Black Lives Matter in FE – Guardian news reports on systemic racism in colleges

Did you know that last year (2020), the Guardian newspaper highlighted several race equality concerns in colleges, including the lack of robust data monitoring, analysis and action to address race inequality and underrepresentation? What qualitative and quantitative information do you collect and use to continuously improve race equality in your organisation? How have you advanced race equality in the last four years?

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Supporting the mental health and well being of Black and minority ethnic staff

Did you know that there is a growing body of research that shows that people who have Black or minority ethnic heritage experience a higher incidence of mental health difficulties? Do you know the reasons for this? Did you know that a toolkit to support the mental health and well being of Black and minority ethnic staff has just been published? How are you supporting staff from these communities?

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#BlackLivesMatter - Training is no ‘silver bullet’ to creating diverse and inclusive work places

Looking deeply at your culture, practice and outcomes, do you know what it’s really like for people with different protected characteristics to work and learn in your organisation? How will you genuinely advance inclusion? How will you respond positively to #BlackLivesMatter? How will you avoid the pitfall of over-reliance on training?

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Are you ‘oblivious’ to the scale of racial abuse in your organisation?

Hate crime has doubled in the last six years, with race hate crime taking three quarters of these crime figures. So perhaps it’s not surprising that an enquiry carried out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found alarming levels of racial harassment across higher education providers. However, many organisations are both unaware of the issue and overconfident in their ability to handle it. What’s the situation in your organisation?

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Facts, figures and frustrations: the challenges of a national conversation of race disparity

Many providers analyse student race data, for example recruitment, success and progression, to determine race equality gaps to tackle. But if you have a major campaign to raise awareness of an attainment gap for Black students at your institution, how does this affect recruitment of Black students? Does it further entrench deficit assumptions and approaches by teachers and assessors? Does it increase stereotype threat within the students themselves? The Equality Challenge Unit has recently examined reactions to the Cabinet Office’s ‘Ethnicity facts and figures’ site and asks: what lessons for HE?

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