Do Black and Minority Ethnic academic staff really still experience discrimination?

We are a much more culturally diverse society than fifteen to twenty years ago when the issue of racial inequality in employment in universities started to get some serious attention. In the intervening years we have seen most if not all universities across the UK putting equality policies into place, appointing equality and diversity officers, and offering a range of training programmes for staff. So, when we embarked on our research on the experiences of Black and minority ethnic (BME) academics in the autumn of last year we were interested in seeing if the situation had changed from the time of those earlier reports.

 What we have found shows a mixed picture with several definite positive examples of inclusion and career progression taking place. However, the nature of exclusion and discrimination appears to have changed and previous experiences of quite overt discrimination have to a large extent been overtaken by subtle, day to day differences of treatment which accumulate and serve to exclude. The low-level day to day experiences of exclusion and differential treatment go largely unchallenged. In a way it’s harder to challenge these than the old-style overt racism. Our research shows that some feel that there are inequalities in how we measure and assess, for example unconsciously higher thresholds for minority ethnic staff, particularly when it comes to promotion, and a question as to whether the REF, an important assessment in universities, may have Western-centric elements. Others doubt that there is equality in relation to pay, particularly starting salaries; some feel they are ‘outsiders’ and this can be reinforced through subtle and sometimes not so subtle exclusion; and for others more than one personal characteristic is at play, for example ethnicity and gender.

 A final point. We say in the sector that we want diversity, and indeed that we value it, however do we expect people to then ‘fit in’ with a pre-existing culture or do we maximise the opportunity that this diversity can offer us?

 Dr Kalwant Bhopal and June Jackson

Contact: K.Bhopal@soton.ac.uk