We believe equality and diversity are fundamental to making the University of Southampton a vibrant, proud and successful organisation. We not only want to be a fair employer; we want to create a creative and caring environment for our staff and students to work and study in.
A diverse workforce, with people from different racial, educational and social backgrounds and a range of ages, opens up a wealth of possibilities for Southampton. It helps to encourage creativity and foster innovation, in turn enabling us to develop and grow towards our strategic ambitions.
Find out more about Equality and Diversity at the University of Southampton.
Diversity monitoring
The University is clear about its responsibilities in embracing diversity and ensuring we recruit the best people on the objective basis of their skill, ability and experience. In order to maintain our high standards and commitment to diversity, we collect information on the demographics of our applicants and employees. We use this information to understand the make-up of our staff and identify trends in the staff profile, helping us to manage our workforce more effectively and improve our processes to assure equity and fairness.
The information that we collect is stored securely with access limited to Human Resources for retrospective monitoring of our processes. Any information you provide as part of your application under the ‘equal opportunities’ section is not available to the recruiting panel at any time.
Disability Confident
The University of Southampton is an accredited Disability Confident Leader: the first University to attain this award. We are committed to the aims of Disability Confident and in particular will:
- Ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all
- Offer an interview to applicants with a disability who meet the minimum requirements,
- Anticipate and provide reasonable adjustments as required,
- Support any existing employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work.
As part of our commitment to Disability Confident, we ask all applicants if they want to be considered under this scheme. By opting-in to this scheme, you are disclosing that you have a disability solely for the purpose of the interview guarantee and we will not assume nor infer that you wish to disclose or record your disability in any other way – including any reasonable adjustments you may need if you are employed.
Further details on the ways that we support staff with a disability are available on the Diversity webpages.