Section 1: Panel of Papers Submission Guidelines

ECU’s annual conference 2017

Inclusivity, intersectionality, action: moving forward the equality agenda in higher education

Birmingham, 7 - 8 November 2017

Section 1: Panel of papers submission guidelines

Conference

Overview

ECU’s annual conference 2017 will focus on the themes of inclusivity, intersectionality and action. Universities across the UK are driving forward the equality agenda for the benefit of their students and staff. This conference aims to provide a showcase for this work and an opportunity for collaboration and sharing of experience, particularly in the context of new challenges such as Brexit.

Call for contributions

ECU invites submissions for panels of papers from universities to share experience and innovation around each of the themes. We also welcome submissions from organisations and individuals working in other sectors where there is the potential for useful cross-sector sharing of experience and knowledge:

= Creating an inclusive university:

– Creating an inclusive environment for disabled students, particularly in light of changes to the disabled students allowance.

– Inclusion work that focuses on religion and belief, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or age.

– Increasing competence and confidence in engaging with equality and diversity work, in particular in relation to race.

– Partnership working with students, students’ unions and community groups to enhance equality initiatives.

= Taking an intersectional approach to equality and diversity:

– Benefits and challenges of exploring intersectionality.

– Approaches to advancing equality and diversity in relation to religion and belief and the intersection with other protected characteristics, in particular race, gender and sexual orientation.

– Intersectional approaches to ECU’s equality charters.

= Taking action and overcoming barriers to action on equality and diversity:

– Barriers to advancing equality and diversity within institutions and how these can be overcome

– Supporting staff and students and good campus relations in the time of Brexit.

– Using the Equality Act 2010 as a tool for action.

– Engaging governing bodies and/or senior leaders with equality and diversity.

– Data as a tool for action and a barrier to action on equality and diversity.

– Evaluating the impact of equality and diversity activity

Panel of papers format

Please note that this year ECU also welcomes calls for panels of papers. This means submitting three papers around a common theme together with colleagues. These could be colleagues from within your institution, from other universities and/or from other organisations (for example learned societies, FE colleges, charitable organisations). We are particularly interested in panels that demonstrate collaborative approaches to equality and diversity.

The panel sessions will last 75 minutes. Papers will provide a focused opportunity for delegates to formally present on a topic or issue related to the conference theme/s. Papers should aim to give an overview of a piece of research or a project, sharing highlights of research findings, showcasing best practice or profiling an initiative. Presenters are invited to discuss new, ongoing or completed research. Each paper should last a total of 20 minutes: 15 minute presentation plus an additional five minutes for questions/discussion.

If you wish to submit an individual paper, or have fewer than three papers to submit, please use the individual submission option (option 2).

ECU also reserves the right to select individual papers from these group submissions.

Review criteria

Each proposal is subjected to a peer review against the following criteria:

= demonstrates collaboration

= relevance to conference theme/s

= anticipated interest

= clarity of the proposal

= originality of the idea/approach

Submission

The deadline for submissions is Friday 21 April 2017 at 17:00.

Please complete the submission form and send to

You will be informed of the outcome of your submission by Friday 26 May 2017.

Information for presenters

Presenters and co-presenters will need to complete conference booking by Monday 4 September 2017 or we will assume that you wish to withdraw and your slot will be offered to presenters on the reserve list.

Please include all panel participants on the submission form. It is the responsibility of the key contact for the panel submission (as nominated in section 2A of this form, see below) to pass on all relevant details to any co-presenters. It will be the responsibility of the lead presenter for each paper to ensure the session runs to time.

Data protection

All the information you supply on the submission form will be stored by ECU in paper and/or electronic format for the purposes of administration of the conference. It will be shared with two external reviewers. Additionally, sections of the form (eg abstracts) will be published in the conference programme and on the ECU website.

Important dates

Friday 21 April 2017: Deadline for submissions

Friday 26 May 2017: Presenters informed of outcome of review process

Monday 4 September 2017: Deadline for presenters to have booked onto the conference

Friday 13 October 2017: General conference registration closes

Further information

Please send any enquiries to:

Information about this year’s conference:

Successful submissions from ECU’s 2016 conference can be viewed here:

Section 2: Panel of papers submission form

A. Panel details

Suggested name for the panel:
Please summarise the focus of the panel and what you consider it would contribute to ECU’s conference 2017:
Suggested chair of the panel:
Key contact for this panel submission (name, job title, institution, contact details):