Attracting diversity: Identifying underrepresented groups
The context for this project is the legal duty placed on higher education institutions and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to mainstream equality across all their work. It combines that with the requirement to widen access to students from low socio-economic backgrounds which forms part of the outcome agreements between SFC and Scottish universities. It is strongly related to policy in relation to the Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act as well as the Equalities Act 2010.
Project aim
The main aim of the project is to analyse the intersection between SIMD and the protected characteristics at the national (Scottish) level and to develop an institutional benchmarking tool for Scottish HEIs. It consists of two stages; Stage 1 involves an analysis of the most recent HESA data on first-year undergraduate students at Scottish HEIs; the second stage, drawing on the HESA analysis, is the development of the toolkit.
| Start date | 1st Feb 2015 |
| End date | 31st Jul 2015 |
Funder
The Equality Challenge Unit (ECU)
Project Team
Publications
Special issue in Scottish Educational Review (2016) 48:1
- Minty, S. (2016). Getting into higher education: Young people's views of fairness, 48:1, pp. 48-62.
- Weedon, E. (2016). Widening access to higher education for disabled students: the intersection of socio-economic background and impairment, 48:1, pp. 63-88.
Event
Presentations
- Conference proceeding by Sheila Riddell to the CNUDD conference, University of Turin, Italy - The inclusion of disabled students in higher education in Europe: Progress and challenges (12-15.05.2016)
- Presentation by Sheila Riddell to the CNUDD conference, University of Turin, Italy - Academic policies supporting the right of education and social inclusion (legislative issues and practices, career development, job placement) (13.05.2016)
- Presentation by Elisabet Weedon to Lead Scotland's conference, Queen Margaret University, Scotland (11.06.2015)