Familiarity of statistics should not obscure the reality of continuing inequalities in higher education, warns Equality Challenge Unit

Black and minority ethnic graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed than
their white counterparts, a report from Equality Challenge Unit, which supports
higher education institutions to promote equality and diversity, says.

ECU's 2008 statistical report on equality in the higher education sector
shows that 9.4% of black and minority ethnic graduates are unemployed after
graduation compared with 4.7% white graduates – and that the gap seems to
change little over time.

Analysis also shows that women and black and minority ethnic staff continue to
be under-represented in senior positions. Women make up 42.3% of the
academic staff population, but a lower proportion (17.5%) of heads of department
and professors, the ECU found. For science, engineering and technology
subjects it is 7.9%. Of academics earning over £50,000, 21.6% are women and
78.4% are men.

Commenting on the report, Chief Executive Nicola Dandridge warned: ‘These
figures will be familiar to us all, and therein lies the problem: we must not allow
the familiarity of the figures to dilute or obscure the inequalities that they
represent.’

The statistics also reflect some positive trends including high participation by
black and minority ethnic students across the sector, and near-equal numbers of
male and female academic staff up to senior lecturer level. Overall, the figures
show significant diversity in relation to both staff and students in all the mission
groups. For example, the high participation of black and minority ethnic students
in Million+ universities reflects the success of those universities in reaching out to
students from communities previously underrepresented in higher education.

However, Nicola Dandridge called for institutions to take a close look at their
approaches to equality, ‘The equality agenda is becoming increasingly complex
and we need a greater degree of sophistication and intelligence in identifying and
tackling the issues. By releasing these statistics, we intend to develop a shared
understanding of the challenges the sector faces in furthering equality and
diversity for all staff and students. We need to target actions where they are
needed most.’

Further information

• Equality in higher education: statistical report 2008 was commissioned by
  ECU and written and researched by higher education consultant Helen
  Connor.
  
• The report, based on the 2006/7 HESA data set, presents a selection of
  statistics relating to gender, race, disability and age, and covers figures for
  staff, students and institutional group profiles.
• ECU will be undertaking a similar analysis in future years, using this first
  report as a baseline to monitor the progress of the equality and diversity
  agenda throughout the sector.