We have been asked by our Equal Opportunities Committee to review the way in which our current College policies and procedures deal with issues of discrimination.

 

In the first instance we will be focusing on the student dimension and on cases where students raise allegations of discrimination of a non-academic nature, so for example a complaint about the way a particular service has been provided or in relation to the advice that was given.    We will then turn our attention to how best to deal with allegations of discrimination that are of an academic nature, so for example those that relate to examination decisions or course work extensions etc.  Lastly we will focus on how best to deal with allegations of discrimination that are raised by staff.

 

Our initial thoughts are that issues of discrimination should be dealt with separately from our harassment and bullying policies for staff and students.  One approach might be to develop a process for dealing with discrimination that can then be grafted on to the other relevant policies, such as our staff grievance procedure and policies covering complaints raised by students.  This option could then be followed when relevant issues arise.

 

We would be interested to hear how other HEIs have dealt with this issue.

 

Best wishes

 

Debbie Epstein

Policy Development and Training Officer

Equality and Diversity Department

King's College London

Tel: 020 7848 3767