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Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 and equality

Advance HE's work on the REF 2021 Advance HE (formerly the ECU) has been working with the UK higher education funding bodies to embed equality considerations into exercises to assess the quality of research.

Ellen Pugh, Senior Adviser at Advance HE was previously a member, and is now an adviser to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel (EDAP) which has been established to advise the UK higher education funding bodies, the REF team and the REF panels on the implementation of equality measures in the REF 2021.

In response to requests from members, Advance HE has developed and delivered in house equality training for staff involved in their institutions REF 2021 processes.

Find out more about our in-house development programmes and training. 

Advance HE also ran a series of national events in Spring 2019 to support the sector implement the equality requirements of REF 2021. Materials developed for those events, including guidance on equality impact assessment, are only available to HEIs who attended.

Equality impact assessments

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.

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