Equality and Diversity

Equality and Diversity statement

Royal Holloway, University of London is proud to continue its tradition of providing excellent education on the basis of merit. We commit to valuing diversity and promoting equality of opportunity for all in employment, admissions and in our teaching, learning and research activities.

The College is committed to ensure that:

we create a positive, inclusive environment, free from prejudice, bullying, harassment and unlawful discrimination within the College. We will take action to challenge inappropriate behaviour and discriminatory practice
staff, students, applicants for employment or study, visitors and other persons in contact with the College are treated fairly, with dignity and respect
people and diverse groups with multiple identities and individual differences are recognised and valued
we will provide our staff and associates with the knowledge and skills they need to understand and meet their equality and diversity responsibilities.

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 puts a general duty on public sector bodies, including higher and further education institutions to:

eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
advance equality of opportunity between people who do and do not share a protected characteristic
foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share a protected characteristic.

As a public body and a charity, the College must meet this general duty both as employer and as provider of public services, and show ‘due regard’ to the duty across all of its functions.

The nine 'protected characteristics' referred to are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Equality scheme, policies and monitoring reports

Royal Holloway University of London Equality Objectives 2018-2021

Consultation: January and February 2018.

These are the draft Equality Objectives which form part of Royal Holloway’s new Equality Scheme 2018-2021. We have also identified actions that will enable us to meet our legal obligations (see below), develop good practice and ensure that a concern for equality is embedded in our policies and procedures.

The purpose of the current consultation sessions is to ensure that we receive comprehensive feedback on the draft objectives with the aim of producing a final version of the Equality Scheme by March 2018.

The Consultation document and the feedback form are available.

Equality and Diversity Scheme 2014-2017

This scheme sets out Royal Holloway’s approach to equality and diversity, both as an employer and as a provider of academic, educational and research experience. It demonstrates that we're meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and the equality objectives link with the key strategic objectives of the College.

Staff and students have been widely consulted and this Equality and Diversity Scheme 2014-2017 has incorporated the feedback and comments from the consultation. Details can be accessed here: Consultation Feedback and Responses Report.

For a copy of the Equality and Diversity Scheme Summary Booklet