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Changes to UCL recruitment and selection policy: accelerating progress towards achieving UCL's equalities and diversity objectives

20 March 2013

UCL's Council recently asked that we take steps to accelerate progress towards achieving UCL's equalities and diversity objectives.

Alongside a new accountability framework for UCL's Senior Management Team, Council, on the recommendation of the Human Resources Policy Committee, has also approved a number of specific steps to accelerate our progress towards being a more inclusive and diverse institution. 

New measures, incorporated into recruitment policy with immediate effect following the decision of Council, include that:

  • Women are to comprise at least 25% of all UCL recruitment panels, including those for senior positions. In practice, this means that there must be at least one woman on all UCL panels and more than one in larger panels. The composition of recruitment panels will be monitored and reported to Deans, who will be expected to ensure compliance with this new policy. 
  • Appointment to Dean, Vice-Provost and other senior leadership roles will normally be advertised externally with statements encouraging applications from women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
  • Where search firms are used in the recruitment process, they will be expected to produce an ethnically diverse and gender balanced list of candidates.
  • Positive action provisions in the Equality Act 2010 may be used to recruit a staff member from an under-represented group where they score equally with other candidates for a post. Deans will also be strongly encouraged to use the waiver of advertising facility to recruit the best women and ethnic minority people to professorial posts in their field.

In addition:

  • To assist in identifying women to sit on recruitment panels, a central database of senior women who are trained in recruitment and selection will be maintained and publicised by HR for use by chairs of recruitment panels. No female member of staff will be approached to sit on more than three panels per annum through this process.
  • UCL will seek to establish a job seekers mentoring scheme to increase the number of high-quality applications from minority ethnic job seekers in local communities.
  • UCL will establish a circle of career advisors in each faculty to ensure that female and minority ethnic staff receive consistent, impartial and high-quality career advice.

For more information about equalities and diversity at UCL, contact Sarah Guise, Head of Equalities & Diversity s.guise@ucl.ac.uk.

Nigel Waugh, Director of Human Resources