To think this is utterly depressing

[OverTheRainbow88]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55723120

Less than 1% of U.K. University Professors are black.

How is this the case still?

What can be done?

YANBU. The pace of change is measured in aeons.

what can be done
We could stop taking stats at their face value without doing more research?
According to the last census only 3% of the England population (0.7% in Scotland and 0.6% in Wales) is black.

@NoOneOwnsTheRainbow

what can be done We could stop taking stats at their face value without doing more research? According to the last census only 3% of the England population (0.7% in Scotland and 0.6% in Wales) is black.

This is a fair point

But I really just came on to say I'm laughing so much at your NN and the OP's together

According to the last census only 3% of the England population

Well then less than 1% is a major underrepresentation.

We need more black professors to inspire and act as role models to black students to go into academia and aim for the top.

Maybe they're among the 8.2% of all HE academic staff that have apparently chosen not to participate in ethnic profiling? "Not known" is an actual category. It is also a more popular category than "mixed" or "other" combined. www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/staff/table-4

No there are much more things to be depressed about

@isadoradancing123

Im guessing this doesn’t affect you personally then...! As to some it’s their every day life

I am not homeless but feel depressed when seeing how many homeless people there are in my city. It’s call empathy and compassion for others

@NoOneOwnsTheRainbow

what can be done We could stop taking stats at their face value without doing more research? According to the last census only 3% of the England population (0.7% in Scotland and 0.6% in Wales) is black.

Exactly

@toycupboard

That’s still a major underrepresentation of black peoples as professors though.

How is that a major under representation?

I don't think it's a major underrepresentation tbf. Besides, what is the reason is they don't want that line of career? I certainly wouldn't...

@GoldfishParade

How is that a major under representation?

Divide 3 by 1 may be?

Gosh some of these replies are depressing

I work at a uni department. We have one female (I thinks he's 'white' but not UK born so I may be wrong) prof (22 male profs) and two black profs. Diversity at prof level is generally awful and demoralising if you're wanting to seek out a decent role model!

@cherrypie111

Yup. Agreed

She's

Where is that data from @laudete? Because (unless I’ve added wrong which is possible) that shows 2% in the three categories combined (black Caribbean, black African, other black background). Which, while obviously still lower than the 3% of the population someone else quoted, is double the initial figure?

Ignore me if I’ve got my figures wrong!

@Lifeinaonesie

Are the black profs male or female?

"According to the last census only 3% of the England population
Well then less than 1% is a major underrepresentation.
We need more black professors to inspire and act as role models to black students to go into academia and aim for the top."

How many Professors are white working class males?
White working class young men are statistically % the lowest number entering Uni and finishing with a degree.
I would guess we need more white male working class professors to inspire and act as role models to white male working class students to go into academia and aim for the top.

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Lifeinaonesie

Are the black profs male or female?[/quote]
Male.

We do have quite a diverse professoriate if you consider nationality though, but they are all men, bar the token woman, who therefore ends up spending all her time on committees and panels so the department looks diverse

@Childrenofthestones

Yes, I agree with that as well. Fully support more prof working class white role models for students.

Not being snarky, but does anyone know the % of Professors who are disabled? Not playing top trumps, but people seem not to know/ care about the discrimination of disabled people in employment and healthcare (particularly at the moment) and I just think that this is an area that should be highlighted as well.

I would assume it’s because many black people who are educated to this level want to do something more high paying or nationally recognised than academia.
I don’t know the official statistics but certainly in London it would seem black people are massively ‘over represented’ in medicine. Is it depressing that over 90% of the people on my friend’s medical case are BAME?

Considering the 3% stat that has already been mentioned, then unless this is adjusted for age (most university professors are older due to their gained expertise) and arguably class then this doesn't tell us anything about racial inequality.

To add onto that, if we need to look at this then we also need to look at why white working class boys are not going to univcersity, why white girls are outnumbering statistically other areas and why this article brushes over asians which have a larger percentage than the black community.

Lazy journalism, trying to bring in some CRT that is also very selective.

@Meredithgrey1 Higher Education Statistics Agency, as per the link in my post. They're the official agency for all UK higher education stats. I haven't checked your figures. I just found it interesting that a significant chunk is "not known", which must make for difficult statistical analysis. But, I guess you can't compel people to declare their heritage because that would be discriminatory? On data collection forms for work, etc, it's always an optional thing, isn't it?