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Equality, inclusion and diversity at UiA

Our goals in the action plan for equality, inclusion and diversity 2021-2024

1. Gender balance among employees

Goal:

  • Faculties, departments and all administrative units must achieve gender balance (40/60).
  • Units with less than 20 per cent of either gender should set their own target for this period.
  • At least 40 per cent of professors/lecturers at UiA should consist of either gender.
  • Research groups should aim for gender balance.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • In 2022, the proportion of women among academic staff was 47%
  • The main picture is stability in the results over time. All groups are within the 40/60 target, with the exception of Professor/docent
  • There are 30% women who are professors/docents, 0.5 percentage points lower than in 2021 and below the target of 40%
  • The proportion of women in first positions has fallen by 1 percentage point from 2021 to 49.2%.
  • 4.4% percentage points fewer women in other scientific positions, but still balanced.
  • There are 2 percentage points fewer female research fellows and 12.4 percentage points more female postdocs in 2022, compared to 2021.
  • There is variation across the faculties/departments, where the Faculty of Technology and Science is most clearly below the target for gender balance among academic staff and where the department for teacher education is the lowest overall. At the same time, both units have had a positive development from 2021.

Total gender balance at UiA, divided into the defined positions:

Gender balance at UiA, graphs

2. Equal pay for equal work

Goal:

UiA must practise equal pay for equal work.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

• The average salary for women compared to men is 92.9% at UiA overall, which is 0.3 percentage points lower than in 2021.

• In general, we find that women have slightly lower wages in most categories.

• An important reason for the overall result is the number of male employees within the position category Professor & docent (70% men), although within this group the pay is quite similar across genders (98.3%).

Women's share of men's salary:

Women's share of men's pay, graph

3. Gender balance in management

Mål: 

UiA must have at least 40 per cent of  both men and women in all management teams, including at faculty level.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • There is a balance, within the target of 40% of each gender, among deans, department heads, University Directors management group and for the Leadership team at the University of Agder.                          
  • There is balance or near balance in the management groups at 3 of 7 faculties.
  • During 2023, a large proportion of management positions will be advertised, and then the spotlight will be on maintaining and improving the gender balance.
Gender balance in the leadership of UiA, diagramme

4. Gender balance among students

Goal: 

All study programmes must have at least 30 per cent female and male students. Both women and men must be represented in boards, councils and commissions.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

• There are still large variations between the study programs when it comes to gender distribution. In total, there are more female students (59%) at UiA. It is only at the Faculty of Technology and Science that we have a preponderance of male students (69%), where this proportion increased by 3 percentage points from 2021.

• A total of 40% of the programs have less than 25% of the underrepresented gender among the students.

• In 2022, the student figures show that 66 study programs have less than 25% male students. 16 study programs have less than 25% female students, which are stable figures compared to 2021.

Students and gender balance:

Gender balance among students, graphs

5. Diversity among employees

Goal

UiA must be an open and diverse working environment where employees with a different origin, background or level of functionality feel they belong, are meaningful members of the community and have the possibility to influence the working environment.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • UiA has 300 employees from other countries, which makes up 19% of our employees. Measures have been initiated to welcome new employees from other countries to ensure a good start in Agder, including cooperation with Business Region Kristiansand which coordinates directly with the faculties when it comes to international employees on their way to Norway.

6. Diversity among students

Goal

Students at UiA, independent of their origin, background and functional ability, have appropriate and equal academic development opportunities during their studies. There is a culture for systematic and fair admission of new students at UiA.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • UiA welcomed 1,063 international students in autumn 2022.
  • UiA has good cooperation with the student organizations to ensure both good reception and activities for international students. The faculties also contribute at the start of the semester. Various activities and trips are organized during the semester, which are open to all international students. Offers in English at the start of studies must be increased and work must be done to improve the flow of information in English.

7. Inclusive LGBTIQ community

Goal

UiA must be an open and diverse university, where students and employees with different sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression feel welcome. Openness, knowledge and inclusion of LGBTIQ people characterise UiA.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • UiA management went together with UiA students under a common banner in the parade at “Skeive sørlandsdager”.
  • Rainbow flags and pennants are used as an important symbol of openness and inclusion inside and outside UiA.
  • The Center for Equality has started a survey of the syllabus for a number of professional educations such as Nursing, Child Welfare and Teacher Education. This work was initially supposed to map the presence of perspectives on gender and sexuality diversity from the first year and a half of the new curriculum of the 2019 change. But since we see the value of mapping full-fledged courses of study, the center wants to expand the mapping to cover the entire course of study. The work aims to be completed in 2022.
  • The work to carry out a general survey was announced as a master's grant in 2022, but no applications were received on the topic. Physical arrangements for unisex toilet facilities are included in budget plans for buildings on UiA's campuses.

8. Zero tolerance for bullying and harassment

Goal: 

  • All employees and managers at UiA must be conscious of the effect of their position of power, and of the responsibility that comes with this position.
  • All employees must behave according to the sexual etiquette and be aware of UiA’s zero tolerance to bullying and harassment.
  • All employees must speak up if they have knowledge of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • A project has been started to build e-learning courses on sexual harassment in academia. The project must be coordinated with other universities.
  • An onboarding program has been developed with a spotlight on, among other things, zero tolerance for bullying and harassment. The program will be launched in 2022. The faculties provide information about this at the new employee seminar at the start of each semester, as well as during interviews and guidance upon joining.
  • Ethical guidelines, as well as reflections on power relations and power asymmetry in the supervision relationship are included to varying degrees in the training offered by UiA PULS on the Uniped courses. Power relations and power symmetry are included as topics in the training program for study program leaders, which will be carried out in spring 2023.
  • All employees must notify if they are made aware of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention. The Center for Equality at UiA has offered courses in the prevention of sexual harassment both internally at UiA and externally.
  • In 2022, overall Faculty Commendation has been carried out at the Faculty of Technology and Science, Humanities and Pedagogy, Arts and Social Sciences. The purpose of the work has been to identify possible unwanted incidents, existing measures to prevent these and, if possible, find new risk-reducing measures. In the analyses, causes such as unwanted sexual harassment, bullying and ostracism were identified as possible unwanted events. The most important existing measures were knowledge of notification routines and management focus on preventing incidents. One concrete new measure that has been proposed is to ban the covering of side windows in cell offices. The measure is being assessed and has not yet been decided upon.

9. Sexual etiquette

Goal: 

All employees must behave according to the sexual etiquette and be aware of UiA’s zero-tolerance to bullying and harassment.

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

• The units have reported a total of eight cases relating to bullying and harassment, as well as one case of sexual harassment, all of which have been dealt with according to internal routines.

• Separate ethical guidelines for guidance at UiA have been implemented. They are made available to both supervisors and students at UiA and clearly highlight our zero tolerance.

• The student representative talks about his role and about "Speak up" in the training program for student union representatives. This is also covered in the subject ORG123, where the Student Representative and Director of Education give a lecture.

10. Incident reporting procedures

Goal:  

All employees and students are familiar with the procedures to report incidents at UiA and know where to find information on their rights and obligations

Status at the turn of the year 2022/23:

  • "Speak up" is highly promoted on UiA's website, where reporting options and rights and obligations are described.
  • Different channels are used to inform about notification routines, both during onboarding and via internal websites. Information is given to students at the start of their studies.
  • The Si-ifra system and guidance will be updated and improved in 2023/24.

Speak Up

Contact us

hanskl
Leader of the Equality and Inclusion Committee
HR Excellence in research logo

 

 

UiA is Charter & Code certified

This means that the institution meets the criteria for using the European Commission's ‘HR Excellence in Research’ logo. The certification commits UiA to facilitate and promote international mobility to and from UiA, as well as to put efforts to enhance gender balance, inclusion and diversity on the agenda.

Do you have suggestions for improvements to the website? Send an email to Gender Equality Adviser Kristian Solaas.