Embedding equality in student services

Our 2014 guidance Embedding equality in student services aims to help student services managers and staff to collect data effectively, recognise trends and patterns of student engagement and offers advice on how best to communicate the findings across your institution.

How to collect data effectively

Standardise your monitoring questions and the point at which they are asked, across all elements of student service provision. It will allow your institution to identify trends more broadly across student services, as well as to compare different services.
Your institution should have a central monitoring system that will allow student interactions with student services to be effectively monitored and linked to the central student record and protected characteristics.

Confidentiality of data and who has access to the full information will need to be carefully considered.

Find out how the University of Sheffield and Liverpool John Moores University have adapted their central monitoring systems in order to collect and analyse equality data.

Collect data effectively

Understand patterns of engagement

Benchmarking your institution’s data against the national picture as well as other institutions can be helpful in identifying issues for your institution to address.
If your institution has a large campus spread across different sites it may be useful to look at if there are any equality issues in the take-up of different services by campus, focusing on type of course and protected group.

The University of Essex and the University of Brighton share their examples of how to collect equality data from groups less likely to engage.

Understand Patterns of Engagement

When communicating your equality data, consider:

Routinely sharing the information with relevant staff, working groups and committees
Reporting on who is using the service, when, and the types of enquires they have made
Highlighting trends and patterns of engagement
Tailoring the information to individual faculties or departments, relevant working groups and committees

The University of Kent has re-launched a staff Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) network in order to maintain formal and informal lines of communication.

The University of Brighton has a student timeline that staff can access, which ensures that messages to different groups of students are refined and targeted at key points in the academic calendar.

Communicate and share key messages

Related Publications

Embedding equality in student services

Advance HE's guidance shares ideas that can assist student services managers and staff on how to collect, analyse and monitor equality data as well as communicate the findings across your institution

Equality in higher education: statistical report 2013

Equality in higher education: statistical report 2013 charts the equality challenges facing UK higher education.

Equality and diversity for academics

Fact sheets for academics explaining their role in promoting equality and diversity.

Effective equality surveys

Exploring the staff and student experience in higher education institutions.

Case studies

Collecting equality data from groups less likely to engage

Effective data collection across a university

Communicating equality data