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Equality impact assessment

Demonstrating equality is at the heart of your strategy and practice.

Equality impact assessments (EIA) are a tool to help colleges and universities ensure that their policies, practices and decisions are fair, meet the needs of their staff and students and that they are not inadvertently discriminating against any protected group.

EIA does not have to follow a specified process, and institutions may develop different approaches for different areas or types of policy or practice.

Most institutions have an EIA process and documentation. Where these are in place, it is important that this is updated to reflect the broader reach of the Equality Act.

Responsibility for EIA

One of the challenges of EIA is ensuring it is undertaken by policy owners across the institution and does not fall to one individual.

An institution-wide approach and commitment, supported by training and development, are key to this, and Advance HE has developed materials to assist institutions: