1 / 9

Black and minority ethnic leaders: support networks and strategies for success in HE

This study explores the career trajectories of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) leaders in Higher Education, focusing on support networks and success strategies. The research delves into the challenges, barriers, and successes experienced by BME leaders in academia. It highlights the importance of intersectionality and the need for better support provision for BME career progression. The findings reveal insights on mentoring practices, communication, and promoting professional development. Recommendations include formal mentoring systems, representation on panels, establishing BME networks, and access to training.

ppat
Download Presentation

Black and minority ethnic leaders: support networks and strategies for success in HE

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Black and minority ethnic leaders: support networks and strategies for success in HE Professor Kalwant Bhopal and Dr Hazel Brown @KalwantBhopal

  2. Introduction • Race Relations Amendment Act (2000); Equality Act (2010); Athena SWAN; Race Equality Charter (ECU). • Increase in BME students at HEIs; Indian and Chinese students more likely to have a degree compared to other BME groups (HEFCE, 2014-15). • Inequalities continue to persist despite policy changes and changes in student body (Bhopal and Jackson, 2013; Pilkington, 2013); White applicants three times more likely to secure a professorial post compared to BME candidates (UCU, 2012).

  3. Project aims and objectives • Aim: to explore successful career trajectories of BME leaders in HE Objectives • To provide case study data on the experiences of BME leaders • To examine how BME construct themselves as successful academics • To analyse sources of support and • To influence HE in terms of better support provision for BME career progression Funded by Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (June 2016)

  4. Intersectionality • A multiplicity of social categories that interact and interlock to produce systematic and individual inequalities (Crenshaw, 1991; Collins, 1998; McCall, 2005) • Pushes against the ‘single axis’ analyses of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, nationality, religion etc • Highlights the ways these systems interact, create and reinforce one another, as well as how they are experienced simultaneously • Intersectional informed reflexivity centres fluidity and multiplicity and questions the negotiation of power relations

  5. Methodology • Target group: BME leaders • Survey questionnaire: 127 respondents • Support networks • Mentoring • Strategies for success • Interview: 26 respondents (15 people interviewed) • Data transcribed and analysed via NVIVO

  6. Survey Findings • A mixed picture for mentoring practices • Poor ratings for promoting professional development • Russell Group universities rated lower for communication and fostering independence • Challenges and Barriers to success • Lack of networking skills • Work harder than white counterparts • Lack of pro-activism

  7. Interview findings • Leadership; inclusive, collegiate and collaborative • Successful career trajectories: hard work, support and perseverance • Promotion; not necessarily related to leadership style but to performance and the process by which it was measured • Support; lack of formal mentoring • Identity; gender, ethnicity and to some degree class

  8. Conclusions • BME leaders successful due to own hard work and perseverance, differences by gender and ethnicity Ways forward • Formal mentoring systems • Representation on interview and promotion panels • Setting up BME networks • Access to training

  9. Contact the authors • Professor Kalwant Bhopal • University of Birmingham • K.Bhopal@Bham.ac.uk • Dr Hazel Brown • University of Winchester • Hazel.brown@winchester.ac.uk

More Related