Equality

In accordance with the Declaration of Human Rights and the objectives of Agenda 2030, the UIC Barcelona Equality Office maintains the principle of equal opportunities and non-discrimination for the entire university community (PAS, PDI and students). 

This commitment is also expressed through a clear commitment to the social and labour inclusion of migrants, the disabled, young people and working mothers/fathers. 

As a service office, this department takes priority:

• Attending to consultations from the entire university community.
• Monitoring the implementation of the III Equality Plan (2022-2026).
• Promoting positive actions in line with the Protocol for the Prevention, Evaluation and Intervention of Harassment (2020). 
• The collection and analysis of the university's sex disaggregated data (students, PAS staff, PDI staff). 
• The design and implementation of specific training on equality and life-work balance.

The Office takes on a supervisory role for these principles in accordance with the international, national and autonomous legislation in force, as well as the collective agreements and the different regulations covering the university's teaching body and students.

The main functions proposed by the Equality Office therefore include:

• To ensure compliance with legislation on equal opportunities, non-discrimination and effective implementation of the principle of equality between women and men.
• To promote training and awareness campaigns about equal opportunities among all members of the university community.
• To disseminate the activities carried out throughout the university community. 
• To promote equity at work between men and women in all selection, promotion, professional development and payment processes. 
• To design, implement and evaluate the current Equality Plan.
• To promote a cross-disciplinary approach in all university policies.
• To promote teaching and research in the field of equality.
• To inform and advise the university's governing bodies on equality policies.
• To promote the transfer of social knowledge in the area of equality through the university.

The Head of the Unit, Dr Consuelo León, works in collaboration with the Equality Committee, the Department of People Management, the Vice-Rectorate for Academic Planning and Ordinance, the Union, the Committee for Agenda 2030 and the Vice-Rectorate for the University Community at UIC Barcelona to which the Office is attached.

Since it was set up in June 17, 2019, when it was approved by the Executive Committee of the University's Board of Governors, the following areas have been focused on: 

• Agreements and Accords: III Equality Plan (2022-2026) and Harassment Protocol (2020)
• Online and face-to-face training in webinars and sessions open not only to the university community but to the general public.
• Working in network along with the gender committees in the university system (Xarxa Vives, Comisió Dones i Ciencia and CRUE) and with the equality offices in these universities.

The Unit has an Equality Committee consisting of:

• Dr Consuelo León, Head of the Unit and Director of the Observatory on Family Policies at the Institute of Advanced Family Studies.
• Dr Esther Jiménez, Vice-Rector for the University Community and Dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences.
• Mr Narcís Aguiló, UIC Barcelona Ombuds Officer.
• Ms Anna Oliveras, Director of People Management at UIC Barcelona.

Equal opportunities

The SDG (Sustainable Development Goals), valid until 2030 and following on from the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), include among their 17 objectives a 5th one on Gender Equality. This objective was included in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), approved by the United Nations in 1979 and ratified by 187 countries-and UIC Actions.

• UIC Actions: From this academic year onwards, the university will have its own web space that will include the milestones related to the following Agenda 2030 objectives:
  • UIC Barcelona's action plan for the implementation of the sustainable development goals

Organic law 3/2007 for effective equality between women and men. 

Law 1/2003, of February 19, of the universities of Catalonia in article 3 states the objective of the Catalan university system to promote the improvement of teaching and social cohesion, equal opportunities and quality of life.

Organic Law 4/2007, of April 12, amended Organic Law 6/2001, of December 21 on Universities (LOU). It sought to promote parity in the representative bodies and [1] higher participation of women in research groups and the creation of specific programmes on coordinated gender equality supervised by the General Conference on University Policy. 

• UIC Actions: In the governing bodies of the University it should be noted that women are represented in greater proportion in dean’s offices, vice-dean’s offices and management positions.  In fact, in the UIC Barcelona Board of Governors, as you can see in the table below, parity has almost been achieved, and the same is the case with our centre boards:

Law 17/2015 on effective equality between women and men that is framed within its own autonomic regulation that completes the regulations on parity.

Royal Decree Law 6/2019 of March 1 on equal treatment and opportunities for women and men.  

• UIC procedure: The III Equality Plan (2022-2026) at UIC Barcelona clearly mentions its commitment to equality in selection and recruitment processes, learning, professional promotion and remuneration between men and women and sets out a new recruitment processes exclusively focusing on the level of competence of the candidate and not on family commitments. Regarding remuneration, an appropriate review will be carried out to ensure that any differences between men and women are eliminated. In that sense, over the past year efforts have been made to define job positions and to classify professional categories.

Work- life balance

Law 39/1999, of November 5 to promote a good work-life balance for working people.

Royal Decree 3/2019, of February 8, on urgent measures in the field of science, technology, innovation and the University mentions the need to guarantee equal opportunities in the development of professional careers in the field of research, development and innovation, encouraging this to have procedures for the selection and evaluation of teaching and research staff that take into account situations of temporary incapacity, risk during pregnancy, maternity, guardianship for the purpose of adoption, fostering, risk during breastfeeding and paternity, guaranteeing the same opportunities as the other staff participating in the selection and evaluation processes, in order to not be penalised for time lost due to these situations.

• UIC procedure: The III Equality Plan (2022-2026) at UIC Barcelona makes a clear commitment to flexitime, promoting a responsible way of working based on achieving objectives and not on criteria of physical presence in the workplace. The aim was to include measures that allow for an academic career and maternity among PDI staff to be compatible. This is a sensitive issue because it is necessary to detect and retain talent, taking into account the fact that the moment of maximum professional take-off often coincides with maternity and child rearing. In recent years, both in the Vice-Rectorate for Academic and Teaching Staff management and the Vice-Rectorate for the University Community, several focus groups were set up in order to update some of these proposals such as a reduction in teaching hours throughout the pre- and post-maternity periods and staff are encouraged not to take on any other teaching responsibilities outside their specialist areas in other academic semesters. A period without any teaching or management responsibilities may be possible after maternity or paternity leave, or a period of leave to take care of a minor or dependent person. 

Diversity/Inclusion/Treatment

Organic Law on Universities (LOU) 6/2001 (Organic Law on Universities) which declares the right of students to receive non-sexist treatment.

Organic Law 1/2004 on measures for comprehensive protection against gender violence.  

Law 5/2008, of April 24, recognising the right to eradicate violence against women. 

• UIC procedure: UIC Barcelona and the other Catalan universities are signatories of an agreement signed within the framework of the "State Pact Against Gender Violence" (for 2018,2019,2020 and 2021) with l´ICD and the Department of Business and Knowledge in the Catalan Generalitat. Before signing this agreement there were round tables, webinars, sexual affective training sessions, research and the publication of a book on working from home and quality of life for women.

  To promote respectful, equitable non-sexist treatment and deal with gender violence and violence of any other type, the UIC has the following supporting documentation: 

  1. Collective  State Agreement for Educational and Research Centres (2012) where the following offences are defined: "It will be considered a very serious offence to carry out actions and maintain frequent behaviour that repeatedly and systematically seeks to undermine the dignity of the individual and to harm them morally, subjecting them to a discriminatory, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive working environment" (Art 50) and their degree of severity: "The following are very serious offences:  A serious lack of respect and ill-treatment, wither by word or action, aimed at any member of the Centre’s educational community. Any behaviour or conduct, in the workplace, that undermines respect for the intimacy and dignity of a woman or a man through any offence, either physical or verbal, that is sexual in nature. If such behaviour or conduct is carried out through dominance through a hierarchical position, this will be judged an aggravating factor and “clear sanctions will be applied" (Art 55). The above mentioned document also lists the sanctions: "For small offences: Verbal admonition; if reiterated, written admonition. For serious offences: Written admonition, with knowledge of the staff delegates or the Company Committee, if the worker so wishes. If there is a relapse, suspension of employment and salary for 5 to 15 days, with a note on their personal record. For very serious offences:  Notice of termination (of employment).  Suspension of employment and salary for 16 to 30 days (Art.58)
  2. The harassment protocol at UIC Barcelona (2019) in which types of harassment (discriminatory, moral, work-related due to pregnancy, due to sexual orientation) are categorised and the internal process to follow is specified: Mediation, Ombusdsperson, Equality Office, and specific committee created for each case with a commitment to follow up on the issue.

Law 11/2014, of October 10 to eradicate homophobia.

• UIC procedure: The Catalan Generalitat has set up a web page where the official process can be carried out to provide help in the event that "a trans person wants to change their name" among students. At UIC Barcelona there is an adviser. Students go to their advisor and the issue is dealt with confidentially. If a student decides to change their name in the end, their advisor will communicate this change it in order to change the class lists.

Gender perspective

The Bologna Plan (1999) includes gender studies in university teaching and research as well as teaching students competences that allow them to face economic and social changes and become aware of values and equality between men and women. 

The Action Plan for Women and Science, derived from the Fifth European Framework Programme (1998-2002), established the need to promote gender equality later extended by the Seventh European Framework Programme (2007-2013) that opted for the inclusion of gender equality in scientific activity and developed a framework of actions to strengthen the role of women and the dimension of gender in scientific research.

At present, gender equality is one of the six cornerstones of the European Research Council (ERC), the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Commission which publishes a She Figures Report (Statistics and Indicators on Gender Equality in Science) every three years The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), set up in 2006, aims at disseminating information, sharing good practices, and developing methodological tools to incorporate the gender dimension into all political areas, including higher education and research. A good example of this is the GERI programme:  Gender Equality in Research and Innovation.

• UIC initiatives: At present, all the course guides for the 16 degree programmes at UIC Barcelona are being revised in order to promote the visibility of women, the use of non-sexist language and to boost gender-disaggregated research in order to obtain results that are more in line with gender reality.

Law 4/2001 of April 9, an amendment to Law 13/1989, of December 14 establishing cutting edge gender impact reports at European and Spanish levels, which must accompany all the regulations prepared by the Administration of the Catalan Generalitat.  

Organic Law 6/2001, of December 21, ensures that research teams promote a balanced presence between women and men.  

Law 14/2011 on science, technology and innovation states that gender must be introduced as a cross-cutting category in research and includes the promotion of gender and women's studies.

The Horizon 2020 Programme reinforces the gender dimension in research programmes, either in terms of the management of human resources, funding and decision-making of research as in the joint composition of research teams. 

• UIC Actions: At UIC Barcelona, this academic year there has been a clear growth in parity, although there is still some way to go to fully achieve this. 

These activities have been funded by the Ministry of the Presidency, Parliamentary Relations and Equality (secretary of state for Equality and Against Gender-based Violence) between 2018 and 2021.

Ensuring equal opportunities for all also includes addressing accessibility for people with disabilities on campus.  As for the students, our aim is for them to be able to fully integrate as part of the university community with measures that allow them to be autonomous and move around as independently as possible.

• Admissions process: Students applying for bachelor’s, master's and postgraduate studies, who have a disability equal to or greater than 33%, will receive a 50% discount on enrolment fees.

• Guidance: Every student at our university is assigned a personal advisor, who they can contact at any point during the academic year. This one-to-one support includes activities aimed at providing information, raising awareness and teaching on disabilities for the whole university community.
• Accessibility: UIC Barcelona guarantees and continues to work on removing physical barriers and ensuring accessibility across both its campuses in Barcelona (Iradier and Terré) and Sant Cugat, where the University has tables and chairs with wheels and moveable legs in the work room (203) for wheelchair users.

For people with hearing impairment, the University has a fixed induction loop system at the entrance to the University and a mobile system in the School of Architecture Secretary's Office (1 transmitter with 2 receivers).

For visually impaired people, there are signs in the lifts and floor numbers in Braille on all floors of the Alfa and Beta buildings on the Barcelona Campus, and signs in Braille in the toilets of the Alfa and Beta buildings on the Barcelona Campus.