Access And Equity Policy And Procedures At Australian Catholic University

Summary of Australian Catholic University

Question:

Discuss about the Equity Of Access To The Higher Education.

The organization Australian Catholic University is a part of the education industry which is a publicly funded university with eight campuses. It offers undergraduate and posts graduate services to its customers. It is located in Australia (Acu.edu.au. 2018). It is expanding its campus by purchasing an old style office building at 33 Berry Street (Cummins 2018). The university focuses towards gender equality in all aspects. It offers job vacancies to the international applicants in its organization.

Access and equity policy and procedures are important to the business as it will bring a qualitative advantage to the organization as compared to others (Tollefson and Tsui 2014). It leaves behind the prints of its success in its client’s mind and flourishes without any barriers and set a positive brand image. It is well important for the clients as well because it helps them to identify the suitable organization as per their requirement. The resulting diverse form of university environment will help in the business of the organization to expand its goodwill to other country as well which will increase student’s admissions.

There is a crucial need for Access and Equity policy and procedures because it affects the external and internal environments of the organization (McCowan 2016). The organized policy of any organization builds it a good brand which can grab more customers to it. Most of the customers of the organization are its students and employees which will prefer for the well-formed organization where cultural diversity is framed and implemented appropriately. The diverse environment of the college will lead to development of the students language and cultural skills.

The areas that are to be focused for the policy development are discrimination against racism, gender, color, health policy priorities and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and mainly on the disadvantaged groups (Cumming and Dickson 2013). It will focus on the overall organization and its working to ensure a healthy environment.

The policy and procedures if not in place can pervade ineffective in an entire organization, which can lead to an interpretation of own version of the truth and assumptions of the people of the organization. The way each person approaches a task creates confusion. These policies will help the organization to run in an organized way and serve each of the individuals with the service, in spite of any discrimination and barriers (Orfield and Frankenberg 2013).

The key points that are to be addressed in the policy and procedure are:

• Fair and appropriate allocation of resources of equity for all people.
• Different legislations against discrimination, racial, gender, and other workplace related.
• Opportunity for all people equally without discrimination.
• Required quality training and other service access to all people.
• Addressing complaint and appeals policy and procedure.

To communicate and promote the policies, several methods can be used, arranging meeting can be the best suitable option to communicate the policy. This medium will allow interacting face to face with the individual. Another effective option is to upload the policy on the official website which will enable its clients to get the information. Emails and newsletters are other ways to communicate and promote the framed policy to others (King et al. 2016).

The risk treatment according to the development plan is to be implemented first then the risk management has to take appropriate steps to monitor and review the plan then where required analyze various solution to it. Then, necessary training, seminars and mock workshops to be organized in order to achieve the effectiveness of the staff and the clients.

• Newly developed policies are to be approved by the relevant committee according to the matters reserved for the council.
• Then it should be reviewed by the legal and compliance service.
• The committee paper for approval will contain a recommendation by the director, legal and compliance services to confirm that the developed policy fits the compliance framework.

Importance of Access and Equity Policy and Procedures

ACU is committed to provide all the students and the staff with equal benefits and opportunities. The policy and procedure of ACU are to integrate access and equity policies to all individuals to treat them fairly and equally.

This policy and procedure apply to all ACU students, staff and other related activities.

Access and Equity (A&E) strategy was introduced in 1985. The policies and approaches are aimed at ensuring the VET is responsive to the Access and Equity policies for its customers to provide the proper services.

Age Discrimination Act 2004

Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986)

Disability Discrimination Act 1992 

Racial Discrimination Act 1975

Sex Discrimination Act 1984

Work Place Gender Equality Act 2012  

Fair Work Act 2009  (Macdonald and Charlesworth 2013)

Australian Capital Territory Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT)

 New South Wales AntiDiscrimination Act 1977 (NSW)

 Northern Territory AntiDiscrimination Act 1996 (NT)

Queensland AntiDiscrimination Act 1991 (QLD) 

South Australia Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (SA) 

Tasmania AntiDiscrimination Act 1998 (TAS) 

Victoria Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (VIC)

Western Australia Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA).

• The policy aims to remove the barriers and to create an environment that is free from discrimination, harassment, racism and offensive behaviour.
• Students will receive fair and equitable treatment without considering to race, color, religion, sex or physical ability (Strachan, French and Burgess 2014).
• A disable person is not to be included under the policies, in case it would cause any risk related to occupational health and safety to the same.
• All the policies and the procedures are to be reviewed and monitored to ensure that they recognize and incorporate the right of individuals.

• The policy that are to be considered in the formation that for the employees, trainers and the students.
• If any student and staff member feels that the policy is not being observed as it should be by the college staff and the students, then he or she should refer to the supervise or to the service manager.
• Any person with a complaint may also use the University complaint and appeal procedure details which are always available on the institute’s website.

Dear Australian Catholic University stakeholder:

Attached please find the newly developed policy of the ACU University. The purpose of establishing a new policy for the organization is the identified and evaluated the risk of the development plan.

 For the attached policy, if any comments, please send via e-mail to Mark Clark, service manager, at [email protected]

 Thank you for your continued support.

To manage the fallout from dissenting stakeholders, it is necessary to listen to them instead of giving justification and interrupting them. In place of getting panic and wasting the time it is important to think for the solution of the conflict to understand the way out. At that time staying neutral is crucial and can lead to calm the situation.

Information session is designed to associate and circulate the policy to all the members of the university including the students and staffs.

Present Participants: Jack Nicolas; Amanda Lyason; Adeyemi Thomas

Location: Seminar Room

• The framed policy is to be released on the institute website and in the separately in a handout that is to be distributed among all in the organization.
• Further, training and session classes are to be given separately to the students and staff members as:
• To staff- via trainings and meetings on Friday 23 March 2018
• To students- via classes and seminars on Monday 26 March 2018

• The policy of ACU is framed to provide an equal and fair opportunity to all the people of the organization.
• The policy aims to make the environment of the organization free from discrimination and harassment.
• The framed policy applies to all the students and the working staff or the university.

Reference

Acu.edu.au. (2018). Strategic Plan 2015-2020 – ACU (Australian Catholic University). [online] Available at: https://www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/our_university/strategic_plan_2015-2020 [Accessed 12 Feb. 2018].     

Cumming, J.J. and Dickson, E., 2013. Educational accountability tests, social and legal inclusion approaches to discrimination for students with disability: A national case study from Australia. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 20(2), pp.221-239.

Cummins, C. (2018). Australian Catholic University shows faith in North Sydney with campus buy. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/property/australian-catholic-university-snaps-up-property-20150915-gjn7l9.html [Accessed 12 Feb. 2018].

Dawson, E., 2014. Equity in informal science education: developing an access and equity framework for science museums and science centres. Studies in Science Education, 50(2), pp.209-247.

King, R.C., Schilhavy, R.A., Chowa, C. and Chin, W.W., 2016. Do customers identify with our website? The effects of website identification on repeat purchase intention. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 20(3), pp.319-354.

McCowan, T., 2016. Three dimensions of equity of access to higher education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 46(4), pp.645-665.===

Orfield, G. and Frankenberg, E. eds., 2013. Educational delusions?: Why choice can deepen inequality and how to make schools fair. Univ of California Press.

Strachan, G., French, E. and Burgess, J., 2014. Equal access to the opportunities available? Equity and diversity laws and policies in Australia. International Handbook on Equality and Diversity Management at Work: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal Treatment, 2nd edn. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp.13-34.

Tollefson, J.W. and Tsui, A.B., 2014. Language diversity and language policy in educational access and equity. Review of Research in Education, 38(1), pp.189-214.

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