Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within the Plymouth Business School

Dr Jasmine Kelland, a Lecturer in Human Resource Studies/Leadership at PBS, focuses her research on Caregiving fathers in the workplace, particularly examining the gender stereotypes they face. Her work on ‘fatherhood forfeits’ delves into the challenges these fathers encounter and how this phenomenon contributes to the gender pay gap. Dr Kelland also offers practical recommendations to support men with caregiving roles and mitigate the impacts of ‘fatherhood forfeits,’ aiming to enhance workplace equality for the benefit of parents, organisations, and society at large.

Dr Kelland also joined with charity Working Families to convene an event celebrating new Flexible Working legislation. 

She shared recommendations on the next steps policy makers need to take to ensure inclusivity and was joined in a panel discussion by a representative from CIPD the professional body for HR, Learning and Development.

Dr Kelland’s work has been widely cited within the press, by professional bodies, and she has contributed to numerous blogs and webinars on the topic of fathers at work. Her ‘fatherhood forfeit’ research has been published by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee and referred to in a House of Commons debate exploring ‘Fathers in the Family’. She has presented her research to the UK Parliament All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood, professional and international academic conferences and numerous organisations. Additionally, she regularly discusses the challenges facing caregiving fathers through media outlets such as Sky News and BBC Radio. 

Her book “Caregiving Fathers in the Workplace: Organisational Experiences and the Fatherhood Forfeit”, published by Palgrave Macmillan is out now.

 

Improving BAME female students’ access and progression in PGR study.

“Generation Delta” is a four-year (2022–2026) project funded by Research England and Office for Students valued almost £800,000 to address the issue of low representation of BAME female professors in Higher Education institutions in England, focusing on improving the access and progression of BAME female PGR students and with a long-term aim to increase the number of BAME fame professors. 

The project is a collaboration coordinated by Leeds University and the partners include five other universities (i.e. Plymouth, Reading, Sheffield, London and Sunderland). The project team at Plymouth have made significant contribution across three streams: providing training workshops for individual BAME female PGR students across England and for staff members in the six universities; creating and growing a BAME female PGR Network in Plymouth and linking the local/regional network with that in other universities; and providing mentoring to BAME female PGR students.

The training workshops provided by the “Generation Delta” projects cover three key stages in PGR education: Access to Academy, Upgrade and Progression, and Training for Careers. So far, Plymouth have organised and hosted two in-person training workshops for students and two online training workshops for staff members. In June 2023, a “Training for Careers” Student Workshop was hosted in Business School with over 30 students from all across England. The workshop provided training on preparing for PhD viva, how to write an academic CV and how to publish PhD work. In June 2024, Business School hosted a student workshop on “Preparing for PGR study”, providing training on how to write a good research proposal for PhD applications and looking for funding opportunities to support PhD study. 

Plymouth BAME PGR Network has members from many schools in the University. The Network provides an excellent platform for BAME PGR students at all stages to share experience, advice, information and peer learning. Feedback from network members and allies shows that by joining such a network has greatly helped students’ well-being and belongness recognition.