Quality assurance: embedding equality within college practice and processes
Further information
Barbara Lawson
Introduction
This report was developed in response to consultation with colleges in Scotland to support them to mainstream and advance equality – a requirement of the Equality Act 2010.
Equality Challenge Unit (ECU)’s research for the report was undertaken in nine Scottish colleges through an initial questionnaire, follow-up telephone interviews with staff members with responsibility for quality assurance or equality and diversity, and desk research to review colleges’ websites and other documentation.
The objectives of this report are to:
=review how colleges’ current practice responds to the recommendations to embed equality and diversity within quality cultures set out in Education Scotland (formerly HMIe)’s 2010 Aspect report on equality and diversity in Scotland’s colleges
=assist colleges in taking forward effective action to embed equality within quality processes in line with Education Scotland external quality arrangements, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) guidance on these and the requirements of the public sector equality duty (PSED)
We recommend that this report is read and used in the context of the new Education Scotland external quality arrangements, SFC guidelines and against the backdrop of the Scottish Government’s college reform and regionalisation agenda including outcome agreements with the SFC.
Education Scotland’s Aspectreport
Education Scotland (formerly HMIe) (2010) Aspect report on equality and diversity in Scotland’s colleges 2010
The quality framework in the Aspect report considered how well colleges ensure that they provide and promote a positive learning and working environment for students based on the principles of equality, fairness and inclusion. It evaluated the effectiveness of colleges’ approaches to the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion in their daily operations, in widening access to learning, in the curriculum itself and in the delivery of learning. In doing so it considered how well colleges were meeting the public sector duties in force at that time, prior to the Equality Act 2010. These covered the protected characteristics of disability, gender and race. It also considered the level of understanding that students and staff had of those duties.
Education Scotland’s role was not to examine in detail the extent to which colleges were complying with the duties but to report on steps they had taken to fulfil their statutory obligations. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has the responsibility to enforce compliance with equality law.
Education Scotland’s External quality arrangements
Education Scotland (2012) External quality arrangements for Scotland’s colleges
The review of quality in Scotland’s colleges is based on three key principles:
=high-quality learning – student progress and achievement of relevant, high quality outcomes
=student engagement
=quality culture
Equality and diversity is explicit in Education Scotland’s performance indicators and is embedded within its revised review framework. Equality and diversity is a key element in the college review and annual engagement visit model that was published in August 2012.
SFC guidance
SFC (2012) Council guidance to colleges on quality from August 2012
The guidance explains how SFC expects colleges to respond to Education Scotland’s new framework. SFC has reaffirmed the importance of the three principles outlined above, endorsing the centrality of quality (and from the messages in these guidelines, the embedding of equality within quality processes) as a key responsibility for each institution.
Guidance on student engagement
The key equality messages in SFC’s 2012 guidance is that collegesshould:
=diversify their approaches to student engagement
=demonstrate how they use data to improve and enhance quality
=provide evidence of impact in reports submitted to SFC
These align with the latest PSED requirement for colleges to publish equality outcomes based on evidence gathered, and report on progress and impact.
SFC recognises that some groups of students may find it harder than others to engage with representative, consultative and decision-making structures as part of quality processes, and this is also reflected in equality engagement. Within the guidance, SFC stated that colleges should include the experience of students from protected characteristics groups as part of their own internal review and that colleges should ‘reflect on the extent to which their current processes for engaging with students fully address current and future expectations on diversity and equalities’ (p 13). This is a shift from their previous guidance which only encouraged colleges to do so.
SFC acknowledges that the student voice is diverse and that colleges need to explore new ways of student engagement to ensure that this aspect of their work encompasses diversity to give greater representation of the whole student body. Colleges will be required to reflect on how they can be ‘more proactive in addressing issues of diversity and equality in their engagement with students on quality issues’.
HMIe (2008) External quality arrangement for Scotland’s colleges
Annex 2 provides ideas for making a step change in student engagement.
HMIe (2010) Annual report to SFC on the findings of HMIE evaluative activity in Scotland’s colleges during the period 1 August 2009–31 July 2010
Highlights effective practice and provides recommendations on engaging students from all protected characteristic groups.
Colleges’ current practice in embedding equality in quality
The research for this report identified that on the whole colleges understand their statutory obligations to meet the new PSED and have developed policies and schemes that help them meet their obligations and monitoring duties within their quality assurance processes.
All colleges have quality assurance and enhancement activities, which offer opportunities for embedding equality and diversity. Some colleges specifically employ Education Scotland’s (2012) quality framework. Other colleges have developed their own systems to embed quality within their organisational processes.
The following examples of activities are not exhaustive but will provide college practitioners with reference points to affirm their own approaches or present ideas they can adapt or introduce. The examples shared have been broadly categorised for ease of reference by using the three key principles employed by Education Scotland:
=quality culture
=student engagement
=high quality learning, progress and outcomes
Quality culture
Governance and leadership roles for equality and diversity
Colleges’ boards of management have a responsibility to ensure that both quality and equality are effectively considered in their organisations. Colleges employ different approaches to allow for local decision making but ensure that they still meet the Education Scotland requirement that colleges should ‘ensure a prompt and full response to existing and future equalities legislation’.
All colleges involved in the research expressed their commitment to the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion in their college mission statements and use a number of activities to embed a shared culture of diversity and respect. Evidence of strong strategic leadership of equality, commitment and direction-setting were key factors in communicating this aim.
Many colleges have specific quality assurance leads and in some cases, responsibility for college quality-reporting requirements is shared, with specific senior managers feeding into a larger strategic level forum. The majority of colleges from our research involve staff from across a variety of departments in quality review including quality, marketing, learning and teaching, student services, human resources and finance. The majority also consider equality and diversity evidence as part of the quality review process.
The principal at Edinburgh’s Telford College took over leadership of the college’s strategic plan, management structure, quality enhancement and operations in 2010. He highlighted equality and diversity as important across student and staff groups. A new and comprehensive approach was used for self-evaluation including consideration of equality data. Making an impact on outcomes for students from protected characteristic groups was seen as a whole collegeeffort.
This approach expected the use of equality data and analysis within quality enhancement reports at team and departmental level. Whole management group scrutiny and review of progress in equality and diversity are incorporated into the annual quality enhancement report submitted to SFC.
The board reviews this evidence to evaluate the college’s effectiveness and sustainable capacity to deliver the PSED.
At John Wheatley College, the overall responsibility for equalities sit at board level. Operational management of equality rests with the senior vice-principal, who, as chair of the equality and diversity committee, ensures equality and diversity is considered at all levels in the college.
All teams produce annual self-evaluation reports within which they evaluate their service or provision, identify any equalities impacts, and use available equality and diversity information to plan actions and set targets.
Equalities reports are considered by relevant board committees before publication.
Leaders need to understand that addressing equality challenges through the quality review process is important, and that a strategic approach will help to meet the legal requirements of the Equality Act and to improve the quality of the student experience and outcomes.
Self-evaluation and use of equality data
Self-evaluation procedures draw from a range of evidence sources including:
=the views of students
=observations of learning and teaching
=findings from external and internal moderation reports
=analysis of performance indicators relating to student retention, attainment and progression
=reflections gathered by individuals and members of academic and support teams
Many of the colleges produce programme review reports on a regular basis, and programme teams focus on student progress and outcomes and produce relevant action plans for improvement and enhancement. The Education Scotland quality framework expects colleges to include all students in this process. At programme level, provision and use of relevant and meaningful equality data as part of such processes has often proved challenging in the past. The colleges we visited have taken active steps to address this.
Through systems, support and teaching departments working together, Cumbernauld College created an analytical tool to improve student achievement, attainment and retention. The tool allows the college to monitor performance levels and attainment by faculty, course and class level, and age, disability, ethnicity and gender.
The tool has allowed course teams to respond and make relevant adjustments or provide additional support if the tool shows relative disadvantage because of the student having one of these protected characteristics.
There is a dedicated space on South Lanarkshire College’s staff web portal to collect equality and diversity data. This is examined three times a year at programme level by course leaders and delivery staff.
Staff evaluate student attainment by equalities and take action at programme level to address concerns.
Self-evaluation is coherent from course team level through to the board of management. Curriculum reports are required three times a year and feed into faculty reports. In addition to having a student representative in its cross-college equality group, students are also asked questions in relation to equality and diversity at focus group meetings and sparqs training ( for class representatives.
Kilmarnock College undertakes an annual review to ensure that equality and diversity is woven into teaching and assessment practices by encouraging a system of peer review that supports teaching staff. The college developed an evaluative process that is depicted visually as a wheel guided by six principles: innovation; flexibility; supportive; reflective; successful; engaging.
Each segment details relevant and specific criteria used as a basis for the self-evaluation process. A scoring mechanism allows teams to score themselves for each area identified and enables curriculum teams to agree actions for improvement.
The college provides a programme of workshops on equality and diversity to ensure staff have the knowledge and understanding to undertake the process.
This process encourages broader ownership, increases engagement in self-evaluation and has created an environment to enable the development of student-focused groups to formalise structured feedback from students.
Adam Smith College has an equality impact assessment system that is embedded in the quality review process for their existing policies and procedures. The quality directorate has software that prompts policy owners to undertake a review, at which point the impact assessment pro-forma and guidance notes are circulated for completion. This template includes all the protected characteristics.
Staff development
Education Scotland’s Aspect report on equality and diversity in Scotland’s colleges 2010 highlighted staff development as being of great significance in both the actions that colleges should take to embed equality and diversity within a college’s quality culture, and also within areas for development, especially ‘structured post-initial training’ – embedding equalities legislation in continuing professional development.
All colleges in the research responded to say that on the whole, there is mandatory training for all teaching and support staff. Some colleges develop their own training and others use online training.
The following examples illustrate where direct staff engagement in equality has improved by using interactive development initiatives, building on online awareness raising.
Edinburgh’s Telford College created a new staff development initiative called the professional development academy which incorporated training for equality and diversity. This group of eight staff undertook training with an external consultant. Together they designed and developed a staff training programme.
The college has piloted a first phase with the two objectives of developing staff confidence in understanding policy (and using this to challenge appropriately) and enhancing skills to advance equality in practice through their roles.
Feedback has been positive and it is hoped that this approach will help the college to mainstream equality and to further embed equality as part of its quality improvement activity.
To help to share the college’s vision and equality values effectively across the student body at Adam Smith College, tailored equality and diversity training is delivered to the student association president and coordinator.
Student engagement
Colleges have used a variety of mechanisms to gather information about their staff and students. This includes student satisfaction surveys, commendations, complaints, staff grievances and exit interviews with staff and students to gather equality information on the impact of decisions, functions, work practices, policies and procedures on people with particular protected characteristics. The types of information gleaned from this approach provides relevant source evidence to set equalityoutcomes.
The following sections present practice related to Education Scotland’s Aspect report student engagement recommendations.
Promote diversity to students and staff taking care to include groups and characteristics that may not be prevalent in the local area
All the colleges involved in this project include equality and diversity messages on their website to welcome applications from prospective students from protected characteristic groups. They all use their physical environments to promote the values of inclusion and diversity, including the use of marketing screens to highlight their message and incorporating positive imagery in communications.
Ensure that programmes are well suited to students’ prior experiences and attainment, in order to maximise participation and success
The research demonstrated that all colleges have systems in place to consider the barriers to student access and have implemented various actions to reduce the barriers to learning. Flexible engagement models are used to encourage a greater diversity of students across different needs and circumstances including part-time, full-time, flexible timetables, community learning centres and evening classes.
In addition to engaging with current students, colleges are also mindful of how they engage with their wider community, for example, what their external marketing materials and application processes communicate about their college environment. To help break down barriers of perceived access to and inclusion in college life, many colleges undertake specific targeted activity to communicate to underrepresented groups, including making marketing materials available in accessible formats and using positive images in external and internal publications.
Carnegie College has an overall strategic outcome to ensure that the support needs of students are identified and addressed. All communications are reviewed for bias by the assistant principal responsible for access and inclusion and by the diversity co-ordinator. The college materials are reviewed in light of the changing demographics to reflect the main community languages and to ensure inclusion within the wider community.
Students in all the colleges interviewed are encouraged to discuss their particular support needs with a member of staff in order that their needs are identified and adequately supported. Regular communications and consultation with students with protected characteristics allows colleges to consider inclusion and equality as part of their wider strategy to address the needs of all students, and improve the quality of the student experience and student learning outcomes.
North Glasgow College has implemented a number of strategies to increase student access and improve the student experience. These incorporated a core skills strategy, student retention and achievement strategy and an inclusiveness strategy. Combining these strategies with close community stakeholder interactions enables college provision to be extended to disadvantaged students and asylum seekers.
College programmes have been made accessible through a greater variety of modes of delivery, including community-based classes. The college has equipped 12 community locations with computer equipment to enable community-based students to access college programmes and materials from locations that suit their personal circumstances.