Interesting article here from the BBC regarding the startling lack of diversity in senior leadership across our Universities. Remarkably, only 3.2% of academic managers, directors and senior officials are from ethnic minorities and there is an average 16% pay gap between UK-domiciled white and ethnic minority academic managers, directors and senior officials. That makes for interesting reading in its own right, however, what further compounds the issue is the higher dropout rates for black undergraduates. The newly formed Office for Students has its work cut out ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion is high on the agenda for all Universities and higher education providers. From a student perspective, the Teaching Excellence Frame work (TEF) will certainly help contribute to improvements in EDIMS (Equality and Diversity Impact Measures) data through measurement of outcomes. However wider issues surrounding social mobility, the slow pace of change and on-going ‘rhetoric’ or ‘lip service’ by Universities need to be addressed by Government.
That said, they very same conclusions could be drawn from ‘widening participation’ and the achievement of students from poor backgrounds. In that situation, often, (which is supported by national statistics) students form poorer backgrounds who undertake higher a education programme at further education colleges rather than a University appear to achieve better overall.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-44125777
JD
The Equality Blog 