Projects

Equality and diversity in higher education 

Advisory work Diane has been the Leadership Foundation’s diversity advisor since 2007. Developments have included running annual seminars for governing bodies on equality and diversity, supporting a successful bid to the Higher Education Funding Council for a leadership development programme for black and minority staff and running, with Equality Challenge Unit, a seminar for the Leadership Foundation’s programme directors.

Diversity resources project Knowledge Perspectives was approached by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to review and report on a range of key resources that could be of use to the sector. We compiled a compendium of thirty-three diversity resources including those that address issues of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic group, sexual orientation and diversity in general. We comment on the scope of these resources and highlight the gaps.

Ethnicity and degree attainment With Professor Tariq Modood of the University of Bristol, Knowledge Perspectives carried out research for the Higher Education Academy and Equality Challenge Unit looking into differential degree attainment amongst ethnic minority students. This arose from an earlier study by the DfES showing that even after controlling for the majority of contributing factors, being from a minority ethnic group is still statistically significant in explaining final degree attainment.   We conducted empirical research in two volunteer institutions to look at existing initiatives or approaches and to identify principles of good practice of interest to the sector as a whole.

HEFCE scoping project Diane was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to scope a multifaceted research initiative looking into equalities issues amongst all staff groups in higher education.  This led to a number of research projects including: ‘Statistics for equal opportunities in higher education’, ‘Non-disclosure and hidden discrimination in higher education’ and ‘Negotiating equity in higher education institutions’.

Diversity in Higher Education: Leadership Responsibilities and Challenges. Published in 2009, this report for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education examines recent research on diversity and leadership, particularly as they relate to higher education. The report sets out a range of recommendations including in the areas of organisational development, leadership development and promoting equality.

Diversity in the private sector

Diversity dividend tool Knowledge Perspectives was invited by Iris Consulting, a multidisciplinary management consultancy practice, to participate in an evaluation of the London Development Agency’s online diagnostic tool, the Diversity Dividend.  We carried out evaluations for a number of participating companies and prepared the summary report. 

Women in science

Interacademy Council Knowledge Perspectives was invited by the InterAcademy Council to provide editorial support to its emerging report on the global situation of women in science, ‘Women for Science’.

Women in scientific employment – mapping the European data This project, directed by Professor Judith Glover of Roehampton University and funded by the European Commission, aimed to investigate the availability of quantitative data on the position of women in scientific occupations across the EU. Fieldwork in all the EU states involved looking at large-scale national datasets against a number of key criteria. Our research revealed that existing statistics had limited potential to explain key aspects of women scientists’ employment. This led to a review of data collection systems and the publication of a number of statistical bulletins.

Athena Project The Athena Project aims to enhance the career progression of women scientists in higher education. As Research Officer with the project, Diane wrote Athena’s research strategy, published a literature review, organised an international conference hosted by the Royal Institution of Great Britain and edited and published the conference proceedings

University of Cambridge We were asked by the university to undertake a statistical analysis of scientific academic staff by gender and ethnic group using the existing staff database. An internal report was compiled looking at the statistical correlation between seniority and gender and seniority and ethnicity. We also looked at the correlation between contractual status (permanent or short-term contract) and gender and contractual status and ethnicity.

Promoting SET for Women Unit Diane provided consultancy to the Promoting SET for Women Unit at the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (then the Department of Trade and Industry). With the team, we developed a statistics portal on the Unit’s website and a user-friendly leaflet with key statistics. Diane drew up the specification for a research project on women returners to science. This resulted in the report ‘Maximising Returns’ by People, Science and Policy Ltd.

Staff satisfaction surveys

Glasgow Caledonian University Staff Survey Knowledge Perspectives was asked by Iris Consulting to design a staff satisfaction survey as part of a larger project commissioned by the department of organisational development at the university.

Seminars and papers

Research skills for Speech and Language Therapists Diane ran a workshop on research skills for practising clinicians as part of a programme of continuing professional development organised by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists

Community cohesion Knowledge Perspectives has been invited to facilitate a seminar ‘Ensure the pupil voice is heard and is enabled to effect change’ at the conference ‘Developing Community Cohesion in Schools’, London, 26 February 2008.

Governors’ development programme: Diane is an invited speaker at the annual Leadership Foundation’s governors’ seminar on equality to be held in April 2010

Oxford Learning Institute Diane will present the findings of the Diversity in Higher Education report at the University of Oxford on 18 February 2010