Gender Equality Task Force, NUIG
Second Progress Report to
Údarás na hOllscoile
For consideration at its meeting on December 15th, 2015
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Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide the Governing Authority with an update on the progress
of the work of the Gender Equality Task Force and to make one recommendation for immediate
implementation together with notification of an amendment to the Terms of Reference of the Task
Force. The Governing Authority is invited to consider this progress report and to approve the
recommendation and note the amendment to the Terms of Reference.
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Summary of progress to date
The Task Force has met on three occasions since June 2015 including a joint meeting in September
with the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team. The Task Force is pleased that the Governing Authority
accepted the 4 recommendations contained in the first progress report at its meeting on June 23rd
2015:
Recommendation 1: Appointment of a Vice President for Equality and Diversity
Recommendation 2: Ensure gender balance on all the major decision making committees
Recommendation 3: Unconscious bias training for all senior staff
Recommendation 4: Review of all promotions policies and procedures within the university.
The Task Force is encouraged by the fact that the University proceeded immediately with the
implementation of these recommendations.
The Task Force is in the process of preparing its Draft Final Report which it expects to complete by
the end of January 2016. This Report will be made available to the university community for
comment after which the Report will be finalised and submitted to the Governing Authority for
approval by the end of March 2016.
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Recommendation 5
This recommendation is linked to recommendation 1 and seeks to ensure that an appropriate
support infrastructure is in place for the incoming Vice President for Equality and Diversity.
The Task Force recommends that the University proceeds immediately with the appointment – on a
temporary basis – of two experienced administrators.
Rationale:
While there can be no doubt that the University could not have proceeded to fill the Vice President
for Equality and Diversity post any quicker than it has, the reality is that it is unlikely that the person
appointed will be in a position to take up the appointment until well into the new year and indeed it
is conceivable depending, for example, on notice requirements, that this period could extend until
September 2016. The Task Force is due to complete its work by the end of March 2016 and
considers that there is a serious risk that the momentum established by and the commitment of
both the Task Force and the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team will be lost. This would delay the
establishment of the Office of Equality and Diversity by the new Vice President and delay progress
being made on the elimination of gender inequality in NUIG. Furthermore, it would undermine the
credibility of the University’s commitment to addressing the issue.
On the other hand, the Task Force recognises that it is essential that the incoming Vice President for
Equality and Diversity has the freedom to appoint their own team and therefore no permanent
appointments should be made until such time as they are in a position to engage directly in the
recruitment process. Considerable work is required to put in place the building blocks needed for the
Vice President to be effective and it is essential that this work starts as soon as possible. These
include, for example, the identification of what is required in order to support the implementation of
a comprehensive data set to monitor gender equality 1 and also the costing of the recommendations
which will arise from the Task Force Report. This represents a significant body of work and requires
additional dedicated staff resources so that it can be progressed without delay.
In the event that the successful candidate for the post of Vice President is known in January and they
are in a position to participate in the recruitment process of the temporary staff, then this would be
desirable but it should not be a requirement to proceed to advertise the posts as early as possible in
the New Year.
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The Task Force has almost completed the specification of this data set and is aware that the collection of
some of the data may be challenging and will require changes to systems
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Notification of an amendment to the Terms of Reference
The remit of the Task Force is to “consider the University’s present gender mix among staff, including
academic and support staff, and advise the University what measures it should take and over what
timescale to develop gender equality”. 2
The Task Force, is empowered to alter its Terms of Reference. The Task Force considers that the
identification of the appropriate timescale for the implementation of the actions required, following
the recommendations which will be included in our final report, cannot be done realistically by the
Task Force itself. It requires the development of a fully costed (financial and human) Gender Action
Plan which can only be done by the University itself under the leadership of the new Vice President.
Therefore one of the key recommendations of the Task Force will be the development of such a
plan.
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Extract from Údarás na hOllscoile Minutes of January 30, 2015
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