Race, ethnicity and change in higher education

The British Council in Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy have published a discussion paper on race, ethnicity and change in higher education (HE). The paper is the product of an event early in 2020 which brought together leading thinkers and practitioners for a discussion on ethnicity and race, diversity and inclusion in HE in Ireland and the UK. The full report is available on the British Council Ireland website.

Please share this paper - and the attached discussion survey - with your strategy and policy leads in your higher education institution, and with your teams working on equality, diversity and inclusion. 

A challenge for both countries

National conversations on how to achieve greater equality, diversity and inclusion in HE are gaining momentum but there are still many gaps in knowledge and understanding of the individual, systemic and institutional barriers that must be overcome.

Although Ireland and UK’s HE systems are different, there are enough commonalities and mutual challenges in addressing race and equality that both countries will benefit from sharing insight and experience. We found that Irish HE institutions’ gender equality initiatives provided a useful context for discussions about race and ethnicity. The need to be alert to intersectional discrimination emerged as a key theme for many contributors.

The effort of pushing for equal opportunities

Participants at the event from Irish Traveller, Black, Asian, minority ethnic or migrant backgrounds spoke of feeling an immense personal sense of responsibility to push for greater equality and diversity in their host HE institution.

They described how campaigning for change took away time and energy from core academic and scholarly work and subsequent career development.

Similar experiences were noted by those active in pushing for greater gender equality within HE.

Statistical inequality

The absence of systematic ethnicity data collection by higher education institutions and education authorities is a major issue, particularly for Ireland. It has hindered efforts by HE institutions and bodies to build better solutions to increase the involvement of under-represented groups in academic life. Recent announcements by the Higher Education Authority (Ireland) indicate an intention to collect data in a more systematic way. However, until that data is available, it remains a key problem.

The UK has more data available, which confirms the unequal position of BAME colleagues within HE. For example, there are only 27 black female professors in the UK university system. In 2018-19, none of the 535 staff employed as ‘managers, directors or senior officials’ across British universities identified as black. Twenty-five identified as Asian, mixed or other ethnicity. 475 identified as white.  The ethnicity of the remaining 35 was not known (HESA, 2019). In 2018-19, 185 of 11,860 non-academic managerial roles within higher education were held by black staff, compared with 10,510 who identified as White, 410 as Asian and 165 from a mixed background (HESA, 2019).  

Approaches to change

Several suggestions for how to tackle racism and embed a truly inclusive culture in HE are put forward in the paper.

As the lessons from tackling gender equality have shown, the HE sector needs to consult with under-represented groups to deliver effective initiatives. This includes their involvement in the organisation, design, implementation, and oversight of equality and diversity initiatives.

Engaging directly with BAME, Irish Traveller and migrant staff and students to gather their views on the racial climate within their higher education campus is essential, as is supporting academic staff to initiate and engage in discussion on their individual school or college’s engagement with issues of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

In addition, all senior leadership must be seen to lead the delivery of EDI work.  It was considered extremely important that HE leaders be prepared to visibly engage with positive change and espouse the benefits and necessity of diverse and inclusive universities.

The paper is intended to advance the conversation around race and ethnicity in HE. It responds to the desire for change within the academic community. The Royal Irish Academy and the British Council in Ireland will continue to support this work by offering our spaces for these vital conversations.