Good Practice

Equality Impact Assessments and Admissions

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are important to all institutions - they ensure fairness and compliance with legislation and also improve the effectiveness of policies, practices and procedures.

The Equality Challenge Unit, working with SPA, has produced a guide to conducting equality impact assessments. The Briefing gives practical advice on how to conduct an EIA, including:

what an EIA is and what it must cover
why it is necessary, including the legal background
the six key steps, including:

initial screening
collection and analysis of data
revising and assessing the plan
who should be involved in the consultation
publication of the EIA and action plan
monitoring

frequently asked questions.

An especially useful feature is admissions case studies from Hertfordshire, Newport, Northampton, Plymouth and Ulster universities. In these case studies the universities outline the problems they encountered in conducting their EIAs, how these problems were overcome and the lessons that have been learned.

Although the guide is focussed on admissions it will also be of interest to staff working in student recruitment and widening inclusion.

If you would like to comment on this or discuss any aspect further please contact Leslie Currie, Senior Project Officer at SPA.

SPA takes no responsibility for the content of external websites

back to Good Practice main page

Reviewed: May 2011