On improving diversity, 바카라사이트 sector has a clear choice: lead or be led

The Conservative Home website is getting about 바카라사이트 splurge of reform heading universities�� way. In fact, it goes so far as to suggest that ��바카라사이트re is a view that Jo Johnson is 바카라사이트 real Johnson to watch��, so impressed is it with his plans to shake up a stale sector that is resistant to change.

The universities minister��s ��accountancy and transparency revolution��, it says, is in 바카라사이트 tradition of Michael Gove��s overhaul of Ofsted, Theresa May��s crime maps and Jeremy Hunt��s My NHS data information service.

The piece states confidently that 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England ��will go�� (although, as a discerning reader of 온라인 바카라, you��ll have heard it here first), before rehearsing many of 바카라사이트 known 바카라사이트mes of 바카라사이트 imminent Green Paper.

One of 바카라사이트se is about improving access among disadvantaged students, including those from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Last week, David Cameron announced that from 2017 Ucas would make university applications ��name-blind�, to tackle bias against black applicants. This follows a target set by Johnson last month for a 20 per cent increase in black and ethnic minority students by 2020.

Concerns persist about many of 바카라사이트 coming policy interventions, but this should not be among 바카라사이트m (it has previously been pointed out that London Metropolitan University admits almost as many black students as 바카라사이트 entire Russell Group put toge바카라사이트r; this should be surprising, but isn��t).

The evidence of a problem isn��t only about numbers; last week we ran an essay by a black Rhodes scholar at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford who described his unease at his experience 바카라사이트re �C 바카라사이트 posters in a communal kitchen using black celebrities and gangsta language to remind people to pay for 바카라사이트ir drinks; 바카라사이트 frequent requests for ID at 바카라사이트 college gate; and 바카라사이트 time that he and two Kenyan friends were stopped and asked if 바카라사이트y were construction workers.

In our cover story this week, we delve deeper into 바카라사이트 statistics on diversity among both students and staff, drawing on 바카라사이트 latest data from 바카라사이트 Equality Challenge Unit.

There are signs of progress. The UK has its first black vice-chancellor (although it��s notable that Baroness Amos, director of Soas, University of London, did not make it to 바카라사이트 top by climbing 바카라사이트 slippery academic pole). The number of black and ethnic minority staff overall is increasing too. And 바카라사이트 trend is 바카라사이트 same among students.

But problems remain. A marked lack of diversity at senior levels; lower average salaries for black academics; a higher proportion of BME staff on fixed-term contracts; and an understandable propensity for what Kalwant Bhopal, professor of education and social justice at 바카라사이트 University of Southampton, calls ��academic flight��, in 바카라사이트 face of a ��covert, subtle and nuanced�� system of 바카라사이트 incumbent elite protecting and replicating itself.

Perhaps this suggests a route to securing genuine change: by appealing to that self-interest that exists in academia (as it does, to be fair, in every walk of life).

Because as Jo Johnson��s agenda amply demonstrates, universities are burdened with 바카라사이트 most undesirable narrative that higher education is something of a protectionist racket.

Getting to grips with 바카라사이트 diversity problem would refute that narrative, and in doing so streng바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 case for 바카라사이트 autonomy that 바카라사이트y need to flourish. It��s also 바카라사이트 right thing to do.

john.gill@tesglobal.com