Equality Challenge Unit

5 Good relations

The Equality Act 2010 articulates a clear expectation that HEIs as public bodies need to foster good relations between people from different groups, including religion or belief groups. In addition, in Northern Ireland there is also a duty under section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to promote good relations. The issue of developing and maintaining good relations should therefore be a high priority for institutions across the UK. This chapter examines how HEIs have approached this issue and explores where tensions have emerged.

It is worth noting that the concept of developing good relations can involve building relationships between HEI religion or belief groups and individuals outside the institution, as well as developing relationships between groups on campus. The scope of this study, however, did not include an exploration of good relations between members of institutions and the outside world, and this chapter focuses on internal good relations alone.

5.1 Interactions between members of religion or belief groups

This research uncovered a range of examples of HEIs and students’ unions actively attempting to bring together individuals and groups to share and discover mutual interests. In many cases, these are conceived around the idea of cultural exchange, but include building understanding around religion or belief. One interesting example of a cross-faith and cross-cultural activity was provided by an institution that held a ‘death day’, which examined the issues associated with cultural and religious responses to death and dying.

A number of institutions address good relations as part of their equality and diversity training. Training frequently includes areas such as etiquette, addressing prejudice, and responding to staff and student concerns in culturally sensitive ways. Many of these initiatives around cultural and religious differences are driven by the desire to address the needs of international students. A number of institutions supplement training with information resources for staff, which address both academic and social provision.

HEIs that have a religious foundation can be motivated by the inspiration to develop good relations between people of varied religion or belief. Participants noted that religion is taken seriously in these institutions. Even though the religious foundation institutions in the study were all Christian, an argument was made by both Christians and non-Christians that such institutions create spaces in which religion is respected. One senior member of staff in a Christian foundation HEI explained:

‘We talk about Christian values and we understand religion. We preach tolerance, and our religious beliefs give us credibility when dealing with other religions. The Christian ecumenical ideas that underpin the institution can be useful in creating an atmosphere in which a range of viewpoints are acknowledged.’

This perspective was sometimes challenged by atheist and agnostic members of the institutions concerned, who expressed concern that diverse religious beliefs are acknowledged in a way that non-religious beliefs were not.

Chaplaincies and HEIs provided examples of talks, seminars and lecture series that address the role of religion or belief across a variety of academic disciplines, and that are aimed at building inter-faith dialogue. One HEI provided a range of challenging debates, which include an attempt to answer the questions: ‘Can science prove or disprove the existence of God? Have scientists done away with the need for the universe to have a Creator?’ Other activities include inter-faith cafés and inter-faith weeks. However, it should be noted that use of the terminology of inter-faith can either be intended to be, or be perceived to be, exclusive of those whose philosophical belief positions are not understood in terms of a faith.

Data gathered during fieldwork revealed chaplaincy services and Christian unions that attempt to provide alternatives to social activities focused around alcohol use. In a number of institutions, Christian union members supply bottled water, tea or coffee to students leaving students’ union events late at night. This builds on practice found in the street pastors’ movement, where similar services are provided to clubbers late at night in town and city centres across the UK. This demonstrates both a concern for the welfare of fellow students and an activity that is designed, in part, to engage students in the Christian union.

While some institutions have clearly disseminated practices and training designed to foster good relations, others have not. The case studies suggested that where HEIs have dispersed campuses or are based around a collegiate model, it is more difficult to drive consistent good practice around these issues.

Should your institution develop policies and strategies to facilitate good relations between members of different religion or belief groups?