Improving our evidence base to better identify and address barriers to equality, and to evaluate our progress. We highlight here a few examples from across the University community which show improvements in our evidence base, via improved data capture and improved analytical tools. We recognise that we have more work to do generate and use robust quantitative and qualitative data and support their effective use. A new institution-wide HR and Finance system, People and Money (P&M), was launched in November 2021. This new system enables staff to update their own equality data at any time, via self-service. We have published guidance to encourage and support staff to provide their personal equality information (Staff Equality Data Collection & Monitoring | The University of Edinburgh) and we are beginning to see improvements in disclosures. We will continue to identify ways to foster confidence and encourage individuals to disclose their equality data, working with our staff networks, as this is essential to effective monitoring of progress with respect to diversity. The University conducts all-staff surveys, with the most recent in February 2023, to build a picture of staff experiences relative to our values and to inform forward actions. The surveys include specific questions on staff experiences of equality and inclusion, and respondents are asked to provide their diversity demographic data to capture any differences in experience across equality groups. Survey results are made available to Schools and departments where anonymity can be maintained, and guidance is provided to assist managers in interpreting data in context, communicating results to teams, and aligning targeted action with existing strategy to generate sustainable change across the University. Additional surveys are conducted such as the Hybrid Working Survey in 2022 which informed development of the Hybrid Working Framework and its strategic equality impact assessment, working culture surveys are routinely run in those Schools that are engaged in the Athena Swan Charter. A discrimination survey was conducted in 2022 and results are currently being disseminated and discussed. We have published annual EDI statistical reports of our staff and student communities since 2008, and a link to the latest reports can be found later on in this report. Work has begun to make more detailed EDI data readily available across our institution to support a robust approach to mainstreaming and evaluation of progress. Internal data dashboards are being developed, with the first phase expected in May 2023. Our key focus for this first phase is to ensure the integrity, accuracy and confidentiality of the data, as well as to ensure that data definitions used are suitable for the range of purposes. The University is a member of the Una Europa University Alliance of European research universities, and we are very active within its Diversity Council and associated programme of work. The Diversity Council established the Action Group on Diversity Data Collection in 2021, and the University of Edinburgh was one of the seven participating institutions in the work of this group and a co-author of the final report. The goal of the Action Group was to investigate and identify good practice in diversity data collection and make recommendations that could strengthen the evidence base within the Una Europa universities, and in the wider higher education sector to better support the achievement of EDI ambitions. Diversity Data Collection: Exploratory Mapping & Reflection Report The University has representation on the Diversity Council and was also a member of its Research Action Group. We contributed to the final report of the Diversity Council now available at: Engaging with Diversity in European Universities | Una Europa (una-europa.eu) This article was published on 2024-03-06
