Scotland's universities not learning ......... how to eliminate disability discrimination as employers

Whenever the question is asked - 'what are universities for ?' - it is impossible to find a universal truth which provides a clear answer in a short paragraph [just try 'Googling' the question].  There does appear to be a consensus that in the UK universities offer some of the best minds [in terms of passing exams] from secondary schools the opportunity to develop and stretch their minds to another level and to then embark on a life from which society anticipates it will gain, and be shaped and re-shaped, in various ways.  

In some senses, one could reasonably conclude that a number of the leaders society needs for tomorrow are currently attending university today.  In political terms that is certainly true, for good or bad.

From that perspective, the close examination and scrutiny of how universities are performing in relation to equality and the legal framework which seeks to eliminate discrimination, becomes even more important.  Part of the context in which tomorrow's leaders are formed is the culture and practices of our universities as employers.  Students as they pass through the system will encounter the rough and sharp edges of the university employment culture in the shape of the employment profile of each university and will in turn take away a sense of what is the prevailing culture of what is equality in the workplace.

When it comes to employment equality for disabled people, Scotland's universities are teaching the leaders of tomorrow that disabled people are expendable when it comes to making employment equality a reality.  From reports published in 2019 by all the universities, the proportion of people identifying as disabled across the sector was found in recent research to be 3.69%.  Scottish government claims the average employment rate of disabled people across the public sector is 11.7%.  At the same time, Scottish government's own report on employment equality from 2019 explains that their rate of employment of disabled people is at 7.6% against a benchmark of 19%.  

No matter which way the data published by Scotland's universities is stacked up, the result - 3.69% of the workforce identifying as disabled is simply unacceptable and represents hard evidence of institutional discrimination against disabled people.

Non-disabled people have held the monopoly on positions of power and privilege within Scotland’s universities as employers for decades, if not centuries in some cases.  Legislation in the latter part of the 20^th century and early 21^st century aimed at eliminating disability discrimination has failed to break the monopoly that non-disabled people hold.  The requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and specific equality duties in Scotland have found universities locked into a sterile two-year cycle of gathering workforce data and publishing often inaccessible and ineffective workforce profile reports – while the baseline evidence they reluctantly disgorge tells us that nothing is changing.  Disability discrimination remains in place across the university employment sector.

There is a well-known quotation defining insanity [and often mis-attributed to Einstein]  :

“doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.”

Scotland’s most recent attempts in the 21^st century at framing equality legislation and regulations to eliminate discrimination are insane.  Scotland's universities have displayed a lack of intellectual rigour in attempting to observe and comply with regulations which, each year, demonstrate clearly that the goal - the elimination of discrimination - is not going to be reached.  The insanity of the system for delivering equality is widespread and deep-rooted.