Inhalt: National Online Survey: Race Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions The HEA has a statutory responsibility to promote the attainment of equality of opportunity in higher education (HE). The HEA is committed to addressing racial inequalities in higher education and to supporting Irish Higher education institutions (HEIs) to create an inclusive culture and environment where individuals are able to thrive, irrespective of their ethnic background. As part of the HEA’s ongoing work in the area of staff equality, diversity and inclusion, further to the collection of data on HEI staff by gender, from 2020 HEIs are requested to return staff ethnicity data to the HEA. In this context, the Athena SWAN Ireland Intersectionality Working Group was established in 2019 by the National Committee for Athena SWAN in Ireland with an initial goal to develop a cross-sectoral approach to collecting data on staff and student ethnicity in the Irish higher education sector. The group is open to staff members from HEIs with academic or professional expertise in this area as well as representatives from the HEA. In 2020, the working group produced a statement (see Appendix 2) to provide staff in HEIs with information on the rationale for collecting ethnicity data and the complexities of categorisation. The statement also provides some context for race equality work in higher education, as well as recommended actions for HEIs to consider. The statement has been endorsed by 25 HEIs, as well as by the Irish Universities Association and the Technological Higher Education Association.
In late 2020/early 2021, the HEA conducted a national survey of HEI staff to develop a picture of race equality across the Irish higher education sector. For the purposes of the survey, race equality was defined as ‘equal representation, equal experiences and equal outcomes of staff from minority ethnic groups’. The survey was developed by the HEA Centre of Excellence for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, in collaboration with the Athena SWAN Ireland Intersectionality Working Group. The HEA ran the national online survey on race equality in HEIs from December 8th 2020 until January 31st 2021. All staff working in HEIs in the Republic of Ireland, regardless of ethnic background or nationality, were invited to participate. 3,323 staff in Irish HEIs responded to the survey. As the aim of the survey was to capture the lived experience of HEI staff in relation to race equality, a number of open questions were used in the survey, leading to 6,536 individual open text responses to the survey. The survey results are collated here to provide an overall picture of race equality across the Irish higher education sector and to help to identify areas for improvement, as well as ways to make those improvements. Survey Data While some of the questions in this survey have fixed answers, we have included as many open text boxes as possible, to give respondents an opportunity to detail their own experience of race equality in Irish HE. Staff have not been asked for names or contact details, but to understand answers in more context participants were asked to provide some personal demographic information as part of this survey. The amount of information provided is up to participants. Where a participant did not wish to disclose information, they had the option to choose the ‘prefer not to say’ option. No data was collected in relation to institutional affiliation and no information relating to individual responses will be shared with HEIs. The survey adopted the most recent revision of ethnicity categories for the Census 2022. [https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/census2021/Census_Pilot_Survey_Report_2018_V1. pdf] (see page 15). The invitation to identify one’s ethnicity in the census has largely involved a mix of physical characteristics or race (White, Black, Asian etc), subcategorised by nationality e.g., Irish, Chinese, and in the case of Irish Travellers, further subcategorised by a specific ethnic identifier. The 2022 categories also include the grouping Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi as a subcategory of ‘Asian’ for the first time. The Census categories were adopted explicitly to allow for comparison
All data collected through this survey is held securely and confidentially, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018. The data will not be used for any purpose other than providing an overall picture of race equality across the Irish higher education sector. We understand the collection of staff and student ethnicity data to be central to the implementation of the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, deriving from section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act (2014). Under this Act, all public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) must undertake assessment and monitoring, and have policies and plans to promote equality, prevent discrimination, and protect the human rights of staff, students, and the wider public that are served by the work of HEIs. The HEA has a legal obligation under The Higher Education Act (1971) to promote equality in the higher education secto
Schlagwörter:Diversity; Ethnicity; harassment; higher education; Ireland; Irland; microaggression; race; race discrimination; survey
CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Hochschulen
Dokumenttyp:Graue Literatur, Bericht