Welcome to the 2026 EDI Consultation Website

This is a third iteration of the “Values and Culture “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Staff Survey; the previous two took place in 2022 and 2024.

Together with the UCC-wide EDI Gathering annual events and School-level Athena Swan focus groups, the survey provides the University with invaluable insights into staff experiences across inclusion, equality, values and culture, career progression, working life, and more.

EDI Unit runs all-staff consultation studies biennially, fulfilling actions in the “Securing our Future: UCC Strategic Plan, 2023-2028” (Goal 4.2 ii), “Belonging at UCC: A Strategic Framework for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 2025 – 2028” (2.11), and the UCC “Silver Gender Equality/Athena Swan (SAP) Action Plan, 2024 – 2029”.

All three elements of the consultation are key instruments providing comparative data for and allowing the University to:

• Facilitate understanding of our staff experiences, needs, opportunities and challenges.
• Allow for developing evidence-based, tailored interventions and policies that avoid ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions.
• Assist with applications for the Athena Swan accreditation (school/unit-level and institutional).
• Track and evidence progress of strategic action plans.
• Meet mandatory data returns to the National Disability Authority (NDA), Higher Education Authority (HEA), and the Department of Education (DFHERIS).
• Undertake needs assessment as part of our Public Sector Duty commitments under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.

Why should I take part?

By sharing your views and experiences, you will help us identify areas where the University can make improvements and build on good practice.  

Staff feedback from the 2022 and 2024 consultations contributed to major progress and impact in UCC regarding improving working life, representation and addressing inequality:

• Belonging at UCC: A Strategic Framework for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 2025 – 2028 (2.11), and a new EDI Governance Structure were launched.
• UCC was awarded the Silver Institutional Athena Swan Award. The corresponding Silver Action Plan (SAP) 2024-2029 addresses the EDI areas of work identified through previous consultations.
• Promotion schemes were revised and implemented.
• Work Life Balance Framework and associated policies were launched.
• A suite of new family-friendly services (policies and support guides) was developed, including Surrogacy, Fertility Treatment, Foster Care, and Pregnancy Loss.
• Staff Carers, and Disability and Neurodivergence Networks were launched.
• Results from 2024 aided Athena Swan applicants from 11 Schools in the assessment of their values and culture.

The data collected in 2026 will help in evidencing the efficacy of our interventions and support the development of new ones. UCC is a recipient of a Silver Athena Swan Award, which is a recognition scheme for positive gender practice in higher education and research. 

Any School or Unit currently implementing Athena Swan or preparing to make an application is strongly encouraged to complete this institutional survey. Information from this survey will be used to support Athena Swan School-level applications and action plans. In this case, a subset of anonymised School-level data will be analysed and provided to the School self-assessment team. 

The Survey

• The aim is to understand staff experiences and identify areas where the University can improve to ensure a positive, inclusive study and work environment where everyone feels they belong. The Survey was developed and will be administered by UCC’s EDI Unit.
• For most participants, the survey will take 15-20 minutes to complete.   We greatly appreciate your time.  While your responses will be saved as you progress through the survey, allowing you to leave the survey and return later without losing your input, we encourage you to take the survey when you can set aside 20 minutes to complete it.  Please note that the survey team do not recommend taking the survey on a smartphone. 
• The survey is for everyone employed by the University, regardless of role or contract type.  Please promote this survey to your colleagues. The more responses we receive, the more valuable the overall results will be.

Data Protection (see also a dedicated Data Protection website)

What sort of questions will I be asked?

We will ask a set of questions about the different equality grounds under Ireland’s Equal Status Acts. The equality grounds refer to your Age, Civil Status, Disability, Family Status, Gender, Membership of the Travelling Community, Race/Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation. We also ask about your experience of values and culture in UCC, induction, career progression, and working life, as well as any negative behaviours (e.g., discrimination or bullying). You will have opportunities to give feedback in comment boxes.  We ask these questions to understand how our diverse colleagues experience life in UCC.

All answers are optional, and none of the information you provide will be traced back to you individually.

Confidentiality

To protect your anonymity, we do not collect any identifiable information – names, email addresses and IP addresses are not recorded with your responses. UCC email addresses are used only to manage survey invitations. Your identity will not be linked to your survey response, and no individual will be identifiable from the findings shared or published.  Please do not name yourself or others or provide details which identify yourself or others in any survey response so that the responses can be treated as anonymous. 

Withdrawal
Participation in the survey is entirely voluntary, and participants may withdraw at any time before final submission. Participants can choose to answer as few or as many questions in the survey as they see fit.

You can request to withdraw your submitted responses within 10 working days of your participation. You will be asked to recall the exact date and time of your submission to identify your data. Please note that after this time, your data will be pooled and used in analyses, and it will no longer be possible to withdraw it.

Data Processing

This survey is administered by the UCC EDI Unit. Aggregated and anonymised results will be shared with Athena Swan Applicants in line with data protection policies. Summary results will also be shared with all staff, those responsible for implementing Goal 4 of the UCC Strategic Plan 2023-2028, the Governing Authority, the Academic Council, and the University Leadership Team.

Subsets of the aggregated and anonymised data will be used to support mandatory reporting to the Department of Education, HEA, and NDA, as mentioned above. The data will be processed and securely stored for 10 years for audit and research integrity purposes.

This study has been approved by the UCC Social Research Ethics Committee.
Data Protection Impact Assessment and Data Protection Notice (DPN) have been approved by the Deputy Data Protection Officer. To read the DPN please click here.