – initial training course topics include accountability and fair admissions, student profile, use of new contextual data and flagging, minimising the impact of bias, selection criteria and shortlisting, admissions interviewing, team working and decision making, and an optional module on remote interviewing. All those involved in student admissions must complete the initial training, and must also complete the refresher training once every five year.
• Undergraduate admissions – contextual data training. This training has been developed to help tutors understand how the University uses contextual data. The course topics include policy changes on contextual data, the use of new contextual measures in the admissions process, introduction to the composite score, bands of disadvantage, course percentile rank, and changes on UCAS forms and data visibility on the online admissions database.

Communications have been sent to the whole organisation inviting individuals to attend EDI training provided by MPLS Division.

Delivery of training for academic staff and process improvements in recruitment to ensure fairness were agreed by Governing Body in summer 2018 following a comprehensive report by the then Chair of Equality Working Group. Training for Fellows and other academic staff was provided in January 2019, with further guidance in the published University APTF recruitment process guide. Training for academic staff on mental health issues amongst students was also provided in-house together with a range of training offered by MPLS, including neurodivergence.

New students continue to be provided with training on consent and diversity and in 2025 Brasenose College utilised the University EDI Induction training available which had excellent feedback and is booked again for 2026.

Governance/Committees

The E&D Committee is Chaired by Dr Anne Edwards, the Equality and Diversity Fellow, who is also a member of HR Committee, Welfare Committee and Governing Body. She has an awareness of diversity issues, and involvement in student welfare cases across the College and the University, including Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Training.

Student representatives attend the Equality and Diversity committee to represent the Junior Common Room (JCR for under-graduates) and Hulme Common Room (HCR for post-graduates) sharing best practice and raising issues. The Presidents are present as well as Equality and Diversity student representatives.

Awareness of diversity issues also continued to be raised at the Staff Consultative Committee, for example to consult on and raise awareness of fairness of treatment and benefits and in policy development. Staff suggestions are sought and reviewed termly.

The HR Director, Senior Tutor and Chaplain (amongst others) attend the University-wide EDI Conference of Colleges forum, Joint Committee for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JCEDI), where they contribute and garner knowledge from the associated University groups.

Policies

Policies are kept under review by HR Committee and Governing Body. The revised Flexible Working policy recognising day one rights was adopted in 2024, and other recent policies include the revision in 2022 of the Academic Staff-Student Relationship policy in early 2023, and in 2025/6, the Harassment policy to include prevention of Sexual Harassment, Bullying and Victimisation. Other policies are due for review in line with statutory changes and the new Employment Rights Act (2025).

The College has supported early career academic staff (e.g. provision of sabbatical leave) and moved away from fixed-term contracts to permanent contracts wherever possible.

The Flexible Working policy, first introduced in 2011, continues to be applied widely with creative solutions which now include arrangements for hybrid working. Other examples include compressed hours, term-time working, job share and part-time hours to accommodate childcare and other caring needs and disability (physical and mental health conditions). Part-time work represents over 30% of non-academic employment arrangements and previous estimates suggest around 50% of staff have some form of flexible working arrangement. This can include condensed hours, part time work, working hour variations and working from home. Some are more formal agreements whilst others are general flexible practice.

With the introduction of the Employment Rights Act 2025, there are many policies under review. Whilst we apply the new legislation, we are also taking the opportunity to review best practice. A menopause and general wellbeing strategy is in progress and will be put to E&D and HR committees in Trinity Term 2026.

Support — a range of examples include:

• Surveys: A survey on racism targeted specifically for BAME support staff in December 2020 showed some reports of racism. The results indicated that staff understood how to report racism and trusted the College to take action. Since then, in 2022 College acted swiftly where an allegation of racism was made, taking actions including dismissal and providing support for staff. This sent a strong signal that this behaviour would not be tolerated. Feedback from staff on inclusion, diversity, culture and values at Brasenose was also gained as part of an engagement project in 2024 with discussion in small departmental groups.
• Questions on Equality and Diversity will be included in the 2026 organisation wide staff survey in Trinity Term. Results and any subsequent actions will be reported on to the relevant committees.
• Applications for statutory family/care leave are approved annually for Brasenose staff (unpaid time off for caring responsibilities). Increasing numbers of staff take up this option each year.
• Translation services e.g. of policies, letters and instructions for support staff (to help with inclusion). The College’s online training platform can deliver in 40 languages.
• Agreement to extend research fellowships to compensate for absence caused by maternity to ensure an equal length of time is offered to Junior Research Fellows.
• Implementation of an age-related flexible retirement arrangement, with adjustments made to the role and working hours. Other adjustments for age, disability or caring responsibilities have been made including part-time work, hybrid working, flexibility with hours and job- sharing arrangements.
• Advice has been obtained from Occupational Health on suitable reasonable adjustments and phased return to work for disabilities and health conditions (including protected characteristics). Specialist support and advice received from organisations such as Dyslexia Action, the University Disability Unit and Access to Work e.g. for equipment and access workers. Other measures include reduced hours and reallocation of duties and time-off for hospital appointments.
• Upgrading graduate and undergraduate rooms to BS8300 and Approved Building Regs Document M standard following access audit. Current building works include full consideration of disability and access concerns and is an area kept under review. Recent works in Frewin included improved accessibility to the ground floor of the Hall, including to the new study spaces, and improved access to the site.
• Continued use of a part-time College Counsellor available in College to provide student counselling and to signpost other available support.
• Provision of Employee Assistance provider to support wellbeing and mental health. Student Welfare support has increased significantly for undergraduates and postgraduates to take account of disabilities such as extra time granted for students in exams; the development of facilities to better enable wheelchair access for staff, students and visitors.
• Agreements to accommodate a welfare animal e.g. assistance dog or cat to help with anxiety or other conditions.

Recruitment

• Introduction of a new recruitment system in 2024 (Pinpoint) for Professional and Support Staff vacancies is easier to use and has resulted in higher number of applicants as it removes some barriers to entry.
• Equality issues are considered at all stages of the recruitment process. Through Pinpoint, we have the ability to anonymise candidates’ applications. Access requirements are taken into consideration and assistance offered to all interview candidates.
• The College has doubled the number of staff in non-academic posts from BAME backgrounds between 2018 and 2026. The Professional and Support staff now better reflect the diverse population of Oxford city.
• Use of wider methods for reaching under-represented groups e.g. local networks and social media to encourage applications from ethic groups.
• Casual roles are advertised for fair selection purposes and to attract a more diverse pool of staff. Applicants for posts are interviewed following fair selection principles to ensure appointment against selection criteria, rather than just through informal or local networks to avoid nepotism.

Data Collection

The collection of data and monitoring of the diversity of applicants for vacancies started in 2012, but remains incomplete because data is provided on a voluntary basis from candidates and new appointees. Better data has been gathered on Professional and Support staff but is harder to access for academic staff. The University surveys staff for diversity data biannually and Brasenose gathers data every few years.

A recent review of Equality and Diversity (E&D) monitoring data was completed in 2025/6. We are now implementing changes to ensure that all candidates and employees are asked consistent questions across all recruitment and onboarding platforms, which will enhance data accuracy and integrity and so improve our equality reporting and subsequent action planning.

Student data is gathered and analysed in depth to ensure compliance with College and University stated aims.

E&D Events/Initiatives

• A budget is available to support diversity related initiatives, such as the annual Brasenose Equality Conversation, Principal’s Conversations and multi-faith events.
• A series of events in 2024 and 2025 to mark the 50th anniversary of the admission of women as undergraduates have been scheduled, for example celebrating Women in Brasenose in STEM subjects. The anniversary will also be marked by an inscription on the College threshold
• Celebration of festivals or special weeks has been encouraged whether run by student bodies or the College.

3. Equal Opportunities Monitoring in Recruitment

The on-going monitoring of equal opportunities data to ensure the College fulfils its remit to treat all Academic members and Professional and Support Staff equally within employment is important to inform policy decisions. The introduction of the recruitment portal Pinpoint, with a purpose-built data gathering page has helped to gather statistical data from the various recruitment stages. Data from joint appointments where the University is lead employer is not available. Continued improvement in this area is to be maintained e.g. through new processes and systems.

Monitoring of student diversity data is undertaken by the University of Oxford on behalf of the College and is the subject of analysis and review by the Senior Tutor and Academic Committee for consideration of any further action to be taken. This data is available from the University Equality Unit.