Universities must advance race equality

Senior staff must ensure race equality policies are implemented, if universities are to address the attainment gap between students from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds and their white counterparts says a report released today (17th September 2018). The report, looking at the Race Equality Charter (REC), also calls for annual audits of universities’ efforts to address the BME attainment gap and to provide universities that do achieve the REC with a boost when it comes to research funding.

The report, by Professor Kalwant Bhopal and Clare Pitkin from the University of Birmingham for the University and College Union (UCU), was unveiled at a conference at the union’s London office. The authors delivered the keynote address and other speakers include UCU’s president-elect Douglas Chalmers and representatives from institutions with REC status.

Universities who had applied for the REC said undergoing the application process was as useful as achieving the REC as it helped them focus their work around race equality. They added it helped confront a culture where staff might have a fear of discussing issues of race.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "The Race Equality Charter tackles both staff and student inequality in our universities and we should be doing all we can to encourage more universities to apply for the REC. This timely reports highlights that, while there is still much to do, initiatives such as the REC can make a real difference.

‘We hope the sector will take serious note of the interesting and challenging ideas contained within the report. We will certainly be consulting with our members on how best to implement them."

Report author Professor Kalwant Bhopal said: "This report, the first of its kind, provides original research on how universities should think about advancing race equality. If universities want to address the issue, they must consider how they can change their practices to implement real change for BME staff and students."

Amongst the findings are that:

access to resources such as dedicated staff to work in this area, can be key in whether the process is taken seriously or even gets underway;
investment from senior management is key in highlighting the importance of work in this area;
a clear focus could be provided by the process if undertaken correctly;
addressing the BME attainment gap and understanding the lived experiences of BME students was a key undertaking for success as was investigation of the recruitment, retention and progression of BME staff.

The final two findings were the need for the charter to be linked to cultural and behavioural change and that steps needed taken to address the ‘fear of race’ as an area for discussion.

Amongst the key recommendations are that:

achievement of the REC should be linked to UKRI funding in the same way as applications in the biomedical area are expected to have achieved a silver Athena Swan award.
Mandatory unconscious bias training for all senior staff in HEIs is recommended (but importantly – not as a ‘sop’ for the real challenging of attitudes)
EIs should have a member of senior staff championing Equality and Diversity whose role would be separate and different from that of Equality and Diversity officers.
The role of annual reviews and monitoring also features heavily in the recommendations together with improving professional development for BME staff and the phasing-in of applications for the different levels of the charter mark.
HEIs are recommended to encourage and develop safe environments to discuss racism something which links in with the theme of addressing the fear of race, mentioned above.

A strength of the report is the wide range of interviews with individuals involved in the process of achieving the REC mark, or who are involved in the consideration of future work towards it.

About the Race Equality Charter

The Race Equality Charter was introduced in 2014 and its main focus is to improve the representation and progression of minority ethnic staff and students in higher education institutions. The REC aims to provide a framework through which institutions are encouraged to identify and reflect on institutional and cultural barriers impacting upon staff and students. There are 48 REC members and in 2015, a total of 21 institutions applied for the award of which 8 were awarded a bronze award. Since last year, this number increased to 10 award holders.

Click here to download a copy of the Race Equality Charter report.