The College welcomes diversity amongst its students, staff and visitors, recognising the particular contributions to the achievement of the College's mission that can be made by individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

The policy and practice of Wadham College requires that all staff are offered equal opportunities within employment and that entry into employment with the College and progression within employment will be determined only by personal merit and the application of criteria which are related to the duties of each particular post and the relevant salary structure. In all cases, ability to perform the job will be the primary criterion. Subject to statutory provisions, no applicant or member of staff will be treated less favourably than another because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

In relation to students the College aims to provide education of excellent quality at undergraduate and graduate level for intellectually able students, whatever their background. In pursuit of this aim, the College is committed to using its best endeavours to ensure that all of its activities are governed by principles of equality of opportunity, and that all students are helped to achieve their full academic potential. This statement applies to recruitment and admissions, to the coverage of the curriculum, to teaching and assessment of progress, to welfare and support services, and to staff development and training.

The College is subject to the public sector equality duty, which is intended to promote equality for all. The College will publish sufficient information to demonstrate its compliance with the public sector equality duty in line with the timescales set out in legislation. In particular it will publish information where appropriate on:

• Staff and students who share a protected characteristic¹
• The intended impact of the College’s equality policies and practices
• The College’s equality objectives
• Details of engagement undertaken to meet the three specific equality duties

The Equality Act 2010 introduced the concept of the Public Sector Equality Duty which came into force in April 2011. The equality duty covers all the protected characteristics identified in the Equality Act with the exception of marriage and civil partnership.

Under the duty, the College must have due regard to the need to:

1. Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act;
2. Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; and
3. Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Having "due regard" means consciously considering the three aims listed above as part of its decisionmaking processes and when it is reviewing or developing policies.

Due regard for "advancing equality" involves removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics; taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people; and encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

"Fostering good relations" involves tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

The legislation allows for the more favourable treatment of some people, but only where the more favourite treatment can be objectively justified as a proportionate means of fulfilling the public sector equality duty.

Wadham College is committed to fulfilling the Public Sector Equality Duty. We already have in place a number of procedures to ensure compliance, including:

• Receiving monitoring data for analysis by Equality Committee;
• Operating a complaints procedure for staff or students with a grievance about unfair or unequal treatment;
• Offering training to students, especially during Freshers’ Week, and to staff at different points in the academic year on equality matters;
• Reviewing the make-up of College staff by considering data from recruitment monitoring forms; and
• Empowering Equality Committee to ask other committees and working groups to consider specific points that come under their remits, which have impacts on equality across the College. This ensures that all of the College’s committees properly undertake their obligation to monitor and assess the impact that their decisions have on equality.
  

To further enhance our work in this area, the College is committed to:

• Reviewing our Equality Impact Assessment tools and procedures;
• Developing measurable equality objectives, to be published by April 2012; and
• Annually reviewing the information we publish in relation to our compliance with the equality duty.

1. The Governing Body is responsible for securing compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty. The Governing Body is also responsible for securing compliance with all legislation underlying these policies and schemes, and for the production, approval, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of their associated action plans.
2. The Warden is responsible for providing leadership in the promotion and implementation of all aspects of the College’s equality policies.
3. The College's Equality Committee is responsible to the Governing Body for the development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, prioritisation and review of all aspects of the College’s equality policies.
4. All College Committees are responsible for ensuring that the College’s equality policies are embedded in their duties and functions in relation to both students and staff.
5. All employees with managerial responsibility have a duty to take forward specific actions under the College’s equality policies, in addition to the general and specific duties under the Act.
6. All staff and students within the College have a duty to comply with its equality policies.

Sir Neil Chalmers
Warden
Wadham College
January 2012

¹ All students of the College are also members of the University of Oxford. The College does not routinely collect information from its students relating to any of the protected characteristics. Data on the student population of the University of Oxford is available from www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/