Cuts in universities could disproportionately affect women, black and disabled students and staff, the lecturers' union says.

The University and College Union claims 21 of the 43 institutions planning cuts have not met rules requiring them to assess their impact on minority groups.

The claim comes as the government is calling on universities to widen access for poorer groups.

Universities UK rejected the claims, accusing the union of scaremongering.

Universities have a duty to promote equality and are required to assess the impact of policy and procedures on the grounds of race, gender and disability.

As part of this, they are required to make a "thorough and systematic" assessment of whether any changes they are making to services, staffing levels and courses could have a detrimental impact on these groups.

Course cuts

But UCU claims nearly half of those planning cuts have failed to do so.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: "These figures show a systematic failure of our universities to comply with the law and that is a simply shocking state of affairs.

"We urge the Equality and Human Rights Commission to urgently investigate why universities are failing in their duties and will be closely monitoring all universities, especially with daily news of greater job cuts."

The union's head of equality Rachel Curley said there was a legal obligation to eliminate and minimise the impact of such changes on these particular groups.
 
"We're getting institutions closing workplace nurseries, creches for students and libraries and in a whole range of areas that may disproportionately affect different ethnic groups, women and disabled staff and students," she said.

She gave the example of London Metropolitan University which is planning to close its nursery, which could have a high impact on female staff and students.

The lecturers' union has been protesting at London Metropolitan's cuts plans - which it claims could mean the loss of more than 500 posts. The cuts have been prompted by the university losing £50m, following a funding council audit of student drop-out numbers.

Among the losses highlighted by the union, were cuts planned in Irish studies, Asia Pacific studies and women's studies.

A spokeswoman for the university said it was confident that it had met all the legal requirements on equality impact assessments and that it had provided a full response to a direct enquiry on the matter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in June.

She added that the assessments were based on a tried and tested formula used elsewhere in the higher education sector and would remain under review as the process continued.

A spokeswoman for Universities UK, representing higher education leaders, said: "Higher education institutions have informed us that they are very confident that they are meeting their equalities duties in handling potential job losses.

"UCU's latest scaremongering tactic does nothing for the higher education sector but undermine confidence and increase staff anxieties."

(www.eduwo.com, Jainlyn&Charlotte)