Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Staff and Student Conduct

All staff in the School operate under the University’s Equality and Diversity Inclusion Policy and statement “The University of St Andrews is fully committed to respect and fair treatment for everyone, eliminating discrimination and actively promoting equality of opportunity and delivering fairness to all.” The policy is informed by the Equality Act (2010) listing protected characteristics and ensuring that everyone is protected against harassment, bullying and discrimination.

All students in the School adhere to the Sponsio Academica recognising the core principle of respect for others and for the values of the University.

EDI Committee

The School has an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee which aims to promote equality of opportunity for all members of the School, students and staff. The committee is formed by representatives from all parts of the school.

The EDI committee meets at least twice a semester to address EDI concerns and to undertake actions and activities to actively promote a more inclusive environment. We review policies and procedures, curriculum material and delivery, buildings and infrastructure and we consult with everyone in the school to promote equality, fairness and transparency within the School.

The School’s Director of EDI Dr Alice Toniolo convenes the committee and can be contacted by email at edi-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk should you have any queries, suggestions or concerns relating to equality and diversity.

If you prefer to raise any concerns, feedback or suggestions through your student reps please feel free to contact the School President, the Disability & Academic Support rep, the MSc rep or the PhD rep who are active members of the EDI committee.

Gender Equality and Inclusion

The School’s commitment to advancing gender equality has been recognised by an Athena SWAN Silver Award.

University Report and Support

The School is against any kind of discrimination and harassment on any basis, including but not limited to gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. The Report and Support tool is available to report any concerns you have related to wellbeing, bullying, discrimination, abuse, assault or harassment of any sort.

University Inclusive Curriculum Feedback

The School is committed to making its teaching and learning fully inclusive, so that all students are given the opportunity to reach their potential, all students feel like they belong and are not made to feel excluded, and students have the opportunity to contribute to curriculum development.

If you have any comments or feedback on any module run by computer science, in terms of the inclusivity of the content, delivery or assessments/feedback, please contact the module lecturer, tutor, level coordinator, Director of Equality Diversity & Inclusion, or Director of Teaching. You can find the relevant contact information on module pages or the roles and email addresses page. If you would rather provide anonymous feedback, please use the Module Evaluation Questionnaire (MEQ). Alternatively, you can contact your School President or Class Representative, who can raise ideas or issues via the relevant staff-student meetings and consultative committees.

The ‘Curriculum feedback form for inclusive and anti-colonial practice’ is a mechanism for capturing voluntary and ongoing student feedback on matters of inclusivity and activity which aims to dismantle or address colonialism in the curriculum. You can access the form here. If you want to report any instances of bullying, harassment or discrimination that have occurred in teaching and learning environments, you can use the University’s Report & Support tool.

University Support and Advice

The University has compiled information for various EDI support and advice, including:

• Disability
• Faith and religion
• Race, ethnicity, culture and discrimination
• LGBTQ+

Wellbeing Resources

The University provides a variety of wellbeing resources:

• Wellbeing room: There is a private lockable room available for anyone in need in the Willie Russell Labs (ground floor, 3rd door on the left-hand side along the main corridor). This room can be used for example for taking a medication, taking time to breathe, pray, breastfeed, or any issues for which you require a private space. Tutorial rooms can also be booked (see Room Availability), but please note that these are not lockable.
• Wellbeing map: a map with key wellbeing places in St Andrews.
• Wellbeing support: a general guide to how student services can support your wellbeing and more specific types of support.
• Wellbeing talks: talks and workshops covering a variety of topics such as anxiety, perfectionism and self-care.

Updating personal details on University services

If you wish to change your contact or next of kin details, you should do this via the term address portlet in MySaint.

If you wish to change your desired name(s), gender and title, please contact Academic Registry via the appropriate address below. The student record holds an “official” and a “known as” name for each student, and requests can be made to update either. These will then appear on the University Systems including MS Teams and MMS.

• Undergraduate students: registry-ug@st-andrews.ac.uk
• Students on postgraduate taught degrees: taughtpg-reg@st-andrews.ac.uk
• Students on postgraduate research degrees: registry-pgr@st-andrews.ac.uk

Usernames used to access the University IT systems can only be changed under the following circumstances:

• Gender changes with an associated name change
• Where there is a risk of harm to the student.

In these cases, in addition to informing Registry please contact the ASC. When the change has been approved, please contact the School’s Systems Group (cs-support@st-andrews.ac.uk) to ensure that your CS account is also updated.