tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/higher-education-diversity-9344/articlesHigher education diversity – The Conversation2015-06-29T04:21:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/436702015-06-29T04:21:07Z2015-06-29T04:21:07ZProfessors aren’t born: they must be nurtured<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86246/original/image-20150624-31498-6i2bl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young academics need a strong, properly structured support system to climb the ranks and one day become professors.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-fewer-than-100-black-professors-in-britain-why-24088">growing call</a> globally for universities to develop and nurture more black professors. In <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/transformation-of-south-african-universities-too-slow-nzimande-2015-01-16">South Africa</a>, the issue is sharpened by the country’s racist legacy. It has been more than two decades since the official end of apartheid and there are still <a href="http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Where-are-our-black-academics-20150430">alarmingly few</a> black professors in South African universities. </p>
<p>There is an obvious need for equity and redress after decades of <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20121023192747849">racial exclusion</a>. But there are also compelling educational reasons to employ more black academics in our universities.</p>
<p>For instance, young people – especially black youths – need to be exposed to role models they can admire and emulate. There are wider benefits: a critical mass of black academics can <a href="https://theconversation.com/reflections-of-a-black-female-scholar-i-know-what-it-feels-like-to-be-invisible-39748">influence institutional culture</a>. This will help to create universities where all students and staff feel welcome and can do their best work.</p>
<p>Universities produce and disseminate knowledge. They have an obligation to contribute to the public good. A more diverse academic workforce is likely to challenge the traditional ways in which these purposes are achieved and can contribute to South Africa’s broader <a href="http://www.gov.za/issues/national-development-plan-2030">transformation agenda</a>.</p>
<p>A diverse group of researchers will also introduce a broader range of research questions and methodologies. More varied research sites and kinds of knowledge are likely to be generated and valued by academia. </p>
<h2>Preparation and support are key</h2>
<p>But professors aren’t born: young academics must be nurtured and supported through a long, tough journey into the professoriate. Professors need deep knowledge and understanding of their discipline. They must be able to teach and induct a diverse student population into ways of thinking and knowing about that discipline. </p>
<p>They also have to build a research career which involves conducting groundbreaking research and supervising postgraduate students. Finally, it means getting involved in community engagement programmes. </p>
<p>This daunting list of requirements makes it clear that appointing anyone as a professor without proper preparation is potentially very harmful both to the individual and their institution. Universities and the government need well-conceptualised, managed and sustained systems to bring black academics into the professorial fold.</p>
<h2>Baby steps need to replaced by big leaps</h2>
<p>In the last 20 years, some South African institutions have introduced programmes designed to grow their own academic timber and change the demographic profile of their academic staff. Rhodes University, for instance, has used accelerated development programmes in its bid to diversify the next generation of academics.</p>
<p>Academics involved in these programmes are given a reduced teaching load so they can obtain their postgraduate disciplinary qualifications. Crucially, they are assigned a mentor in their field to guide and support them in all aspects of their career development. All the next generation academics must participate in a formal programme that prepares them to become <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-turn-lecturers-into-good-university-teachers-42134">lecturers</a>. So far, 33 black academics who have gone through this programme have been offered posts at Rhodes. </p>
<p>Other universities and the <a href="http://www.nrf.ac.za/">National Research Foundation</a> have established Emerging Researcher programmes to enable academics to <a href="http://hicd.nrf.ac.za/?q=node/37">develop</a> their research profiles. There are also several initiatives <a href="http://postgraduatesupervision.com/">aimed</a> at enhancing academics’ capacity to supervise at a postgraduate level.</p>
<p>Together, these programmes are only a drop in the ocean when it comes to attracting, retaining and supporting black academics. Now the South African government and the statutory body Higher Education South Africa have agreed that it is time for a coherent national strategy on this important issue.</p>
<p>The Department of Higher Education and Training has created a New Generation of Academics Programme that will initially fund 125 new teaching posts across all the country’s 25 public universities. Each lecturer will be appointed on a six-year contract at a cost of about R2.1 million (around US $165,000) per post. Most of these posts are earmarked for black South Africans and/or women.</p>
<p>Does the higher education sector have the capacity and political will to implement this programme properly? Those <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2015/06/11/what-it-will-take-to-produce-more-black-professors1">who are demanding</a> meaningful transformation in the system will be watching closely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are compelling educational reasons to employ more black academics in universities and to give them all the support they’ll need to become professors.Jo-Anne Vorster, Senior lecturer, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes UniversityLynn Quinn, Associate Professor of Higher Education Studies. Head of Department of the Centre for Higher Education, Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/425672015-05-30T19:24:33Z2015-05-30T19:24:33ZOxford’s first female vice-chancellor won’t end gender inequality on her own<p>The appointment of Louise Richardson as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/28/oxford-university-to-appoint-first-female-vice-chancellor">vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford</a> is a watershed moment for British academia. Women occupying such strategic positions are important for symbolic and substantive reasons. They not only serve as role models for female students, but could <a href="http://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/forward/documents/WEPAN2.pdf">facilitate institutional change</a> by improving recruitment, retention, and the advancement of women within professorial ranks.</p>
<p>Currently in UK universities, men still outnumber women by a margin of four to one in senior academic positions, while women are <a href="http://oss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/29/0170840613483658">over-represented in lower teaching grades and temporary research posts</a>. The more prestigious the institution, the fewer women who reach top jobs in research or academic leadership. Yet women outperform men in almost every single aspect of higher education.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83444/original/image-20150530-15244-rin7wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Trailblazer: Dorothy Garrod.</span>
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<p>Oxford and Cambridge are particularly conservative. The first woman to ever hold a Chair at either Cambridge or Oxford was the accomplished Palaeolithic archaeologist, <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9430783">Dorothy Garrod</a>, elected as Cambridge’s Professor of Archaeology in 1939. Until 1948 Oxford University did not have a single female professor and until 1978, only a few select colleges accepted female students. It has been only seven years since all the colleges opened their doors to <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/oxford-people/women-at-oxford">both men and women</a>.</p>
<p>The situation is not much different in the USA or Europe. <a href="http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/63396944-44BE-4ABA-9815-5792D93856F1/0/AAUPGenderEquityIndicators2006.pdf">Research</a> by the American Association of University Professors reveals that in 1,445 colleges and universities, there are fewer tenured female staff. Women make up 60% of all PhDs, but only 24% of professors. </p>
<p>In all 28 countries of the European Union women make up only <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/she-figures-2012_en.pdf">20% of full, Grade A professors</a>. In the words of the former EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, “This is regretful for women researchers and bad for Europe.” The gendered meritocracy strikes at the very heart of the academic enterprise. Women’s continuing marginalisation has profound implications on both how knowledge is reproduced and on what counts as knowledge.</p>
<p>While representation of women in higher professorial ranks, editorial board membership and <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/mapping-the-maze-getting-more-women-to-the-top-in-research_en.pdf">research funding bodies</a> is disappointing, there are even fewer women presidents, provosts and vice-chancellors in leading universities across the globe. </p>
<h2>Women left behind</h2>
<p>Gender bias in selection, evaluation, and promotion processes, the demands made by academic life on women if they are to be accepted and succeed, have all been used to explain the persistent discrimination of women in academia. This reflects men’s social power and widely shared cultural assumptions about women’s position in society. </p>
<p>Behavioural ethics research suggests that many such assumptions are <a href="https://hbr.org/2003/12/how-unethical-are-you">due to unconscious bias that both women and men share</a>. These concern feelings and knowledge (often unintended) about our social group membership (concerning race/ethnicity, gender, class).</p>
<p>The appointment of Louise Richardson, a renowned scholar on terrorism, a teacher with a formidable track record and experienced academic leader, helps breaking such preconceptions. But calls for women’s inclusion are often associated with tokenism and image-making rather than ensuring equal participation. The success of women in prominent positions can also stall the organisational efforts to improve the lot of the many. This often arises from the unspoken expectation that all women can navigate their way to seniority without implementing proactive policies to support them. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83445/original/image-20150530-15217-2it5kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Halls of privilege.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford#/media/File:Radcliffe_Camera,_Oxford_-_Oct_2006.jpg">Diliff</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Yet for every woman at the peak of the academic ladder there are many others who have been left behind. We need more than just a few women at the top if we are to end gender discrimination in academia. Richardson acknowledged as much in her <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/28/oxford-university-to-appoint-first-female-vice-chancellor">interview in The Guardian</a>: “I look forward to the day when a woman being appointed isn’t in itself news.”</p>
<p>Much more is needed for this to happen. Nurturing and developing talented women through fast-track career and mentoring schemes are pivotal for increasing their numbers in leadership positions. Adopting family friendly policies is an essential measure for nurturing talented female researchers. There are also different strategies that women can use to overcome their predicament. These include finding a powerful champion in their own organisation, enlisting support of male and female mentors and joining peer support groups.</p>
<h2>Improving access</h2>
<p>None of these strategies is likely to be successful without improving the access to education for all who could benefit from it. As a child of the family of seven whose parents and most siblings did not go to the university, Louise Richardson readily acknowledges the role of education in her life. Without it she would not have become who she is. Most, if not all of it, would have been free or close to free. </p>
<p>Access to affordable education can help people from disadvantaged backgrounds move upwards but the social mobility is no longer an option for many students graduating with tens of thousands of debt in the UK and USA. Even fewer of children from disadvantaged backgrounds make it to Oxford: only <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12048629">0.8% of students at Oxford and Cambridge received free school meals</a> while <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/27/oxbridge-state-school-numbers-falling">43 and 39%</a> of them, respectively, were privately educated. </p>
<p>The first female vice-chancellor at the University of Oxford is well-qualified to address some of these issues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marianna Fotaki receives funding from British Academy Small Grant Scheme "Gender Inequality in Higher Education in the UK and Australia" (2010-2012)</span></em></p>For every woman at the peak of the academic ladder there are many others who have been left behind.Marianna Fotaki, Network Fellow, Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University and Professor of Business Ethics, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406642015-05-28T04:06:44Z2015-05-28T04:06:44ZUniversities can’t just wash their hands of student failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82977/original/image-20150526-24757-1tedauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities need to take a long, hard look at themselves - and listen to their students - to tackle issues of failure and attrition.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hutchings/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It should come as no surprise that many students do not feel valued in institutional spaces. There has been a great deal of <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20100424200305969">research</a> in the past two decades about discrimination and institutional culture at South African universities. It is becoming increasingly clear that attempts by institutions to understand and address these issues have been superficial and frequently too defensive.</p>
<p>Our research explored how South Africa’s universities use language to construct their <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2014.934351">staff as teachers</a>, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12501266/Analysing_an_audit_cycle_A_critical_realist_account">students as learners</a> and curricula as a means of guiding the teaching and learning process.</p>
<p>We analysed reports prepared by almost all of the country’s universities for institutional audits conducted by the Higher Education Quality Committee. These <a href="http://che.ac.za/focus_areas/auditing_of_institutions/summary_of_audit_reports">lengthy documents</a> provide a rich account of each institution’s perceptions of itself.</p>
<p>In the audit reports universities had to account for poor student pass and retention rates. These rates distinguish between students along racial lines. A number of <a href="http://che.ac.za/media_and_publications/research/proposal-undergraduate-curriculum-reform-south-africa-case-flexible">studies</a> have shown that white students consistently outperform their black peers, regardless of what degree they are pursuing, their year of study or which institution they attend. This is partly because South Africa’s school system remains very imbalanced along racial lines and also because universities privilege particular sets of knowledge and practices.</p>
<p>We were interested in how universities explained this discrepancy and identified a dominant phenomenon that we labelled “the model of the student as the decontextualised learner.”</p>
<h2>The power of words</h2>
<p>This model locates a person’s ability to succeed in higher education in factors that are inherent to the individual. These include talent, motivation, aptitude and even IQ. By applying this model to their students, universities largely absolve themselves of any responsibility for failure. Students who fail are construed as lacking some attribute that is vital to successful academic learning.</p>
<p>The model also allows academic learning itself to be constructed as socially, culturally and politically neutral. This means that the university is understood as being equally open to all who have the attributes necessary to succeed. Finally, it strips students of their own histories and devalues the array of social and cultural experiences they bring to their learning. It does this by constructing their pasts simply in terms of disadvantage or under-preparedness for the kinds of learning expected of them. </p>
<h2>A path to change</h2>
<p>There is an alternative to this model. It views individual students as social beings and sees the phenomena of disadvantage and under-preparedness as emanating partly from universities themselves. Universities largely fail to acknowledge the way their modes of teaching and learning are culturally, socially and politically embedded. They do not recognise that teaching and learning practices mostly favour white middle-class learners from educated homes - who, because they are comfortable in this system, perform far better than mostly black, poorer learners.</p>
<p>But the decontextualised model is dominant in South Africa. There needs to be a profound shift in how the country’s universities understand both learning and teaching. These shifts would draw on critical social theories of learning rather than on individualistic theories such as the ubiquitous ‘<a href="http://www.storre.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/455/1/Haggis%20Studies%20in%20HE%202009.pdf">approaches to learning</a>’ research which has been influential across the world. </p>
<p>Can this happen? Large sums of money are being poured into <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2014-07-11-governments-new-plan-for-student-success">improving teaching</a> in higher education. It is for those who use this money for <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2013.879719">“professionalising” higher education teaching</a> to question how our assumptions have been normalised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Universities largely fail to acknowledge the way their modes of teaching and learning are culturally, socially and politically embedded. Can this be fixed?Sioux McKenna, Higher Education Studies PhD Co-ordinator, Rhodes UniversityChrissie Boughey, Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic & Student Affairs/ Dean, Teaching & Learning, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/372992015-02-09T05:47:50Z2015-02-09T05:47:50ZWhy is it so hard to talk about race in UK universities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71347/original/image-20150206-28615-1mw23ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marginalised.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/salforduniversity/10457999864/sizes/l">University of Salford</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At first glance, Benedict Cumberbatch’s recent faux pas – <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11370602/Benedict-Cumberbatch-under-fire-for-coloured-actors-remark.html">using the word “coloured”</a> to refer to racially minoritised groups – may appear to have absolutely nothing to do with the world of UK higher education. While some lambasted him, my own view was that his slip-up spoke to a wider issue: the lack of open debate about race in the UK. And if any sector ought to be leading the way in these debates, it is the education system and, in particular, our universities. </p>
<p>Yet a <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Aiming%20Higher.pdf">damning new report</a> by the leading race equality think-tank Runnymede Trust, comprising a series of short essays, has set out the continued failings of the sector not just for racially minoritised students but also for faculty members of colour. The issues, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-must-aim-higher-on-ethnic-equality-and-diversity-37073">described by Durham’s Vikki Boliver</a> in The Conversation are wearily familiar. </p>
<p>Black and minority ethnic students are less likely to be offered a place at university, even when they hold the same A Level grades. They are less likely to attend the elite Russell Group of universities and, if they do, often feel marginalised when they get there. Among faculty members, black and minority ethnic academics are under-represented at senior levels and, at Russell Group universities generally. They too report being undermined and marginalised.</p>
<h2>Race left out of diversity debates</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C941%2C4154%2C3212&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71317/original/image-20150206-28608-a4czv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A voice seldom heard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">No to racism via Asian Asian/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>These issues are not new. At the start of the millennium there was a hesitant, inconsistent whimper of activity around race at universities; today the picture is very different. Attention is on “diversity” and one need not scratch very far below the surface to detect that in reality, this tends to mean gender. </p>
<p>There are several reasons for this. The <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charter-marks/athena-swan/">Athena Swan award</a>, which recognises departments that help women working in science, technology and mathematics, comes with financial rewards. Within a sector that is becoming increasingly marketised this is clearly attractive. Gender is also <em>a la mode</em> in policy debates – there is (rightly) a focus on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-race-for-boardroom-diversity-is-falling-at-the-first-hurdle-29866">increasing the number women in boardrooms</a>, for example. </p>
<p>Race is a more difficult, controversial and deeply uncomfortable subject, which apparently was resolved in 2009, <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/StephenLawrenceInquiryReport-2009.pdf">ten years after the publication</a> of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report, when several leading public figures announced the “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7836766.stm">end of institutional racism</a>”. </p>
<p>Today, government focus is on immigration and terrorism and universities <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-duty-to-prevent-terrorism-must-protect-universities-freedom-and-diversity-34936">are being encouraged</a> to follow this same policy agenda. Race, if mentioned at all in universities, is often shut down as a discussion point. Or, as Sarah Ahmed from Goldsmiths argues in her essay for the report, relegated to “smiling brown faces” on the front of prospectuses.</p>
<h2>Laying blame elsewhere</h2>
<p>The wider context is not the only reason for the lack of genuine engagement and change. Universities tend to view and position themselves as highly liberal spaces and in this context the cause of the “race problem” is understood to simply lie elsewhere. The problem apparently lies with the fact that racially minoritised students lack the right grades or mix of subjects, or that academic staff from those backgrounds lack the confidence to apply for that post or go for promotion. </p>
<p>Of course these points are important, but what about the countless occasions when the grades are right, or confidence is not an issue? The introduction of mentoring schemes and voluntary unconscious bias training is part of what I describe as “racial gesture politics”: they appear to offer serious engagement with the issue of race inequality but in reality do very little unless embedded in wider policy change and made compulsory. Isolated, one-off activities are not sufficient to bring about change.</p>
<p>Understanding the link between policy and practice is absolutely crucial. I teach an undergraduate course called “Education Policy and Social Justice” during which students explore the differences between what a policy might state and its actual interpretation and outcome. How policies are interpreted and implemented is central to affecting change on race in our universities. Individual academics, committees and board members are responsible for implementing policy and if they lack a broader understanding of race equality, then little will change.</p>
<h2>Senior white men must speak out</h2>
<p>One of the sessions on that same undergraduate course focuses on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Commenting on the publication of the Inquiry report in 1999, then home secretary Jack Straw made a bold and <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo990224/debtext/90224-21.htm">powerful statement</a> in parliament that, in my view, warranted far more attention than it received. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any long-established, white-dominated organisation is liable to have procedures, practices and a culture that tend to exclude or to disadvantage non-white people. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our universities – despite rigorous equalities legislation – continue to be led mainly by powerful, white men. If we follow Straw’s reasoning, this would suggest that practices and procedures have not only disadvantaged racially minoritised groups but they have also served to advantage those in positions of power. </p>
<p>The forthcoming <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charter-marks/race-equality-charter-mark/">race equality charter mark</a> currently being piloted by the Equality Challenge Unit may go some way in encouraging universities to take race more seriously. I for one would also like to see powerful white men in our universities take a lead from another high-profile white man, Benedict Cumberbatch. Despite his faux pas, he <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jan/26/benedict-cumberbatch-apologises-after-calling-black-actors-coloured">dared speak out boldly</a> and publicly about the racial injustices in his own industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Rollock worked at the Runnymede Trust as head of education between 2001 and 2004 and as a research consultant in 2008-2009. </span></em></p>At first glance, Benedict Cumberbatch’s recent faux pas – using the word “coloured” to refer to racially minoritised groups – may appear to have absolutely nothing to do with the world of UK higher education…Nicola Rollock, Deputy Director, Centre for Research in Race & Education , University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/370732015-02-03T11:41:27Z2015-02-03T11:41:27ZUniversities must aim higher on ethnic equality and diversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70829/original/image-20150202-15894-15f4f5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A happy place, for everyone. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bruneluniversity/4811193101/sizes/l">Brunel University London</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities have a long way to go before they become exemplars of ethnic equality and diversity. That’s the thrust of a new report published by race equality think-tank, the <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/">Runnymede Trust</a>. As David Lammy MP, chair of the <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-publications/parliament/appg-2.html">All Party Parliamentary Group on Race and Community</a>, puts it in his foreword to the volume:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Despite the lofty ideals of universities, they do no better – and are in fact doing worse – than many other institutions in British society when it comes to race equality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Runnymede <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Aiming%20Higher.pdf">publication</a>, brings together 15 short essays by academics and policy experts, outlining a number of major causes for concern. Ethnic minorities have <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12021/abstract">lower university admission rates</a> relative to comparably qualified white peers. They also have <a href="http://itooamoxford.tumblr.com/">poorer university experiences</a> as students, <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/ourresearch/degree/">lower degree results</a> than their A-level grades would predict, and more uncertain <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/WhenEducationIsntEnough.pdf">graduate job prospects</a>. </p>
<p>There is also a <a href="http://blackbritishacademics.co.uk/2014/03/12/why-isnt-my-professor-black/">dearth of black and minority ethnic academics</a>, especially at senior levels. The report found there was just <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/uk-study-finds-just-17-black-female-professors-10019201.html">17 black female professors in the UK</a>. In spite of all of this, there is a low priority given to developing and implementing ethnic equality and diversity policies within universities. Addressing these problems requires radical change.</p>
<h2>Unfair admissions</h2>
<p>Empirical evidence presented in the <a href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Aiming%20Higher.pdf">report</a> shows that ethnic minorities are <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2015/01/30/black-and-ethnic-minority-students-get-less-elite-university-offers-than-white-peers-with-same-grades-report-shows.aspx">less likely to be offered places</a> at Russell Group universities than white applicants, even when they have the same grades and “facilitating subjects” at A Level. </p>
<p>The report shows that offer rates are 3-16 percentage points lower for ethnic minority applicants to Russell Group universities, after differences in A Level attainment have been taken into account.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70918/original/image-20150203-25516-11njktg.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Aiming%20Higher.pdf">Runnymede Trust</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even applicants from the high-performing Chinese and Indian group – which are well represented at Russell Group universities – are less likely to be offered places. These ethnic inequalities in admissions chances are shown to hold for other universities as well, not just the Russell Group institutions, indicating that this is in fact a sector-wide problem. </p>
<p>The report highlights a clear need for universities to undertake searching reviews of their admissions policies and practices. Steps must be taken to ensure that admissions decisions are not affected by unconscious bias, while positive action may be needed to address the chronic under-representation of some ethnic minority groups at some institutions. </p>
<p>Universities are being called upon to make their applications and admissions data available – in suitably anonymised form – for independent analysis by researchers. Open data is now widely considered to be a crucial ingredient in the accountability of public institutions, and universities are no exception.</p>
<h2>Poorer student experiences</h2>
<p>The report highlights the exclusion and rejection felt by many black university students as they navigate a mono-cultural curriculum, confront lower tutor expectations about their ability to do well in their studies and experience overtly racist interactions on campus. There is a clear need for universities to offer more culturally diverse curricula, to promote inclusive teaching and learning practices, and to become actively anti-racist institutions. </p>
<p>This means moving away from a “deficit model” which sees ethnic minority students as lacking in ability or aspiration. Instead, universities should see the barriers to full and equal participation in university life as needing to be dismantled rather than overcome. Crucially, it also means consulting with ethnic minority students about what needs to change rather than taking a purely top-down approach.</p>
<h2>Under representation in academia</h2>
<p>The report also reminds us that ethnic minorities are <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-fewer-than-100-black-professors-in-britain-why-24088">under-represented among academic staff</a>, especially in professorial roles and senior management positions. </p>
<p>Many ethnic minority academics report feeling untrusted and overly scrutinised by colleagues and managers, and overlooked when it comes to promotion. The solutions proposed range from solidifying career mentoring schemes for ethnic minority academics, to adopting quotas to ensure the inclusion of ethnic minority applicants on recruitment and promotion shortlists.</p>
<p>Again, a major part of the solution requires recognising the need for institutional cultural change. The Equality Challenge Unit has <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/unconscious-bias-colleges-he-training-pack/">developed a training pack</a> designed to help university staff understand, recognise and resist unconscious bias. </p>
<p>It has also been trialling a <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charter-marks/race-equality-charter-mark/">Race Equality Charter Mark</a> programme which would enable universities to gain accreditation for their efforts and successes in addressing ethnic equality and diversity concerns. The take-up of these policy initiatives by many universities represents a potentially significant step towards lasting institutional cultural change.</p>
<h2>Changing cultures</h2>
<p>Yet the Runnymede report highlights the ever-present risk that policies and programmes aimed at addressing equality and diversity issues may become substitutes for action – the goal becomes filling out the required paperwork rather than committing to make real changes. </p>
<p>When the passing of the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/34/contents">Race Relations (Amendment) Act</a> in 2000 first required universities to develop and publish race equality policies, many universities were slow to comply. Since then, these requirements have been downgraded to mere guidance following the implementation of the 2010 Equality Act. </p>
<p>The genuine development and effective implementation of equality and diversity policies requires committed support on the part of university leaders to the idea that diversity is a valuable institutional asset and should be actively promoted as such. The time has come for universities and the public bodies that monitor and support them to pick up diversity and run with it.</p>
<hr>
<p>Next read: <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-and-academia-diversity-among-uk-university-students-and-leaders-24988">Race and academia: Diversity among UK students and leaders</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vikki Boliver was one of the contributing authors to the Runnymede Trust's publication, Aiming Higher: Race, Inequality and Diversity in the Academy. Her research on fair admissions has been supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy.</span></em></p>Universities have a long way to go before they become exemplars of ethnic equality and diversity. That’s the thrust of a new report published by race equality think-tank, the Runnymede Trust. As David…Vikki Boliver, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/310342014-09-02T13:14:10Z2014-09-02T13:14:10ZHard Evidence: are more older people going to university?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58011/original/v675khz7-1409653962.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Level-headed. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uonottingham/6673304963/sizes/l">uonottingham</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Halls full of 18-year-old freshers running riot? Bragging tales of gap year misadventure? Older students starting a university course can sometimes find it hard to fit in. But a growing number of mature students are now applying to study at university. But who are they, and what does this rising trend in applications mean for universities?</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.ucas.com/system/files/ucas_2014_application_rate_jan_deadline2.pdf">Universities and Colleges Admissions Service</a>, 2014 has seen the continuation of a small but steady annual increase in application rates to university from people older than 21.</p>
<p>But there is a difference between the number of people applying to university and starting a degree. While the application rate has been rising slowly, the number of first degree entrants has actually fallen very slightly in recent years. Yet early signs from this year’s clearing system show that as of August 29, there has been a <a href="http://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/29-aug-14-age-all.pdf">6% increase</a> in the number of mature students over 25 placed on university courses since A Level results were announced.</p>
<p>Around a third of UK-domiciled first degree entrants are mature students. This proportion has remained reasonably constant over the last decade. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57891/original/vxy6f5jk-1409582784.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">% of first year first degree UK-domiciled undergraduate students (full and part-time) by age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HESA, Students in Higher Education Institutions</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is somewhat remarkable given the changes observed in the higher education sector over the same period, in particular rising fees and the lifting of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/abolishing-cap-on-student-numbers-is-a-good-use-of-government-money-24430">cap on the numbers of students</a> with good A level grades that universities can admit. The latter change is most likely to attract extra young entrants with traditional entry qualifications, thus putting downward pressure on the proportion of mature students in the overall student body. </p>
<h2>Student composition and background</h2>
<p>Published data on the whole mature student population across all UK universities is difficult to find. But we can piece together a picture of a group of students who differ from their younger counterparts in terms of socio-economic background and university experience.</p>
<p>Mature students cover a wide age range. In 2012-13, 34% of mature students staring a new course were in the 21-24 age range, compared with 22% in the 25-29 group and 43% in the oldest category of 30 and older. </p>
<p>But these figures conceal a large difference in the age composition of full-time and part-time students. There are fewer older full-students (see first pie chart) than there are part-time students (second pie chart). Much of the published data comparing mature and young students refers only to full-time students.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57897/original/bknhgrpd-1409585096.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">% of full-time mature first year undergraduates by age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HESA, Students in Higher Education Institutions, Table H 2012/13</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57899/original/m5j2rmmg-1409585274.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">% of part-time mature first year undergraduates by age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HESA, Students in Higher Education Institutions, Table H 2012/13</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Experience at university</h2>
<p>Mature students are more likely to study on a part-time basis than young students: in 2012-13, 91.5% of part-time first degree entrants were mature, while only 21.1% of those starting full-time courses were mature students. They also choose different subjects compared to their young colleagues. </p>
<p>In particular, the percentage of mature entrants taking studies allied to medicine (which includes nursing) is considerably larger than younger students. Smaller differences can be seen in education and computer sciences. In contrast, the sciences (biological, physical and mathematical) and history and creative arts attract smaller percentages of mature students.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57901/original/jgtmwyrx-1409586042.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Subject of entrants to full-time first degree courses, 2012-13.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/urg">HESA, UKPIs: Widening participation of under-represented groups, tables SP2 and SP3, 2012/13</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mature students are also less likely than young students to study at an older, pre-1992 university. The lead taken by the new universities in attracting mature students may be a consequence of the broad range of courses on offer. These might be particularly attractive to students with <a href="http://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/12238/2012_NUS_millionplus_Never_Too_Late_To_Learn.pdf">non-traditional entry qualifications</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57902/original/tx578z6s-1409586296.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Full-time first degree entrants by type of university, 2012-13</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/urg">HESA</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Higher drop-out rates</h2>
<p>What then are the challenges to universities presented by mature students? Early research has suggested that older students may be less likely to complete their course than young students, although this result can vary <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/interuniversity-variations-in-undergraduate-noncompletion-rates-a-statistical-analysis-by-subject-of-study%280babe183-d926-4fb3-9561-bc2b57e8fe4f%29/export.html">by subject</a> or <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775704000962">by gender</a>. </p>
<p>An examination of recent data suggests that the non-continuation rate at university is certainly much higher among mature students than younger ones, but in both cases the rate has fallen in recent years, and more rapidly among mature students. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57903/original/wp9745zz-1409586647.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">% of students not completing their first academic year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/noncon">HESA</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Returning to education is likely to cause challenges for mature students: picking up studies after a break, integrating with young students with different life experiences, and coping with financial problems are <a href="http://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/12238/2012_NUS_millionplus_Never_Too_Late_To_Learn.pdf.">just a few of the difficulties</a>. Universities should be aware of this and offer the support to maintain their participation in higher education.</p>
<p>But for those who do stay the course, higher education can prove to be a highly positive experience: 58% of those aged 25 and older <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pr/3233-statistical-first-release-205">were in full-time employment</a> within six months of graduation, compared with 55% of those aged 24 and under. This small difference in full-time employment between mature and young first degree graduates has persisted for the past six years. </p>
<p>The diverse backgrounds of mature students contribute to the richness of university life. This fits with the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/">government’s push</a> to extend the opportunities of university education to more people. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/hard-evidence">Hard Evidence</a> is a series of articles in which academics use research evidence to tackle the trickiest public policy questions.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Johnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Halls full of 18-year-old freshers running riot? Bragging tales of gap year misadventure? Older students starting a university course can sometimes find it hard to fit in. But a growing number of mature…Jill Johnes, Reader, Department of Economics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/277522014-06-13T11:59:22Z2014-06-13T11:59:22ZGCSE attainment crucial for widening participation in higher education<p>While the proportion of students from more deprived families and neighbourhoods who go to university has been increasing in recent years, those from poorer backgrounds are still <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce/content/heinengland/2014report/HEinEngland_2014.pdf">far less likely to go to university than those from richer backgrounds</a>.</p>
<p>In a new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/secondary-school-characteristics-and-university-participation">research project</a> funded by the Department for Education, I investigated the role of schools in helping to explain who goes to university and how well they do once they are there. I compared higher education participation rates and degree outcomes amongst pupils who attended different secondary schools, and explored the factors that help to explain these differences.</p>
<p>My findings highlight the importance of attainment at GCSE level, not just A-level, in explaining higher education participation decisions and degree outcomes. Schools can contribute to higher university entry and performance by helping students make the right choices about the subjects and qualifications they take at GCSE level, and by ensuring that they achieve the best possible grades. </p>
<p>They also suggest that among similar students with similar GCSE and A level results, those from less effective state schools may have higher “potential” than those from private, selective or more effective state schools, as they seem to perform significantly better once at university. This may be something that universities want to be aware of in making entry offers.</p>
<h2>The gap</h2>
<p>My research uses administrative data on all pupils in England. This data provides information on where pupils go to school, as well as their GCSE and A-level results. If they go to university, it also shows which institution they attend, whether they complete their degree, and which degree class they receive.</p>
<p>Compared to students who attend less effective state schools, those who attend private, selective and more effective state schools are substantially more likely to go to university, especially to “high-status” institutions – meaning those in the Russell Group, plus those with comparably high research quality. These students are also less likely to drop out, more likely to complete their degree, and more likely to be awarded a higher degree class.</p>
<p>But the fact that different types of pupils attend different types of schools is crucial for understanding these differences. Students from less effective state schools are more likely to come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, more likely to have special educational needs, and have lower attainment, on average, than students from other types of schools. </p>
<p>In particular, they are much less likely to achieve good grades in the qualifications and subjects that are highly regarded by universities. </p>
<h2>Flip and reverse</h2>
<p>For example, I found that while 91% of pupils at selective independent schools achieve at least five A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and maths, only 39% of pupils at non-selective community schools do the same.</p>
<p>The differences come into even sharper relief once we focus on subjects that form part of the English baccalaureate (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/english-baccalaureate-information-for-schools">EBacc</a>): maths, English, science, history and/or geography, and languages. While 86% of pupils at selective independent schools achieve at least 5 A* to C grades in EBacc subjects, just 28% of students from non-selective community schools do the same.</p>
<p>These gaps are important. They are a key part of the reason why students from private, selective and more effective state schools are more likely to go to university – and do better once they are there – than pupils from less effective state schools.</p>
<p>When we compare students from similar backgrounds with the same grades in the same qualifications and subjects at the end of secondary school, the differences in participation virtually disappear: there is no longer any difference in how likely you are to go to university on the basis of the type of school you attend. </p>
<p>The impact of comparing like with like is even starker when we look at university outcomes. When we compare pupils from similar backgrounds with the same GCSE (and A-level) attainment, the association between secondary school characteristics and university outcomes is reversed: pupils from private, selective and more effective state schools are more likely to drop out, less likely to complete their degree, and less likely to be awarded a first or a 2:1 than similar pupils with similar attainment from less effective state schools. </p>
<p>For example, pupils from selective independent schools are 2.6 percentage points more likely to drop out, 6.4 percentage points less likely to complete their degree, and 10.3 percentage points less likely to graduate with a first or a 2:1 than similar pupils with similar attainment from non-selective community schools. This remains true even for comparisons of pupils from different schools who attend the same universities and study the same subjects. </p>
<h2>Results matter</h2>
<p>Moreover, GCSE attainment remains significantly associated with higher education participation and outcomes, even after accounting for A-level scores. </p>
<p>For example, every additional GCSE in an EBacc subject at grade A* is associated with a 2 percentage point increase in the likelihood of going to university and a 0.5-1 percentage point increase in the probability of attending a high-status institution. It is also associated with a 2 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of dropping out, and a 3 percentage point increase in the probability of graduating with a first or a 2:1.</p>
<p>These results suggest that “widening participation” efforts should focus on ensuring that pupils from all schools make the right choices over the subjects and qualifications they take at the end of secondary school, and that they maximise their chances of getting good grades at this level.</p>
<p>But they also raise the possibility that universities may wish to take into account the type of school a student attended when making them an offer. Among similar students with similar GCSE and A level results, my results suggest that those from less effective state schools perform significantly better at university.</p>
<p>While recognising that this is true on average, and not for every student, it is certainly something that universities should be aware of when setting entry requirements. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Crawford receives funding for her research from a range of government departments, research councils, charitable trusts and other organisations, including the Economic and Social Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation, the Department for Education, Universities UK, the Education Endowment Foundation and the Sutton Trust. All of her research is independent and the views expressed in this article are entirely her own.</span></em></p>While the proportion of students from more deprived families and neighbourhoods who go to university has been increasing in recent years, those from poorer backgrounds are still far less likely to go to…Claire Crawford, Assistant Professor, Economics Department, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/258452014-05-08T05:09:08Z2014-05-08T05:09:08ZOne way to fix the gender gap in academia – only hire women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47893/original/c7ygczb3-1399384620.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You can't calculate for a confidence gap. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-92749069/stock-photo--teacher-is-standing-near-blackboard-in-classroom.html?src=oB833uew6A3CLe7Xk1No1w-1-65">AlenKadr/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you want more women in your organisation, advertise jobs that are designated for women only. That’s what Delft University of Technology did.</p>
<p>Delft had a problem. It had too few women faculty members and its efforts to recruit more were floundering. It was below average in the Netherlands – already one of Europe’s worst countries for gender equality in academia. Only <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/she-figures-2012_en.pdf">13% of full professors at Dutch universities are women</a>. And it’s not only universities that under-utilise the country’s human resources: the Netherlands has by far <a href="http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/LMF1.6%20Gender%20differences%20in%20employment%20outcomes%20-%20updated%20290713.pdf">the lowest rate in Europe</a> of full-time employment for women.</p>
<p>The leadership at Delft wanted to work for long-term changes in recruiting patterns, in part by making sure young women would see <a href="http://curt-rice.com/2012/01/13/why-not-just-any-old-role-model-will-do-what-early-career-men-and-women-need/">role models</a> in technical fields in academia. But attempts at mild intervention – such as a requirement to hire a woman whenever there was a qualified female applicant – didn’t get the job done.</p>
<p>To increase the number of women on their faculty, Delft decided <a href="http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj0363">in 2011</a> to hire <a href="http://www.tudelft.nl/en/about-tu-delft/working-at-tu-delft/tu-delft-as-employer/delft-technology-fellowship/">the ten best women researchers they could find</a>. Applicants could be at any stage of their careers and in any field of research covered by the university. These new employees received favourable conditions to push their research projects forward.</p>
<p>Crucially, the program was open <a href="http://www.delta.tudelft.nl/artikel/ten-leading-ladies/26298">only to women</a>. Needless to say, there were legal challenges on the grounds of gender discrimination. But, as the rector of the university, Karel Luyben, described <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgByLzRWZTg&feature=youtu.be">in a recent speech</a>, he was able to convince the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights that it was essential to have more women faculty members and that more gentle measures had not succeeded. </p>
<p>The university <a href="https://intranet.tudelft.nl/en/direct-links/news/latest-news/article/detail/tu-delft-mag-wetenschappelijke-functies-voorbehouden-aan-vrouwen/">won the case</a> in December 2012. Ultimately, the university was able to move ahead with its plans and is currently conducting hirings for a <a href="http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/latest-news/article/detail/tweede-ronde-delft-technology-fellowship-gestart/">second cohort</a> for the fellowship.</p>
<h2>Too few women professors</h2>
<p>The experience in Delft can inspire us to more aggressively pursue the benefits of making our institutions diverse. Fewer women than men make it to the top. Within academia in Europe, about <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.topic&id=1282&lang=1">20% of full professors are women</a>, while they constitute almost 40% of the next level down.</p>
<p>A recent spate of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-confidence-gap/359815/">media coverage</a> has focused on one possible explanation <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/87879/it-s-not-the-confidence-gap-here-s-what-s-really-holding-women-back?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social">among many</a> – namely that women are too cautious, too reserved, or too self-demeaning to advance at the same rate as men. In short, there is a confidence gap.</p>
<p>For example, men and women engage in self-promotion differently. Among research professors, <a href="http://curt-rice.com/2013/10/19/the-great-citation-hoax-proof-that-women-are-worse-researchers-than-men/">women cite their own work less often</a> than men do. When career advancement at universities depends in part on how many times your research gets cited, this slows women down. </p>
<p>A recent investigation also suggests that men are more assertive than women about something even more basic, namely the requirement to be listed as <a href="http://curt-rice.com/2014/03/06/why-are-women-so-uncooperative/">an author on research articles</a>.</p>
<h2>Countering the confidence gap</h2>
<p>This confidence gap is not benign. While we all have obstacles to negotiate as we move along our career paths, some advancement is based on behaviour that men and women have learned differently, such as self-promotion. In this sense, we have constructed workplaces with structural barriers holding women back, and we should therefore not be surprised when the sexes progress at different rates.</p>
<p>So what should we do? One response is to train women to navigate the system as it is. Teach women to <a href="http://shenegotiates.com">negotiate</a>, to talk about themselves, and to “lean in”. This is important to improve the situation for women currently in academia.</p>
<p>Another strategy is to work for systemic change. To do this, we must identify the structures that differentiate women from men and counter or remove them. For example, perhaps the way we recruit touches on cultural differences between men and women in such a way that the process itself inevitably gives a gender-imbalanced result.</p>
<p>There are many anecdotes about men applying for jobs when they only meet a few of the requirements. There’s actually an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/curt-rice/how-mckinseys-story-became-sheryl-sandbergs-statistic---and-why-it-didnt-deserve-to_b_5198744.html">urban legend</a> promoted by Sheryl Sandberg and countless others, saying that women apply for jobs only if they think they meet 100% of the criteria listed, whereas men apply if they feel they meet 60% of the requirements.</p>
<p>Even if that particular claim is not reliable, there is <a href="https://www.i-l-m.com/%7E/media/ILM%20Website/Downloads/Insight/Reports_from_ILM_website/ILM_Ambition_and_Gender_report_0211%20pdf.ashx">research</a> suggesting that men are more likely than women to apply for a job when they only partially meet its requirements.</p>
<p>And this is the funny thing about the Delft experience. The university leadership identified a need – more women in faculty. They developed a plan – only hire women. And it worked: they succeeded at hiring ten excellent new colleagues. But along the way, 30 men applied, too.</p>
<p>In addition to presenting a real-world example of quotas, the Delft fellowship offers an amusing example of gender-based differences in self-promotion – sometimes men lean in so far they fall on their faces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Curt Rice does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you want more women in your organisation, advertise jobs that are designated for women only. That’s what Delft University of Technology did. Delft had a problem. It had too few women faculty members…Curt Rice, Head of Norway's Committee on Gender Balance in Research, University of TromsøLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/247552014-03-27T14:54:35Z2014-03-27T14:54:35ZWidening access to university entrenches social class attitudes to student debt<p>There are class tensions existing very close to the surface of the government’s policy to increase the number of students from disadvantaged areas going to university. <a href="http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2397&Itemid=141">New data shows</a> that the number of first-time undergraduates coming from lower-class backgrounds was at 32.3% in 2012-13 – the highest level recorded. The data, released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, also shows that 89.3% of students came from state schools, and that 10.9% came from neighbourhoods less likely to participate in higher education. </p>
<p>No university <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/widening-participation-in-higher-education">has the choice any longer</a> about whether or not to make available an increasing number of places for students deemed to be less likely to go to university. Without demonstrable progress against some <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/">fairly easy-to-grasp criteria</a>, an institution runs the risk of the government removing its right to price undergraduate programmes at £9,000 per year. </p>
<p>In the current funding climate, universities and further education colleges now have to <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2014/news86801.html">share a diminishing pool of £3.88 billion for 2014-15</a>, taking the hit of an average 5.9% reduction in their teaching budgets. At the same time, the total allocated for student opportunity funding – to provide additional support to widen access to university for disabled students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds – has gone up 7.2% from 2013-14. This <a href="http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/press-releases/nus-responds-to-hefce-funding-allocation/?load=6&top=237">has been praised</a> by the National Union of Students. </p>
<p>The danger here, however, is that widening participation might collapse into a bureaucratic rather than an educational exercise, in which all pretence to be genuinely embracing social mobility might be washed away by the need to tick the right boxes and to show that the right quotas have been hit. </p>
<p>The bottom-line calculations allowing universities to survive the harsh necessities of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/osbornes-attack-on-public-servants-wont-work-15575">retrenched public sector</a> therefore have two distinct dimensions. They are at once both the means for universities to ensure that they remain viable business concerns and the means for students to first learn what it is to live a life in debt. Choosing to act out the former market relationships forces others to act out the latter.</p>
<h2>Engineered for financial literacy</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-stop-worrying-about-university-application-rates-22412">new student fees regime</a> should be seen as a relatively straightforward exercise in social engineering. Loss of faith in financial markets in the wake of the ongoing economic crisis might have been expected to lead to a change of perspective through which more and more people tried to construct their life paths with as little assimilation to finance as possible.</p>
<p>However, this would have translated into a reduction of the flow of savings on which functioning financial markets rely. What better way is there of ensuring that new attitudes towards finance do not undermine the reproduction of financial markets than creating a new generation of people for whom working-age life will now be dominated by trying to roll over one form of debt into another so that eventually it might all be wiped out?</p>
<p>Higher education is instilling into young people an approach to the future which involves calculations not about how much studying for a degree might be worth to their personal development, but about how much holding a degree certificate will be worth to their long-term labour market prospects.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32409/11-944-higher-education-students-at-heart-of-system.pdf">Government policy documents</a> now routinely reposition the choice to enter higher education as an investment in future enhanced earnings capacity – and the urge towards greater financial literacy is supposed to help young people see the wisdom in such a decision. </p>
<p>Greater <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/financial-literacy">financial literacy</a> does not seem, in general, to be something to object to, as more knowledge is always likely to be better than less. </p>
<p>But some young people will always be better placed than others to access credit on more favourable terms. Some <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-postgraduate-study-still-just-for-the-elite-23265">will have access to the “Bank of Mum and Dad”</a> so that they can start their post-university life with a clean slate. And young people’s social background may well in any case influence the way they view the merits of debt-based investments in their future. </p>
<h2>Different views on debt</h2>
<p>Debt is without doubt a class issue. The <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520068261.">historical middle-class experience of debt</a> much more typically resonates with images of opportunities: of taking control of one’s future by using credit flows to plot a route to the reproduction of middle-class status in later life. Nothing here appears to be overtly threatening. </p>
<p>But the <a href="http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/welcome.jsp?action=search&type=isbn&term=0199263310#">historical working-class experience of debt</a> responds to rather different stimuli. The campaign to make credit an acceptable part of a modern financial system was one of the most important 18th-century struggles through which a series of bourgeois virtues first came to prominence within the economy. </p>
<p>It is arguable whether working-class communities have ever had the success of that struggle extended in their direction. Debt for them conjures images of the bailiff, of the loan shark, of the late-night escape from unpaid creditors and of the prospect of an ever-tightening spiral towards immiseration. What might look like an opportunity from one side of the class divide looks anything but from the other.</p>
<p>These are the barriers to social mobility that official widening participation practices have to confront. Who would want to argue against extending access to higher education across many more sections of society? Certainly not me, having been a “non-standard entrant” into higher education myself on almost all the relevant social indicators.</p>
<p>But when asking the subsidiary questions of “on what basis?” and “to what end?” are we widening participation to university, the picture becomes considerably murkier. </p>
<p>The task ahead is to find ways of making student debt much less obviously a class issue – and this means doing more than simply recycling some fee income as bursaries. The fact that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jun/10/ban-payday-loans-advertising-campus-nus">payday loan companies</a> have tried to establish a presence across UK campuses shows just how much attention needs to be paid to avoiding situations in which widening participation increases rather than reduces social vulnerabilities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Watson receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for his ongoing Professorial Fellowship project: <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/clusters/ipe/rethinkingthemarket">http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/clusters/ipe/rethinkingthemarket</a>.
He is a member of the two UK professional organisations covering his academic subject area: the Political Studies Association and the British International Studies Association.</span></em></p>There are class tensions existing very close to the surface of the government’s policy to increase the number of students from disadvantaged areas going to university. New data shows that the number of…Matthew Watson, Professor of Political Economy, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/240882014-03-10T14:36:09Z2014-03-10T14:36:09ZThere are fewer than 100 black professors in Britain – why?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43460/original/3qq637vz-1394445373.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why aren't there more black professors?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-150215990/stock-photo-professor-pointing-at-college-student-with-hands-raised-in-classroom.html?src=LDyYVs6zE9_iWTiktDkbLg-1-0"> bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is a shocking statistic that there were <a href="http://blackbritishacademics.co.uk/statistics/">just 85 black professors</a> in UK universities in 2011-12. In stark terms, this means that there are more higher education institutions than there are black British, African and Caribbean professors actually teaching in them. The <a href="http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1898&Itemid=239">latest figures</a> from the Higher Education Statistics Agency put the number of UK academic staff from a known ethnic minority at 12.8%.</p>
<p>In contrast, black and minority ethnic students are well represented. In some institutions, <a href="http://www.city.ac.uk/about/city-information/the-city-vision/the-city-strategic-plan-2012-2016/overview/enabling-themes/related-performance-indicators">such as City University</a>, they make up nearly 50% of the student population. Yet even in these universities black academics are a rarity, particularly those in senior positions. </p>
<p>It is hard to think of an arena of UK public life where the people are so poorly represented and served on the basis of their race. Yet this scandalous state of affairs generates little by way of investigation, censure or legal scrutiny under the 2010 Equality Act. </p>
<p>The Metropolitan Police has come under intense scrutiny for a number of years for its lack of diversity. It was famously labelled as institutionally racist by the 1998 <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhaff/427/42703.htm">Macpherson report</a> for its failure to be representative and adequately serve the black community under its jurisdiction. In statistical terms, UK universities are as unrepresentative as the Metropolitan police. Somehow, they have managed to escape intense scrutiny of their attitudes, practices and procedures relating to the black populations that they have a duty to educate and serve.</p>
<p>It is also evident that there is a staggering absence of black people in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/oct/17/higher-education-barriers-black-academics">other leadership positions</a> within the UK higher education system. This includes vice chancellors, registrars and other administrators who make the key strategic decisions concerning ethos, priorities and direction of their institutions.</p>
<h2>No Black British studies</h2>
<p>Another stark feature of UK academia is the absence of any degree courses that systematically explore the experiences of black people in Britain. In the US, African American Studies are part and parcel of the academic environment. Many academic institutions house departments and academic leaders dedicated to the discipline. </p>
<p>But in Britain there is not a single institution that has a degree programme in Black British studies. If one thinks about the plethora of degree programmes that are offered by UK institutions, it is remarkable that not one of them offers a programme of teaching and research into the experiences of communities that have been so important to the shaping of the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>However, black communities are often the objects of detailed academic scrutiny by UK academics. In sociology, psychology, politics, history, theology, and numerous other disciplines, black communities are analysed, assessed, examined, evaluated and commented upon. </p>
<p>This analysis of black life, conducted primarily by white academics, often portrays black communities as dehumanised. Black people are used to illustrate problems as diverse as educational underachievement, health inequality, and religious extremism. </p>
<p>In doing this, universities contribute to an unflattering, stereotypical and false image of black communities in Britain. The rich complexity and diversity of the black British experience gets buried under an avalanche of supposedly detailed and well-established research findings. Equally damaging is that the communities who are the objects of this research are so rarely empowered by these findings.</p>
<p>Black communities still experience exclusion, under-representation and marginalisation when it comes to the UK’s major institutions. While academics benefit from research income and a raised profile because of their knowledge of black communities, the communities themselves remain on the margins of academic life.</p>
<h2>Call to action</h2>
<p>In order to move black people into the mainstream of British academic life, fundamental cultural and procedural shifts are required. It needs to be acknowledged that the British higher education system has institutional inadequacies. Universities need to take pro-active measures to ensure that institutions genuinely reflect the diversity of the wider society, both in terms of personnel at all levels and in relation to curricula and research. </p>
<p>The introduction of Black British studies courses in British university campuses could be one positive step on the journey towards a more inclusive higher education system. But rigorous scrutiny, analysis and action is also needed to tackle the institutionalised discrimination that is a stain on the reputation of Britain’s liberal university culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Ackah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is a shocking statistic that there were just 85 black professors in UK universities in 2011-12. In stark terms, this means that there are more higher education institutions than there are black British…William Ackah, Lecturer in Community and Voluntary Sector Studies, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.