This book describes a project studying equity and staffing in higher education in the United Kingdom and documents the experiences in this area of three institutions of higher education, one each from the further education, "new" university, and traditional university sectors. The book is divided into nine chapters. Chapter 1 examines the controversies within the broad field of equal opportunities policy-making. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 present the three case studies and cover background and history of the policy, equal opportunities structures and practices, and evaluations. Chapter 5 reports on one approach taken by the project to the analysis of the wide range of qualitative data gathered in order to create "snapshot" portrayals of events demonstrating the complexities of the equal opportunities policy-making process. Chapter 6 provides an analysis of institutional policy documents and discusses the implications different formats have for the policy-making process. Chapters 7 and 8 bring together the main themes and findings of the project, e.g., they discuss the range of good practices revealed by the case studies. Chapter 9 draws together the various project themes in order to recapitulate the project's main findings and to suggest new forms of practice likely to enhance the equity policy-making process. An appendix on the study's methodology is included. (Contains 74 references.) (CK)