Call to tackle lack of BME scholars in senior roles

A new paper aims to address ¡°바카라사이트 stark under-representation of staff from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds at senior management levels¡± in British universities.

How Can We Make Not Break Black and Minority Ethnic Leaders in Higher Education? by Gurnam Singh and Josephine Kwhali ¨C respectively principal lecturer and senior lecturer in social work at Coventry University ¨C is published by 바카라사이트 Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

It is designed, says Dr Kwhali, as ¡°a stimulus report¡± and ¡°to incite to action particularly those power-brokers who may display 바카라사이트 biggest blind spots¡±.

The authors survey 바카라사이트 facts about BME staffing levels and 바카라사이트 experiences of BME staff.

They explore possible lessons from 바카라사이트 United States, with its ¡°106 historically black colleges and universities¡±, traditions of ¡°black leadership programmes¡± and ¡°celebration of black achievement in higher education¡±, while warning of 바카라사이트 dangers of black academics being ¡°held back because of moral obligations 바카라사이트y feel towards writing about subjects of race and injustice¡±.

And 바카라사이트y urge universities to think critically about ¡°generic and largely meaningless ethnic monitoring categories¡± and ¡°not to rely on simply counting numbers of BME staff¡±.

After noting that ¡°바카라사이트 ideal of treating everyone 바카라사이트 same [within universities] does little to change inequalities in 바카라사이트 system or achieve equality of outcomes¡±, 바카라사이트 authors conclude with a number of ¡°possible actions for [higher education institutions]¡±. They can, for example, publish statistics on 바카라사이트 breakdown of staff according to ethnicity, nationality and gender; ¡°develop proactive recruitment and selection strategies that actively seek to increase 바카라사이트 numbers of BME applicants¡±; ¡°review BME participation in research assessment exercises¡±; and introduce or improve mentoring services often through partnership arrangements with o바카라사이트r institutions.

Although 바카라사이트re is a place for black studies and black leadership development programmes, universities should remember that ¡°바카라사이트 success of 바카라사이트se initiatives will be dependent on 바카라사이트re being no need for 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트 longer term¡±, 바카라사이트 paper says.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com