The Equality Act
The Equality Act 2010, which was passed to harmonise and replace previous equalities legislation, introduced the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in 2012, which were subsequently amended in 2016. This introduced specific duties for HEI’s and public bodies to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
- Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
Protected Characteristics
There are nine ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage & Civil Partnership
- Pregnancy & Maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
Equality Outcomes
The University has agreed eight equality outcomes (2025 – 2029) with a focussed approach to address areas of persistent inequalities that have been identified and aligned with the National Equality Outcomes (NEO):
- Improved satisfaction rate for Disabled and Male students
- Increased proportion of GEM, Disabled, and Male students achieve good honours
- Improved retention rates for those more likely to withdraw particularly disabled and mature students aged 25 and over.
- Increase awareness of how to raise EDI related concerns for staff and students ensuring they feel supported in the process.
- Enhance understanding, support and equality of opportunities for neurodiverse individuals.
- Address issues impacting gender pay gap.
- To maximise staff contribution through an inclusive, tailored approach that reflects the diverse needs of our community.
- Applications to Senior Management Graded roles to reflect the diversity of staff demography >particularly Disabled and GEM staff.
The progress of these equality outcomes will be monitored and measured on an ongoing basis by the University’s Equality & Diversity Committee (EDC) with a review in 2027 to measure progress at the midway point.
PSED Reports
Efforts to deliver equality and eradicate discrimination at RGU are mainstreamed across all our functions. In meeting our duties of the Equality Act 2010, RGU has published these reports:
The Mainstreaming Report outlines our approach to mainstreaming equality and diversity across the activities of the university since 2021. This includes information on how our statutory obligations under the Equality Act 2010 are reflected and integrated within the university’s strategy, how senior leadership around equality is provided, what support is provided to staff and students in relation to equality and diversity and the enhancements we have made to our approach to mainstreaming.
This interim progress report provides an overview of the progress made by the University to achieve its 2021 – 2025 equality outcomes and includes a range of activities that have been undertaken between in the past two years towards this achievement.
This report shows the gender pay gap at the university along with the reasons that it exists and actions to address it.
This report provides an overview of the University’s commitment to ensuring equal pay, alongside analysis on occupational segregation by protected characteristic.
This report includes a range of data on the protected characteristics of staff at the university. This includes information on the composition of our employees and recruitment, development and retention.
Previous Versions
- Employee Equalities Data April 2021 (PDF 2MB)
- Equality Outcomes 2017 – 2021 Progress Report April 2021 (PDF 174KB)
- Equality Mainstreaming Report April 2024 (PDF 210KB)
- Equality Outcomes 2021 – 2025 April 2023 (PDF 169KB)
- Gender Pay Gap Report April 2021 (PDF 378KB)
- Gender Pay Gap Report April 2023 (PDF 416KB)
- Equality Mainstreaming Report April 2021 (PDF 174KB)
- Employee Equalities Data April 2021 (PDF 2MB)
- Employee Equalities Data April 2023 (PDF 3MB)