Apologies for cros posting


Meeting The Challenge: Managing
Equality  and Diversity in Higher Education


The Meeting the Challenge resource pack has been developed
by  Coventry University and the University of Warwick, with
funding  from HEFCE’s Good Management Practice Fund. The
aim of the  pack, which comprises a film and accompanying
booklet, is to  raise awareness and stimulate discussion about
equality and  diversity issues.  Although there are specific
duties and  responsibilities imposed on the HE sector by
equality legislation,  the effectiveness and implementation of
national legislation as  well as local policy can be significantly
undermined by an  unresponsive and uncaring institutional or
departmental culture.


The film is made in the style of a docu-drama and available in
both VHS and CD formats and in a sub-titled version. It is
approximately 35 minutes long and includes an introduction
and  seven scenes, each focusing on specific aspects of
inequality  and diversity. The approach we have used in the
film is to show  how particular behaviours and attitudes
contribute to or challenge  existing cultural assumptions about
characteristics such as  gender, age, race, sexuality and
disability and explores issues of  power and control within and
between staff groups.


The film is intended to provoke discussion amongst its viewers
 about the extent to which they recognise aspects of their own
 institutional or departmental culture reflected in the scenes
and if  not, how and why the situation is different in their
workplace.   Using a mix of discussion themes and group
activities elaborated  in the booklet, we hope that
viewers/participants will develop  strategies to deal more
effectively with specific equality and  diversity issues which
have relevance to their own particular HEI .  The booklet also
includes additional material such as sources of  further
information about equality and diversity issues including
current and draft legislation and guidance (section 4) and case
 studies of good and not so good practice (sections 2 and 3).
There is also a section on useful contacts and websites
(section  5).  The good practice examples and the list of
contacts and  further reading are merely indicative rather than
exhaustive.


We believe that the resource pack will be most effective in a
group training context facilitated either by in-house or external
equality trainers. The film has been made to be viewed in its
entirety first, and then re-viewed on a scene-by-scene basis to
 gain a better appreciation of particular issues and contexts,
such  as recruitment, disability awareness or dignity at work.
However,  we acknowledge that viewing the whole film at once
might not  always be possible, so we have included a brief
synopsis of each  scene, together with the key points covered,
so that the film can  also work on a more segmented basis.
We believe that the  resource pack will be most effective if it is
used in a mixed group  of managers and their staff, in order to
generate discussion on  different experiences from different
perspectives.


For further information, please contact the Project Leader,
Karen  Ross – [log in to unmask]; or check out the
project website:  www.coventry.ac.uk/equal



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