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?

@Smileyaxolotl1

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?

Medicine is too black and white so it’s easy to succeed in it with the sheer brute force of hard work and long hours. Academia is a completely different story: it’s a long slog, you have to have excellent communication skills, networking prowess and you a secure financial background if things don’t work out in the long run. There is barely any comparison between medicine and academia.

@OverTheRainbow88 I completely agree. It's awful. There is a massive black attainment gap in terms of student achievement in academia too.
I think it's massively important for black students to see black academics at the forefront of their field.

@laudete oh yes, sorry, that link is obvious, don’t know how I missed it.
Looking at it your data seems to include a wider range of people that just professors (the 2% figure is quoted further down the bbc article as referring to wider academic staff).
But yes, a decent chunk of people where you don’t know the ethnicity must affect the data. Although for professors alone, it’s 1% black, 7% Asian, 89% white, leaving a max 3% unknown.

They want the best people for the job and pick the for that reason not the colour of their skin.....or hair...or shoe size

@PaddingtonsSister

This is how it should be in an ideal world, however unfortunately prejudice and discrimination still exist

Namechangeforte
Not sure what you are implying? That black people have poor communication skills or networking prowess and aren’t able to work hard for long periods?

I get the financial point but then surely it’s an issue of class and means, not race?

@Smileyaxolotl1

I think they mean that hard work alone isn’t enough, you need contacts etc

Overtherainbow
Probably, but as I said then it becomes more about class or money than race doesn’t it?
I can’t imagine David Lammy’s children would struggle in Academia if that was the future they desired.

The problem starts much earlier than the staff appointment stage. We have never had a Black person apply for a post in my department. Even when we advertised a post which specifically asked for a specialism in a Black studies area. I would be interested to know how many Black students there are in the top universities (which is, realistically, where academics are likely to be appointed from), because in my experience it is a tiny number.

I agree that the career trajectory in academia is massively classist. It requires years of insecure employment, poor pay and moving around the country from one short-term contract to another before the holy grail of a permanent of a permanent job is reached (and then it is only 5% of PhDs who end up in such a job). It favours people who have family support and lots of self-belief. That will never change because the kind of structural change required to make academic careers achievable for those from less affluent backgrounds will cost significant amounts of money that universities prefer to plough into senior management salaries, new vanity project buildings and other kinds of cosmetic enhancements to the “student experience” (a term which, interestingly never seems to get that teaching is important to the university experience) that look good in marketing materials.

It's a very hard vicious cycle to break.

Unrepresentation of black people at university generally = fewer black graduates progressing in academia = much smaller pool of qualified black academics competing for professor roles.

The single biggest way to improve it is to get more black people in to the system at the bottom.

However I would say ... maybe not everyone wants to be in academia? It's relatively poorly paid. I respect any one who wants to choose a more financially remunerative profession.

Medicine is revered as a career choice amongst some cultures, my Father was like this.

I am Chinese and as an ethnic group along with Indian children we have the best educational outcomes. I faced plenty of racism at school, my mixed children have as well.

Role models are great but I really think that what happens at home still has the biggest influence on educational outcomes. None of us went in to medicine much to my Fathers despair but we are all successful in terms of income and professions.

If anyone is interested below is a link to official stats on the outcome by ethnic group at age 16 in the UK. There are always individuals that don’t fit in with a statistical model.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439867/RR439B-Ethnic_minorities_and_attainment_the_effects_of_poverty_annex.pdf.pdf

@GCAcademic

The problem starts much earlier than the staff appointment stage. We have never had a Black person apply for a post in my department. Even when we advertised a post which specifically asked for a specialism in a Black studies area. I would be interested to know how many Black students there are in the top universities (which is, realistically, where academics are likely to be appointed from), because in my experience it is a tiny number.

I agree that the career trajectory in academia is massively classist. It requires years of insecure employment, poor pay and moving around the country from one short-term contract to another before the holy grail of a permanent of a permanent job is reached (and then it is only 5% of PhDs who end up in such a job). It favours people who have family support and lots of self-belief. That will never change because the kind of structural change required to make academic careers achievable for those from less affluent backgrounds will cost significant amounts of money that universities prefer to plough into senior management salaries, new vanity project buildings and other kinds of cosmetic enhancements to the “student experience” (a term which, interestingly never seems to get that teaching is important to the university experience) that look good in marketing materials.

This is the main reason I never pursued a career in academia, despite it otherwise being a perfect fit for me.

North London 1980's.
most of my professors were Jewish, there were a few Asian, can't remember if any were black - probably not. as if it mattered, they were all the best people for the job

@barofsoap

North London 1980's. most of my professors were Jewish, there were a few Asian, can't remember if any were black - probably not. as if it mattered, they were all the best people for the job

But so often, somehow it turns out that 'the best person for the job' just happens to be a white man.

We tend to focus top down rather than bottom up, it is the attainment gap that needs to be addressed then eventually the numbers on the top will increase. Current university lecturers show the education standards and expectations of the last 10 to 40 years.

I once worked in academia and conducted a study into course selection by female students. I found that black female students were choosing to apply for courses that they were over qualified for. There were some that applied for English lit, history, law etc., and were 'persuaded' at interview that they could apply for "women's studies" type degrees and more easily meet the grade requirement. This was 20 years ago, at a London university that was lauded for its diversity policies. It was shocking.

But so often, somehow it turns out that 'the best person for the job' just happens to be a white man.

I work in a department where - until five years ago, when a woman was promoted - the only academic staff in the department's 50-year history to reach the rank of Professor were white males. This is a subject where the undergraduate population is overwhelmingly female.