Ideas for reducing racial inequalities in higher education:HEPI essays

“If you are a woman you are going to struggle. If you are a black woman you are going to struggle even more.”

These were the words of Adesewa Esther Adebisi, Education Officer and BAME ambassador at the University of Huddersfield speaking at our joint SOAS/ Universities UK (UUK) conference this year on the black, Asian and minority ethnic student attainment gap.

Adesewa recounted an experience at her university where, after completing a degree in Biochemistry and expressing an interest in moving into the field of cancer research, she was warned that she would have to work twice as hard to match her white counterparts. Her immediate thought was: “Do I have to put myself in a situation where I would have to struggle just solely based on my skin colour?”

Last year I attended four evidence sessions in England and one in Scotland, as part of the process of gathering data to inform the joint NUS/UUK report ‘Closing the Gap’ focussed on what needs to be done to close and ultimately eliminate the BAME attainment gap in universities.

We heard from students, university staff and others with an interest in these issues. We learned a lot. From the students who were constantly having to explain the realities of their day to day experiences, white staff who were fearful about talking about race and racism because they didn’t want to say the wrong thing and BAME staff who often had to mentor and support BAME students but did not receive any support or recognition for the additional time required for this work.

The frustration was palpable but there was also commitment to change, to creating more inclusive and more diverse cultures in universities.

Universities are as much about delivering equality as they are about excellent scholarship and knowledge transfer. They are places where opportunity and aspiration come together.

However, the example that Adesewa gave shows that we are not operating on a level playing field. That we still have a long way to go. 

What needs to happen to create the change needed? The report highlighted four key areas:

• the need for strong leadership;
• creating a culture in which it is possible to have open and honest conversations about race and racism;
• developing racially diverse and inclusive environments;
• getting the evidence and understanding what it means and understanding what works.

Strong leadership is critical. My own experience as the Director of SOAS has shown me how hard it is to bring about the required change in culture. Resistance takes many forms and communication is key. Although we have a very diverse student and staff body at SOAS, we are grappling with the same challenges as many other universities.

There are no easy routes to success. As university leaders we have a responsibility to make change happen and it needs to start now.

I hope the Higher Education Policy Institute collection of essays – "The White Elephant in the Room: ideas for reducing racial inequalities in higher education" – from colleagues such as Professor Kalwant Bhopal, Gary Loke from Advance HE, as well as Amatey Doku with whom I co-chaired the UUK/NUS report - will be an important further contribution to help us all to deliver the real and practical change which we so sorely need in our sector.

This text was first published in September 2019 as the introduction to a collection of HEPI essays around the theme of race and inequality in higher education.