EDII Strategy

The MIC Strategic Plan, Flourishing Learning Community 2020-2023 aimed to establish a new senior management-level post responsible for creation of, and leadership of, the College’s equality and diversity strategy. This appointment was successfully filled in January 2022.

A number of notable achievements in 2022 include the development of gender equality in terms of imbalance on governance and management committees, that all now have a minimum of 40% female representation.

MIC's Executive Team was restructured, with female representation increasing from 13% to 50%. Training has been offered to staff in EDII and gender-neutral toilet facilities on campus have been allocated.

In September 2019, the College received the bronze level ‘Investors in Diversity’ award from the Irish Centre for Diversity, recognising the steps taken to embed EDII into wider organisational systems.  In addition, MIC is committed to the Athena SWAN Charter and principles, and successfully attained the Athena SWAN Bronze Award in 2020. In June 2022, MIC submitted its Faculty of Arts application for the Athena Swan Bronze Award that has engaged a whole Faculty review of gender equality. 

Since January 2022, the EDII Office has put in place a short term strategic plan 2022-2023 and will begin a five-year plan in 2023 to align with the MIC new strategy (2023-2028).

The EDII Office is building on MIC EDII successes including gender equality on governance and management committees, the offering of diverse EDII training programmes, the allocation of gender-neutral toilet facilities in Limerick and Thurles campuses and the recent successful awarding of the Faculty of Arts attaining the Bronze Departmental Award in September 2022. 

Our short term strategy include six priority areas that includes:

• EDII Infrastructure
• Gender Equality and Athena Swan Charter
• LGBT+ Supports and Engagement advocate for those within the LGBT+ staff and student communities.
• Race Equality and College of Sanctuary
• Irish Language
• Communication and Reporting

We will bring a longer terms process of strategic planning and look forward to developing a community of practice approach to that process. We in the EDII Office have an open door policy and we seek to collaborate with staff and students across the College.  We look forward to working with you over the coming years. 

EDII Short Term Strategy 2022/23.

We are delighted to bring to you a series of circulars on our work that seeks to underpin an ethos and practice of EDII at MIC. Our first circular in October 2022 launched our EDII website, EDII brand, Short Term Strategic Plan 2022-2023, funding for EDII projects through the Projects Awards and other activities that we hope will be of interest to you. Click on the below circulars to read more.

EDII Circular #1 October 2022

EDII Circular #2 December 2022

Other EDII Achievements have included:

• Staff and student training in various areas related to EDII across the College including the Menopause, Gender Identity and Inclusion, Bystander and Consent.
• Establishment of the EDII Office and the EDII Implementation Committee in 2022 with responsibility for overseeing the strategic development and mainstreaming of EDII at MIC and enacting MIC Athena Swan action plans (institutional and faculty).
• Drawn from staff (two professional staff and three academic), five EDII Champion roles established and two Faculty EDII Lead Roles in Arts and Education.
• Development of new policies and guidelines including the Gender Expression and Identity Policy, Menopause Guidelines, Adoption Leave Policy, Carer’s Policy, MIC Blended Working Policy and amendment to the Shorter Working Year (SWY) Policy to include temporary staff.
• Gender-neutral toilet facilities have been allocated on the Limerick and Thurles campuses.
• Launch of MIC rainbow pedestrian crossings to visually highlight our inclusion of all people, including the LGBTQI communities, June 2023.
• Successfully developed and awarded University of Sanctuary Scholarships that include two annual postgraduate and four undergraduate awards that include a fee waiver and €3000 stipend for International Protection Applicants.
• Have successfully led and attained Higher Education Authority (HEA) funding for a number of Gender Equality Enhancement Fund (GEEF) projects.
• The MISU student LGBTQ+ society was re-established as MIC Cloud in 2021 and the MIC staff LGBTQI+ network was created in 2022 and formally launched by the MIC President and guest speakers in January 2023.  
• Numerous projects have been awarded to staff and student EDII project collaborations date and awardee projects can be accessed here. These projects have initiated activities that relate to gender equality, race equality, LGBT+ supports, religious and belief diversity, sexual violence and harassment supports through peer mentoring, and engagement with the Traveller community.  
• Development and delivery of the Certificate in English Language for Academic Purposes for new communities seeking international protection, in collaboration with the EDII Office and the Limerick Clare Education and Training Board.
• Continued efforts to diversify our staff and student populations.
• Increased supports in terms of recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups.
• Increased funding to enable female staff to undertake the Aurora programme with more than 30 female staff have availed of the programme, supported by the EDII budget.
• Investment of €507,826 since 2019/20 in the area of EDII in MIC.
• Over 100 staff have undertaken the EDI Online programme in 2022/23.
• Support and developed the MIC Teaching for Inclusion Seminar Series
• Annual Africa Day, a student-led initiative by our African students and staff
• The development and implementation of a Gender Identity, Expression & Diversity Training programme for staff in Irish HEIs
• The EDII and Quality offices have developed Guidelines for Gender Neutral Language in College Documentation which is a constituent document of the MIC quality management system (QMS); Incorporate the gender dimension in the institutional quality assurance reporting, quality reviews and surveys
• Since 2020, job specifications cite evidence of leadership in equality and diversity as being desirable. From March 2023, this changed to being an essential requirement for senior leadership positions at Principal Lecturer level and above
• All interview and shortlisting boards have at least 40% of each gender
• Since 2020, EDII now forms part of the induction programme for new staff
• MIC staff engage with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Digital Badge through the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. To date, 110 MIC staff have participated on the programme.
• The terms of reference of the Equality Committee to prioritise attention to issues of diversity and inclusion and broaden the Equality Policy to include EDI.
• EDII is a standing agenda item at ET, Governing Authority, Academic Council and Arts Faculty Board meetings and will be for the Education Faculty Board once the AS SAT is developed and EDII Lead appointed.
• EDII is included in the 2023/24 Institutional Quality Review and department quality reviews align with EDII
• The gender dimension on programme and module creation/modification forms will be broadened to wider EDII consideration at module creation and development stage.
• The Sexual Violence Harassment Prevention Manager has delivered workshops to over 700 students since September 2023.
• A peer mentoring programme with a focus on EDII and the Ending Sexual Violence Harassment Framework was piloted in 2023 with MIC students.
• MIC’s Critical Incident Management Plan has been amended to take account of matters around Ending Sexual Violence Harassment
• Institutional support for events such as FemFest, International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day.
• The Strategic Communications & Marketing team is launching an upcoming podcast series through which a range of EDII areas will be explored with staff and students.
• Comprising multifaceted campaigns, the Strategic Communications & Marketing team developed a targeted strategy to help address male under-representation in the student body.