Universities told to target ethnic groups

The government wants better representation of ethnic groups

Universities must work harder to attract students from ethnic minority groups, the government warned.

Youngsters from Bangladeshi, Pakistani and African-Caribbean backgrounds were particularly under-represented, the Higher Education Minister, Tessa Blackstone, told a Universities UK conference in London.

Tessa Blackstone says issues of equal opportunity must be taken seriously

Universities should build on what they had already achieved, Baroness Blackstone said.

"For some years now, we have prided ourselves that minority ethnic groups are well-represented in our student body," she said.

Overall that was correct, she said, with ethnic students making up 13% of the undergraduate population compared with 9% of the young population at large.

"However, overall figures hide wide disparities - while some groups are over-represented, others are under-represented," the minister said.

'Under-representation'

"National data suggest that there is under-representation among certain groups, particularly women students of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin and African-Caribbean men.

"It also shows that black and south Asian students are particularly concentrated in the post-1992 universities," Baroness Blackstone said.

There is much work to be done before we can say that equal opportunities fully exist for staff in higher education

Baroness Blackstone

The reasons for this were complex, the minister said, and it was important not to treat all minority groups as if they were the same.

Over the next two years, a total of £444,000 would be spent on helping ethnic minority graduates get jobs, she revealed.

Of that, £77,000 would be spent on supporting law graduates, as non-whites were currently under-represented in the legal profession, she added.

Baroness Blackstone also called on universities to do more to tackle equal opportunities issues among academic and support staff, notably women, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities.

"There is much work to be done before we can say that equal opportunities fully exist for staff in higher education.

Women trail behind

"We have long known that few women make it to the top in higher education. We now have the grand total of 14 out of 183 heads of UK HE institutions.

"Women are also disproportionately represented in lower-paid posts," Baroness Blackstone observed.

Her comments came as the Association of University Teachers claimed levels of pay for female academic staff lagged nearly 20% behind their male colleagues.

Government figures showed that while male academics earned an average £669 gross a week, female staff received just £556, the AUT said.