Recent statistics obtained by The Gryphon have shown that in the 2014-15 academic year Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) individuals made up 9% of academic staff across the faculties, with ethnic whites making up 71%.
The faculty of Engineering showed the greatest diversity in its staff members, with 15% BME, whereas BME staff members made up only 6% of the total in the Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law and in the Faculty of Arts.
Statistics have also shown that during the 2013-2014 period, BME individuals made up 21% of those who applied for professional and managerial roles across the university, but only received 5% of the job offers.
59% of applicants were of white ethnicity, and they received 86% of job offers.
This equates to 133 white and 8 BME applicants being offered jobs by the university.
A similar trend is seen in the recruitment of academic staff of the same period, with BME individuals making up 31% of applicants and only 17% of job offers, and white applicants making up 51% of the total, and receiving 67% of job offers.
When questioned about these statistics at a question and answer session in February, Vice Chancellor Alan Langlands defended the university policy by saying that the mix of university staff is in reality better, but still not good enough
He went on to state: “I’m not in favour of quotas. We’ve got to pick the absolute best candidates. What we should be asking is why are we not producing the best candidates from minority groups?”
The national average of BME staff higher education in 2012-13 was 6.5%, according to ECU research, and there are currently only 60 black professors in the UK, representing only 0.4% of the total.
This is an improvement from the average in 2003-04, in which 4.8% of higher education staff were BME.
Further data shows that 85% of BME candidates applying for promotions in 2013-14 were successful, and 82% of white applicants were.
A spokesperson for the University said: “Currently, of a total staff headcount of 7,780, 9% of our staff have declared they are from a BME background; however, a larger proportion of our staff ethnicity status information remains unknown (20%).
“With reference to academic staff, 10% declared they were from a BME background, however, again, a larger proportion of data is unknown (23%).
“In relation to the recruitment of professional and managerial staff in 2013/14, 21% of applicants and 5% of those offered a role declared they were from a BME background; however, 18% of data at application stage is unknown and 8% at offer stage, therefore it is difficult to provide meaningful narrative.
“We recognise that there are gaps in the equality monitoring data, which do not help to provide meaningful information, so we are currently working towards more fully understanding the composition of our staff by encouraging disclosure in our equality monitoring activity.
“This supports our priority to attract, retain, support and develop an excellent workforce from across the world, which is part of our Equality and Inclusion strategy and wider framework.”
(Image: Wikipedia)
Jessica Murray