International Conference on Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow 9-11 June 2015 Welcome

Andrea Cameron (Head of School of Social and Health Sciences) and Billy Yuksel (Vice-President, Abertay Student Association Presentation Transitions into employment Embracing Diversity - watch your language and social media footprint

Embracing Diversity – project Graduate attributes refer to qualities, characteristics and skills that can transfer to being responsible citizens (Bowden et al, 2000) Should this include knowledge of the Equality Act 2010? And should extra- curricular activities be promoting this too? Poor behaviour of university sport teams has recently attracted adverse media attention (Denholm, 2013; Mohamed, 2014; Horne, 2014; Ellis-Peterson, 2014) Exposure to this can be damaging to other students’ university experiences eg. impaired wellbeing, potential withdrawal from studies (Wilcox, Winn & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005) Poor behaviour in printed texts/social media platforms, could have a negative impact on the graduated student’s future employment prospects (Schurgin O’Keefe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011).

Embracing Diversity – project Sports teams behavior/attitude – adapted Scottish Social Attitudes Survey distributed to AU students in 2014; extended to a local HEI in 2015 and also other Sports Unions at FE/HEIs Phase 1 = Initial survey of Sport Association Facebook pages revealed that in semester one, there had been 7 pejorative references to protected characteristics (5= sexism; 1=religion; 1=sexual orientation) Results:-n= 129 completed questionnaire (56% men; 44% women)

Embracing Diversity – project Responses Scottish Social Attitude Survey questions:- NB. Students significantly more likely to say Equal Opps had not gone far enough for gay groups (but also significantly less likely to say it had gone too far)

Embracing Diversity – project Responses Scottish Social Attitude Survey questions:- NB. Students significantly more likely to say Equal Opps has gone too far/much too far for women. Students significantly more likely to say Equal Opps has gone not nearly far enough for women

Embracing Diversity – project Responses Scottish Social Attitude Survey questions:- NB. Male and female students not significantly different on the ‘too far’ and ‘not nearly far enough’

Embracing Diversity – project Responses Scottish Social Attitude Survey questions:- NB. Students significantly less likely to say Equal Opps has gone too far/much too far for BME groups

Embracing Diversity – project Responses Scottish Social Attitude Survey questions:- NB. Students significantly less likely to say positive action to aid employment for BME groups is bad/very bad use of Govt money. Students significantly more likely to say positive action to aid employment for gay men and lesbians is bad/very bad use of Govt money. Students significantly more likely to say positive action to aid employment for those who experience depression is bad/very bad use of Govt money

Embracing Diversity – project Responses Scottish Social Attitude Survey questions:- NB. Students significantly less likely to say they would be unhappy/very unhappy if a close relative was in a long-term relationship with someone of the same sex

Embracing Diversity – project Actions:- Work linking sports teams with community groups with protected characteristics; Findings informing the content of a new Elective module; Student Association building more resources; considering how E+D can be embedded in Student Societies; Extending survey work to Student Societies with protected characteristics eg. LGBT to understand barriers to inclusiveness; and to other Sports Unions

Embracing Diversity – project Transitions:- Noting the aforementioned trends:- Are these unique? Do these beliefs/attitudes seep into social media dialogues? What is the impact of this on new students making the transition into university? If students have these beliefs/attitudes and have alluded to these on social media will this impact on their employability? Does the university have a responsibility to address poor use of language on social media if this is happening in the co-curriculum (and do they do it?)? If our graduates are to have attributes that reflect our institutions, should we be engaging with students on topics of liberation, inclusiveness, diversity, tolerance?