University of Northampton Student’s Union

1. University of NorthamptonStudent’s Union Equality & diversity workshop

2. Objectives • Key parts of the Equality Act 2010 • Who does the act affect? • What is discrimination? • What is harassment? • What is the law for clubs and societies

3. Quiz time Exactly like a pub quiz….except for no drinks and no prize!

4. Protected characteristics There are nine characteristics that are protected by law. These are sometimes called the equality groups. How many can you name? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

5. Protected characteristics There are nine characteristics that are protected by law. These are sometimes called the equality groups. How many can you name? • age; • disability; • gender reassignment; • marriage and civil partnership; • pregnancy and maternity; • race; • religion or belief; • sex; • sexual orientation.

6. Out of 14035 students… • How many are aged over 50 years? 560 • How many are aged 19 years or less? 2953 • How many are female? 9038 • How many are male? 4997 Based on 2012/13 enrolments

7. National diversity How many different nationalities are represented among our students? • A - 100? It’s 100 • B - 60? • C - 40?

8. Disability definition You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

9. How many students have declared they have a disability? 1246 • Which of the following would be included in the Equality Act definition of disability? Tick  your choices. Answer - possibly all of them, depending if they have a substantial and long term impact on someone’s daily activities

10. Discrimination is about treating people differently These four types of discrimination are against the law. What else do you know about these types of discrimination? • Direct discrimination? Clear and open treating people differently such as: no children allowed • Indirect discrimination? A rule or policy that means a group of people are treated differently such as: only accepting UK qualifications • Discrimination by association? Treating someone differently because they are associated with someone from a protected group such as: your friend is gay so I don’t like you • Perception discrimination? Treating someone differently because they are perceived to be from a group, such as: I think you’re a Muslim so I don’t like you, even though you are not a Muslim

11. What is harassment? Harassment is “unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual”. Can you think of four different types of behaviour that might be harassment? 1. Name calling 2. touching 3. ignoring 4. gossiping

12. Clubs and societies Must not discriminate against members or guests because of a protected characteristic. • Can restrict your membership to people who share a characteristic e.g: a deaf students club • But can’t discriminate because of other protected characteristics e.g: A men’s rugby club can refuse women who apply to join but it cannot reject men because of their race or their sexual orientation.

13. Clubs and societies • OK to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ and remove barriers for disabled people • Think about publicity material, membership rules, access, activities, welcoming environment.

14. Equality at the University • Fair admissions and recruitment of students • Inclusive learning and teaching - providing support, adjustments and inclusive learning materials • Remove barriers for students • Promote good relations

15. Case studies Equality case studies 1. Su is a student at Anywhere University. She is 21 and originally comes from China but she has been living in the UK for 6 years. Su’s best friend is Nick who is a member of the student rugby club. The rugby club have a cup final which is being held in London and the team and some supporters are travelling together to the big game. Nick has invited Su to come along on the coach to support him and the team. The club chairman has told Su she is welcome to come to the match but can’t travel on the coach because they’ve decided it’s going to be a ‘lads only’ road trip and they don’t want any women along. What protected characteristics cover Su? Has discrimination occurred, and if so, what type? What should Su do? 2. The Business Students’ Club at Anywhere University are holding a social event for all the new business students to meet each other. The weather is still very nice so they’ve decided to have an outdoor party with a Hog Roast. What are the potential equality issues here? What should the club do? 3. Georges is a psychology student, he is French but has good English language skills. He’s really struggling with his course because of the maths that is involved. The other students are all from the UK and have studied the UK maths curriculum, but Georges went to school in France and although he studied maths and did well, there are parts of the UK maths curriculum that they don’t cover in France. His psychology lecturer has assumed that everyone knows the same maths and has skipped some parts of the course because he thinks everyone is familiar. Georges has spoken to his lecturer who said he was sorry but there was no time to back over the maths and he’d just have to try and keep up. What protected characteristics cover Georges? Has discrimination occurred, and if so, what type? What should Georges do?