Equal opportunities remain elusive in universities, claim employees

A study has revealed high levels of dissatisfaction about equality issues among university staff.

Commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the research examined the equal opportunities policies and the experiences of employees at six intitutions from both the pre- and post-1992 sectors.

Black and minority ethnic (BME) respondents complained of posts being offered to white people without being advertised, and - at the university with the highest number of BME staff - of senior positions being held exclusively by white people. Disabled staff, meanwhile, said they were less well treated than students, and some female staff said their male colleagues withheld information from them.

While senior management thought they were making good progress on tackling inequality, this view was not widely shared. And although all the universities had equality policies, many staff said they knew almost nothing about them. "You know most of these documents are pretty turgid," said a trade unionist. "They need translating and putting into action."

The study, Negotiating equity in higher education instititutions can be downloaded from www. hefce.ac.uk/lgm/divers/equal.asp