General Information

Aims

The School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research aims to create the conditions whereby students and staff are selected and treated solely on the basis of their merits, abilities and potential, regardless of gender, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, socio-economic background, religious or political beliefs, trades union membership, family circumstances, sexual orientation or other irrelevant distinction. The Equal Opportunities Policy seeks to eradicate unfair and discriminatory practices wherever they occur in the School and to encourage a diverse community to which all individuals may contribute as fully as possible.

Principles

Discrimination, direct or indirect, based on a person's gender, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability status, socio-economic background, religious or political beliefs, trades union membership, family circumstances, sexual orientation or any other irrelevant distinction is unacceptable. In addition to being unacceptable, such forms of discrimination represent a waste of human resources and a denial of the opportunity for individual fulfilment. This School will seek, through programmes of legally acceptable positive action, to increase the level of participation of students and staff of those groups that are currently under-represented. An Equal Opportunities Policy cannot succeed without the active support of the entire School Community. The School seeks to involve all sections of staff and students in the continuing development and implementation of its policy.
Representatives

The School has appointed equality and diversity representatives from both the staff and student body.  These representatives should be approached as a first point of contact for further information about equality and diversity within the school, to complain about contraventions of equality and diversity policy and to provide any feedback on existing equality and diversity policy.  Either representative may be contacted.

Staff Representative	Caroline Chatwin	C.Chatwin@kent.ac.uk
Student Representative	Dorothy Cheung	hwc@kent.ac.uk

 

Equality and Diversity Documents

Several documents on equality and diversity development within the School have recently been developed and are available for your perusal here.

Equality and Diversity self assessment.

Equality and Diversity action plans.
Equality and Diversity report.

Useful Links:

• University wide equality and diversity policy   
• University equality and diversity webpages
• Dignity and work and study policy document
• Religious and Cultural Beliefs policy (including information on access to prayer facilities)
• Sexual Orientation policy

Please see individual staff and student pages for further information on complaint procedures, harassment contacts and emergency contacts, specific equality and diversity related events and how to offer feedback on any aspect of the School’s equality and diversity policy or on these webpages.

back to top

Students

Complaints procedure

If students wish to have an informal discussion about equality and diversity issues or would like to make any feedback about equality and diversity policy, then they may like to contact the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research student equality and diversity representative.
Dorothy Cheung                       hwc3@kent.ac.uk

For a slightly more formal discussion about equality and diversity, or as a first point to call in reporting a contravention of equality and diversity policy, students may like to contact the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research staff equality and diversity representative.
C.Chatwin@kent.ac.uk            01227 827534
           
The University also employs a dedicated equality and diversity manager, Irfaan Arif, who may be a preferred contact for more serious issues.
i.arif@kent.ac.uk                      01227 824781

For extremely urgent or out of hours problems the University also provides a list of harassment contacts and an emergency response team

Feedback

As part of our commitment to maintaining and promoting equality and diversity within our school we would welcome any feedback that you would like to offer, either on this site or on our policy in general.  Please email any comments to c.chatwin@kent.ac.uk 

back to top