Avoiding discrimination: Qualifications

Advice and Guidance

Who is this page for?

  • Public sector

Which countries is it relevant to?

    • England flag icon

      England

    • |
    • Scotland flag icon

      Scotland

    • |
    • Wales flag icon

      Wales

You should avoid discriminating when awarding, renewing or extending qualifications to your students, including any form of authorisation, approval or certification that you make.

For example:

A student who has undergone gender reassignment during the course of their time at the college notifies the college of their change of gender and change of name. The college then issues a course certificate with their old name. This would be unlawful gender reassignment discrimination.

You also have similar legal obligations towards disabled people who are not students at your institution when conferring qualifications on them.

For example:

A university liaises with the community college where a disabled person is studying on a course validated by the university, to ensure it does not discriminate against the disabled person when validating the qualification.

Last updated: 19 Feb 2019

Further information

If you think you might have been treated unfairly and want further advice, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.

Phone: 0808 800 0082
Textphone: 0808 800 0084

You can email using the contact form on the EASS website.

Also available through the website are BSL interpretation, web chat services and a contact us form.

Post:
FREEPOST
EASS HELPLINE
FPN6521

Opening hours:

9am to 7pm Monday to Friday
10am to 2pm Saturday
closed on Sundays and Bank Holidays

Alternatively, you can visit our advice and guidance page.