The Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice

The Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice specialises in research and knowledge transfer activities in the area of equal rights in employment and diversity management in the workplace.  The equality legislation framework has developed significantly since its inception in the 1970s with the individual right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of race and gender, with the addition of disability in 1995.The past decade has seen the introduction of the public sector duties from 2001 onwards, and most recently, the passage into law of the Equality Act.  These legislative developments have come to play a key role in shaping employment policies for all employers, and many large employers now set out explicitly to achieve and sustain high levels of labour market participation of the different equality target groups.  Citizenship is closely related with participation in the labour market and equality of opportunity in employment contributes substantially to social cohesion.  At an organisational level equality policies and legislation have significant implications for the management of human resources in the workplace.  They require the development of leadership capabilities to deliver fair and inclusive employment practices as part of organisations’ corporate social responsibility.

Current project:

See HEFCE funded - Managing flexible retirement and extended working lives project.

The Centre’s activities focus on:

• Interdisciplinary research linking the legal and human resource management perspectives in projects which explore key equality issues in the workplace

• Applied research which brings together academics and practitioners in an evidence-based approach to the development of best practice in managing equalities in the workplace

• Fostering policy and researchrelationships with policy makers, trade unions, other agencies, and academic institutions
• Providing consultancy and knowledge transfer activities
• Facilitating debate and discussion through conferences, seminars and symposia

The Centre has successfully led a number of externally funded projects which include: applied research to develop policy and best practice to manage flexible working (funded by the Department of Trade and Industry); research to investigate the causes of women under-representation in senior posts in the Higher Education sector (funded by the European Social Fund); research to investigate the implications of the Employment (Age) Regulations on the Higher Education Sector and knowledge transfer activities to help the sector managing age diversity (funded by Higher Education Funding Council for England); research into the impact of the process to promote equality and diversity in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 (funded by the Equality Challenge Unit); consultancy on the implementation of the equality duties to public sector organisations, including Oxford City Council. 

In 2005 the Centre led the organisation of the fourth European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education that was sponsored by the UK Presidency of the European Unionand held at Oxford Brookes University.

The Centre is based in the Directorate of Human Resources and collaborates with the School of Business and the Centre for Legal Research and Policy Studies which is part of the Law Department in the School of Social Sciences and Law at Oxford Brookes University.  The Centre draws its expertise from a pool of academics and practitioners who are associate members to the Centre.