Staff record 2017/18 - Returning Governors
Version 1.1 Produced 2018-08-15
Statement from the funding councils regarding collection of Governor data
The 2017/18 Staff record will collect, for the first time, equality information about the members of the governing body of a provider.
The Higher Education Code of Governance published by the Council of University Chairs, which applies UK wide, states that 'governing bodies are expected to routinely consider their composition and take steps to ensure they reflect societal norms and values'. In addition the Scottish Code of Good Higher Education Governance (2017) requires governing bodies to 'monitor equality and diversity (including, but not restricted to, gender balance) across the entire governing body'.
The Office for Students (OfS) is no longer collecting the Annual Monitoring Statements (AMS) which their predecessor body HEFCE used to collect. Instead the information will be collected through the HESA Staff return. OfS regards the equality and diversity of governing bodies as being even more important under a regulatory framework that seeks to promote student choice and encourage providers to reflect the diversity of the student population. A paper that the OfS presented to Parliament in February 2018, "Securing Student Success: Regulatory Framework for higher education in England" described how the OfS will promote student choice through diversity of providers; take equality of opportunity into account across all of its activities and decisions; and promote equality and diversity across all aspects of its work.
As a result there is now a clear need for robust and accurate equality information about members of governing bodies. The data will enable institutions to benchmark the diversity of their boards and monitor progress over time.
The data to be collected on the members of governing bodies is described in the Staff record coding manual.
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