Providing education and access to any benefit, service or facility and exclusions

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

Your responsibilities

You must not discriminate against a student at your institution in the provision of education, or access to any benefit, facility or service, by excluding them or by subjecting them to any other detriment. It is your institution’s responsible body that is liable for any acts of discrimination

How do I avoid discriminating?

Regular reviews of your practices, policies and procedures will help to ensure they do not discriminate against students with a protected characteristic. Students’ needs or the make-up of your student body may vary over time and you need to be sufficiently flexible in your policies to accommodate these.

The importance of training your staff effectively cannot be overestimated. All staff, whether they work in academic or support departments need to be fully aware of the requirements under the Act and the implications of these on your education provision and delivery.

The equality duties will help to ensure that all your activities are non-discriminatory. You should already be carrying out equality impact assessments in respect of race, disability and gender, and these will provide a useful reference for meeting your equality duties towards people with the range of protected characteristics under the Act.

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.