Good Practice Examples

The Careers and Student Employment Department (CaSE)
University of Westminster
CaSE is committed to embracing diversity and promoting equality and has developed a number of initiatives in this area.  For example, there is a dedicated diversity website called FuSION which gives advice to students from a number of backgrounds.  CaSE recognises that some students and graduates face potential barriers in their attempt to develop their careers.  These barriers take many forms including low confidence and lack of opportunities, but often centre around discrimination from employers on the basis of several factors, such as age, race, disability, criminal record, sexual orientation, gender identity and overseas status. CaSE is seeking to help students tackle this inequality.  The FuSION website has been designed to provide students with confidence-building, self-marketing and job-seeking strategies as well as information on other sources of support to help them develop their careers more effectively. CaSE also run a National Mentoring Scheme where home students of Black British, African, Caribbean and Asian descent are linked with professional managers or executives to gain support and experience.  It provides an excellent opportunity for students to: improve their personal and professional skills; learn about career opportunities in specific areas and develop employability skills and confidence.  A certificate is awarded to all participants on completion.
Contact: Fehmeeda Riaz
e: riazf@westminster.ac.uk

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Moving Back the Walls
Sheffield Hallam University
The WiTBE (Women in the Built Environment) project based at Sheffield Hallam University has been successful in attracting funding to help South Yorkshire-based employers beat the skills shortage in the construction, property and built environment sectors. Alongside other initiatives, the WiTBE team has run a free 3-day course for women, supported by distance learning, entitled “Moving back the walls”. This university-accredited course offers women currently employed in administrative or junior technical roles the opportunity to explore further career options in the construction, property and built environment sector.  The course is supported by the RICS and is closely tied with the new Home Inspector's initiative. “Moving back the walls” provides women with the opportunity to:

• develop a range of skills and explore options for further study;
• survey a real property and complete a defects and repairs report;
• participate in a design workshop and develop an understanding of building regulations and relevant legislation.

Contact: Denise Eaton
e: denise.eaton@shu.ac.uk

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WiTNET (Women in Technology Network)
University of Plymouth
In 2006, WiTNet was set up to support women students studying on engineering, computing and maths courses.  WiTNet is a student-led, staff-supported, peer network which offers one-to-one mentoring, social events and career development events.  All women students have automatic membership, regardless of their level of study, so WiTNet spans Foundation courses through to PhD.  A combination of face-to-face meetings and email is used to put women students in touch with others who may have already completed their studies and can share their experience of selecting modules, undertaking work placements, choosing an employer and so on, as well as the more personal or gender-based issues that they may wish to discuss with other women students.
Contact: Liz Hodgkinson
e: liz.hodgkinson@plymouth.ac.uk
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Supporting LGBT students (and staff)
Cardiff University
In 2006, the university established a sexual orientation working group and joined the  Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme to help identify the work that it needed to do to support LGBT staff and students. During the year, the university worked to: develop an action plan which included advertising a  'safe' space to be open about sexuality using the Stonewall logo; develop a mechanism to enable a choice for students in residences to be housed with other LGBT students; ensure wardens in residences are trained in equality and  diversity including dealing with homophobic incidents and making sure that students know about that; create an LGBT student handbook; develop and promote a public seminar series focussed on LGBT issues.
Contact:  Hannah Young
e: YoungH@cardiff.ac.uk

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Making your teaching inclusive 
The Open University
This web-based resource has been developed by the HEFCE-funded CARS (Creating Accessible Resources for Staff) project to support teaching staff in higher education institutions in England and Wales to understand the needs of disabled students and to encourage effective teaching and learning. The website provides practical advice about teaching inclusively and will also help staff meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.  It will provide an insight into what study is like for disabled students and what staff can do to make a difference. The website will show how to enhance the learning experience of your students; identify common barriers to learning and ways to find solutions; and identify different types of learning support, including assistive technologies and specialists. Staff  are encouraged to adopt an anticipatory and proactive approach, recognise and meet the learning needs of individuals and thus create a learning environment that is inclusive by design. There are also resources that can be used for staff development.
Weblink: www.open.ac.uk/inclusiveteaching
Contact: Penny Burgoine
E: P.Burgoine@open.ac.uk

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Supporting women students in Science and Engineering (WiSETI)
University of Cambridge
A Cambridge University Initiative for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) was established in March 1999, a development of the Secretary General's Women in Science Group set up in 1993, to consider strategies for increasing the representation of women in science in the University
Weblink: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/personnel/equality/wiseti/
Contact:  Felicity Cooke
e:  mfc32@admin.cam.ac.uk

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Premia Resource Base
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
The Premia Resource Base is home to a range of awareness and development materials for research supervisors, managers, administrators, examiners, research and generic skills trainers, disabled students and graduates, staff developers, non-disabled researchers, careers advisers and others. The aim of the materials is to make the research environment more accessible to disabled PGR students. They have been written by a team of project officers, academics and disabled research students. They have grown out of a HEFCE-funded disability project based at the University of Newcastle during which we carried out research to find out what the barriers and issues are for disabled postgraduate research students across the UK and the staff who work with them. What all the students confirmed is that their postgraduate research experience is very different from their lives as disabled undergraduates. There is information, guidance on maximising research opportunities for disabled students from pre-entry to completion, practical suggestions for removing barriers, best practice, exercises on making reasonable adjustments and anticipating requirements from admissions and selection, induction and supervision to the viva and beyond, all in the context of research activities and communities.
Weblink: www.premia.ac.uk
Contact: Pamela Graham
e: pamela.graham1@ncl.ac.uk

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Mentoring scheme for Black and Minority Ethnic Students
University of Northampton
The University has for many years participated in a national ethnic minority undergraduate mentoring scheme. This links students from ethnic minority backgrounds with professionals from the world of work who are also trained Mentors. Training and introductory events precede the start of the scheme in October/November each year. A minimum of monthly Mentor/Mentee (student) meetings are then expected to be held either at the mentor’s workplace, or another convenient location between November and May. Student and Mentor draw up an agreed Learning Contract setting out the objectives for the mentoring relationship, and how they can be achieved. Efforts are made to match students to mentors based on certain criteria, namely, career area/course studied and gender. The most important element is that student and mentor build a relationship which provides both parties with development opportunities, regardless of course studied and business sector. Students can benefit by learning about career areas which they had not thought of before.
Weblink: www.northampton.ac.uk/sections/aboutus/downloads/info_leaflet.doc
Contact:  Paul Crofts
e: paul.crofts@northampton.ac.uk

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Scholarship scheme for overseas students*
University of Westminster
In 2005-6, the Scholarships Department disbursed over £4 million in scholarships. Whilst £1.4 million is allocated to UK and EU undergraduates, most of the rest is targeted at international students from developing countries. In 2005-06, the university had 140 scholarship students from over 45 countries. Although there are specific criteria for awarding scholarships, and benefactors are also encouraged to input into the decision-making process, most scholarships are awarded on grounds of academic excellence, financial need and development. This latter criterion means that the student, usually an international student, must argue (and prove) that the subject they wish to study will bring necessary skills and knowledge to their community, country or region and they must commit to return home after the course is ended. Scholarships are available for a range of academic programmes from undergraduate to PhD and at different levels, from full scholarship including air travel, accommodation and subsistence, to fee waiver only.
Weblink: www.wmin.ac.uk/funding
Contact: Jhumar Vedi
e: J.Vedi01@westminster.ac.uk
*Winner of the Times Higher Education Supplement Award 2005 for Outstanding Support for Overseas Students

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Enhancing student employability (Impact)
University of Sheffield
“Impact” is an enhanced programme designed to boost employment skills and increase employment opportunities. As part of the Aim>Higher initiative, it works not only with Black British and other Minority Ethnic students, but also with mature and disabled students and those whose families have no previous experience of higher education. “Impact” participants can choose from or are guided towards, the following activities, many of which are employer-led: specialist advice and confidential one-to-one support on job-search strategies; workshops on job hunting skills such as CV/letter writing, competency based applications, interview techniques, aptitude test practice and preparation and assessment centres; a mentoring scheme where students are matched to an appropriate employer; mock Interviews; access to and assistance with obtaining work experience; work shadowing and  industrial/summer work placements; competency based workshops on skills such as team building, networking, presentations and negotiating; student support groups and personal development activities.
Contact:  Lynne Healy
e:  L.Healy@sheffield.ac.uk

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Equality Impact Assessment Toolkit
The Open University
The Equality Impact Assessment Toolkit was developed by the Equal Opportunities Office in collaboration with MSM Consultants Ltd in 2005 as part of the University’s commitment to supporting policy stewards in meeting their equality responsibilities.  In a large and distributed organisation, it was felt important to create a resource that would stand alone and not require extensive further reading to understand both the purpose and process of equality impact assessment.  The toolkit can be used for assessment of impact in relation to any aspect of equality (race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, etc).  In the spirit of sharing good practice and knowledge in this field, the Open University Equal Opportunities Office and MSM Consultants Ltd have agreed to publish this toolkit externally through the Open University website and other relevant equality websites. 
Weblink: www.open.ac.uk/equalopportunities/p6.shtml
Contact:  Alan O'Shea
e: A.F.Oshea@open.ac.uk

 

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Equality & Diversity/One-World Week
University of Northampton
Since 2004, the University of Northampton has organised an Equality & Diversity/One-World Week during October which aims to provide a specific focus for equality & diversity issues at the beginning of the new academic year. The week has a common programme under these two themes, and each event is organised by Schools and Departments across the university. The kinds of activity which take place include demonstrations of accessible technologies available to disabled students organised by Student Support Services; the Chaplaincy team have organised two lectures on "Hope for Africa" and "Faith in Development"; the Equality & Diversity Unit organised a guest lecture by Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality; and the School of Arts organised a poetry/musical evening featuring African Caribbean poetry.
Contact: Paul Crofts
e: paul.crofts@northampton.ac.uk

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Student Counselling Service*
Coventry University
Student Counsellors are very aware of the ways in which non-academic issues can seriously affect student’s learning experience, but how talking in confidence with a professionally trained counsellor can make a significant difference. The range of issues which students bring to counsellors include loneliness, depression, anxiety, panic, sexuality, eating disorders, bereavement, childhood sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress, assault, rape, and dependency on alcohol or drugs. In addition, counsellors  help with academic-related issues such as exam phobia, fear of speaking to a group and inability to concentrate. The counselling team also provide workshops for staff which help them be more effective in the support they can provide to their own students.  Amongst the staff development opportunities are sessions called 'Just Five Minutes' which provide strategies on how to support students when both staff and students are under pressure.  Sessions are also available on 'How to Survive as a Tutor' and 'Help - What Next?' which offer
advice on dealing with students who may be in distress.
Contact:  the student counselling service on: ss.counsell@coventry.ac.uk (02476 887323)
*Coventry University's Counselling Service has recently received Service Accreditation from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

 

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Please also see an earlier HEFCE-funded project which developed an online database of good practice examples relating to equality and diversity, with a focus on both students and staff – http://edihe.info

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