Equal Opportunities and Gender Equality Programme

Introduction

The Equal Opportunities and Gender Equality Programme is based on Uppsala University’s core values of academic freedom, collegial governance and student influence, but also on fundamental principles of openness, legality, impartiality, free formation of opinion, transparency and respect. The programme sets out the University’s visions and goals for developing attractive, open and inclusive study and work environments, which in turn are fundamental to providing education and pursuing research of the highest quality and relevance.

The University’s mission, goals and strategies state that:
Equal opportunities are a matter of rights for the individual and quality
for the University. An equal opportunities perspective must be mainstreamed in all parts of the organisation and the University’s study
and work environments must be characterised by openness och respect.
What we mean by ‘equal opportunities’ is that everyone working or
studying at or contacting the University has equal rights and
opportunities, regardless of their legal sex, gender identity or gender
expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual
orientation, age or social background. Systematic efforts are needed to
widen participation to reflect the social and ethnic diversity of society.
Teachers, researchers and students must be able to participate in and
contribute to all parts of the University’s activities, whatever their
background or gender.1

The programme covers three areas of the preventive and promotional equal opportunities work.2 Attractive higher education institution includes goals and measures targeting students and covers five areas: admission and recruitment, examinations and assessments, study environment, studies and parenthood, and teaching methods and organising. This part also includes the University’s work to promote
widening recruitment and participation.

Attractive employer refers to goals and measures that target employees and are related to five areas: working conditions, provisions and practices regarding pay and other
terms and conditions of employment, recruitment and promotion, training and other skills development, and opportunities for reconciling gainful employment and parenthood. Employed doctoral students, with their dual role as both student and employee, are a group that is covered by measures as both employee and student.

Knowledge and effective processes describe the University’s processes for active measures, its knowledge base, and working methods in the area of equal opportunities. The aim is to create good conditions for work with equal opportunities throughout the University to be well coordinated and effective.

EU gender equality requirements and Horizon Europe

Since 2022, the European Commission requires organisations in the EU to have in place a gender equality plan or equivalent strategic documents when applying for grants from the Horizon Europe funding programme, its biggest funding programme. Along with the document Horizon Europe, the Equal Opportunities and Gender Equality programme
meets this requirement. The programme sets out the goals, and the measures to achieve these goals. Horizon Europe sets out the resources available to support the implementation of the measures, how the work is monitored and evaluated, and what courses in gender equality and equal opportunities are offered.

1. Attractive higher education institution

Uppsala University’s work is based on the idea that a wide range of perspectives enriches its courses and study programmes as well as improving opportunities to meet future research and societal challenges. We therefore welcome students with different backgrounds and perspectives and strive to provide them with the best possible
conditions to succeed in their studies.

The overall and general goals of this work are to increase the tendency of under-represented groups to apply for a place in higher education, and to support students to learn from their study programmes and thus improve student completion rates.3

The following measures are implemented to achieve the goals:

• Systematic work with widening recruitment.
• Developing the study environment to be inclusive and accessible to undergraduate students and doctoral students.
• The integration of an equal opportunities perspective into the design and implementation of each study programme.
• The implementation of processes and procedures to ensure that examinations and assessments of the student’s performance in their studies are not affected by discriminatory factors.
• Students’ opportunities to combine studies with their private lives are facilitated as far as possible.

2. Attractive employer

The ability to attract, recruit, develop and retain highly skilled employees is crucial for the University to be able to provide high-quality teaching, research and other activities. To be an attractive employer, the entire chain needs emphasis – from talent attraction and recruitment to developing and retaining employees. A good work environment, and
in particular good leadership, clear roles and a good balance between working life and private life, has a positive effect on the number of future publications and external research grants awarded.4

The following measures are implemented to achieve the goals:

• Employees are given skills and career development opportunities.
• Employees’ opportunities to combine working life with private life are facilitated as far as possible.
• Working conditions are adapted to the employee’s capacities as far as possible, taking into account the needs of the activity.
• Provisions and usual practice concerning pay and other terms and conditions of employment based on legal gender are mapped, analysed and applied. Pay differences between employees who perform equal or equivalent work and how these differences relate to legal gender are analysed. Non-objective pay differences based on legal gender and gender bias5 are rectified.
• Rules and practice regarding pay and other terms and conditions of employment are based on objective grounds.
• An equal opportunities perspective is integrated into the recruitment and promotion processes to counteract bias and promote meritocracy.6
• Gender balance within different categories of employees and in management positions is fostered through training, skills development and other measures.

3. Knowledge and effective processes

Active measures are implemented to prevent discrimination and promote equal rights and opportunities. This involves ongoing work in four stages: investigating, analysing, rectifying, monitoring and evaluating the risks of discrimination or reprisals and of obstacles to equal rights and opportunities. This work increases awareness of discrimination, which is crucial for achieving greater equality, strengthened equality
between women and men, and greater understanding and openness between individuals.

The University’s work with active measures is adapted to each specific activity. The aim is that the goals and measures become an integral part of the University’s activities, assignments, drafting and decision-making processes.

The following measures are implemented to achieve the goals:

• Continuous development of knowledge bases which includes evaluations of research and courses and study programmes, alumni studies, and surveys addressing students, doctoral students and supervisors. Methods are developed for collecting and analysing equality data – quantitative as well as qualitative – with the aim of identifying risks for discrimination.7 Information sources such as
  register data, what union organisations and student unions have experienced, and the whistleblower function, contribute to these analyses.
• The University’s work to prevent gender-based violence,8 sexual harassment and bullying is being strengthened based on the results for Uppsala University from a national survey.9
• Systematically disseminating information and knowledge about what
  discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and reprisals mean, how such matters are handled at the University, and where students and staff can find information and support.
• The University’s work with active measures is integrated into the daily work environment efforts and the overarching development work at the University and is coordinated as far as possible with gender mainstreaming, widening participation, internationalisation and other related assignments. This work with active measures
  is done in collaboration with staff unions and student unions.
• Communication and coordination in equal opportunities work through supportive expertise and organisational structures for the ongoing work at both university-wide and operational levels. The Advisory Board for Equal Opportunities has a central function in developing communications and strengthening coordination between different levels within the University in its ongoing work with equal opportunities.

Monitoring and evaluation

The Equal Opportunities and Gender Equality Programme is monitored, evaluated and revised by the Advisory Board for Equal Opportunities on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor. The ongoing work to promote equal opportunities is planned and monitored within the framework of the University’s regular operational planning and monitoring.10

Footnotes

1 Uppsala University: Mission, Goals and Strategies (UFV 2018/641)

2 According to the Discrimination Act, employers and education providers must work with active measures, which are defined as prevention and promotion measures aimed at preventing discrimination and serving in other ways to promote equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age within a given establishment. Discrimination means that someone is disadvantaged or violated, and that this discrimination is associated with one or more of the seven grounds of discrimination. There are six forms of discrimination: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment,
sexual harassment, inadequate accessibility, and instructions to discriminate. More information on the different forms and grounds of discrimination can be found on the Equality Ombudsman (DO) website: https://www.do.se.

3 Vice-Chancellor’s decision Uppdrag för Uppsala universitets arbete för att främja breddad rekrytering (UFV 2024/259) (Assignment for Uppsala University’s work to promote widening participation)

4 Jensen I., Björklund C., Aboagye E., Hagberg J., Bodin L., Arbetsmiljö och produktivitet inom akademin: En studie om den psykosociala arbetsmiljöns betydelse för forskares prestation. (The work environment and productivity in academia: A study of the importance of the psychosocial work environment for researcher performance). Unit for
intervention and implementation research in occupational health, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet 2018. The report presents the results of a comprehensive register study of data from KI over time from 2007 to 2014. The methodology included performance ranking (bibliometrics, contributions) and the work environment (employee survey) at the department level, along with a study of the relationship between these factors and the identification of important factors in the work environment that affect performance.

5 In other words, women and men being assessed differently.

6 Meritocracy means that a selection is made on the basis of actual competence that is relevant to the position (merit).

7 The term ‘equality data’ refers to all data that can be used in work with equality and covers all of the different grounds of discrimination. Risks for discrimination related to certain grounds of discrimination are difficult to investigate due to privacy considerations for students and employees and the GDPR legislation.

8 Minna Salminen-Karlsson, Gender-based violence, sexual harassment and bullying at Uppsala University: Results from a national survey (UFV 2023/163).

9 In the national survey, gender-based violence is used as an umbrella term for sexual harassment, bullying, cyberbullying and incivility. The term ‘gender’ emphasises how inequalities and power structures in society that are linked to factors such as gender, gender identity, class, ethnicity, sexuality, function and age, contribute to this violence in various ways. Rudolfsson, L. et al., Enkätstudie om genusbaserad utsatthet och sexuella trakasserier i svensk högskolesektor (Survey on gender-based violence and sexual harassment in the Swedish higher education sector). Karolinska Institutet, KTH, Sweden, Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, 2022.

10 Rutin för universitetsövergripande uppföljning och enkätundersökningar (UFV 2025/298) (Procedure for monitoring and surveys for Uppsala University).