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'You cannot be serious': racial inequalities in UK higher education, 1997-2017

Pilkington, A. (2017) 'You cannot be serious': racial inequalities in UK higher education, 1997-2017. Invited Keynote presented to: Doing or (Un)doing Race in Higher Education, University of Surrey, Guildford, 04 December 2017.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Invited Keynote)
Abstract: This paper examines a twenty year period to explore the salience of race equality in higher education in the UK. While research evidence accumulates to demonstrate that staff and students from minority ethnic groups continue to experience considerable disadvantage, universities throughout the period have typically remained remarkably complacent. Such complacency partly stems from the dominance in the academy of a liberal as opposed to radical perspective on equality. Universities typically see themselves as liberal and believe existing policies ensure fairness and in the process ignore adverse outcomes and do not see combating racial inequalities as a priority. The paper distinguishes two ideal typical approaches, the ‘mandatory’ and the ‘persuasive’ to the promotion of race equality and suggests that the period has witnessed the transition along a continuum from the mandatory to the persuasive. Regardless of which approach is preferred, the persistence of racial disadvantage demonstrates that universities have typically not been serious about promoting race equality. Universities are urged to change tack, have no truck with a deficit model and to see it as their responsibility to take action to ensure more equitable outcomes.
Subjects: L Education > LC Special aspects of Education > LC212 Discrimination in education
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology > HM1001 Social psychology > HM1176 Social influence. Social pressure > HM1271 Multiculturalism. Diversity. Toleration
L Education > LC Special aspects of Education > LC213 Educational equalization. Right to education
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Creators: Pilkington, Andrew
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Applied Social Studies & Sociology
Date: 4 December 2017
Date Type: Publication
Event Title: Doing or (Un)doing Race in Higher Education
Event Dates: 04 December 2017
Event Location: University of Surrey, Guildford
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Published / Disseminated
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040

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