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Dear Kirsteen, Have you thought about objectively justifying providing for different accomodation for under-graudates and post-graduates due to the differences in the nature of programmes of study, family responsibilities, cultural issues etc. Just a thought. Regards Anne -----Original Message----- From: HE Administrators equal opportunities list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kirsteen Coupar email Sent: 14 November 2007 10:24 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Postgraduate and over 25's accommodation I'm afraid I'm asking for more help and opinions regarding age. I have a tight deadline to get our Age policy into Council in December, but issues keep cropping up and the latest is that we have some student accommodation which is reserved for postgraduate students and over 25's. Initially i thought it would be quite easy to tackle this problem, as I assumed it was to provide 'quiet' or 'sedate' accommodation and thought we could have a quiet option for residential students, but it turns out it is more complex. Our planning consent from the local authority for this residential accommodation was based on the agreement for over 25's accommodation following consultation with vocal local residents. It looks like we will have to go back to the local authority (who, of course, are bound by the same equality legislation we are!) What I wanted to check was, if we remove the requirement for over 25's, can we still keep it for postgraduate students only? My initial thinking, is yes, we can, but I am slightly worried that we could be challenged that we are in fact indirectly imposing a barrier based on age, as being postgraduate normally necessitates a certain amount of study and therefore a certain aged student. Are we just using age as a separating factor and calling it something different to hide the fact? My feeling is that a postgraduate hall of residence is something different than an over 25's hall of residence, but just wondered if anyone else had any experience of something similar or anything useful to add. Thanks all Kirsteen Kirsteen Coupar Diversity Manager Flat 19A, Catherine of Aragon Court Southwood Site Avery Hill Campus University of Greenwich Eltham London SE9 2UG Direct line: 020 8331 8817