Navigating the challenges of Higher Education: the lived experiences of Black academics

The event is running on October 22nd, 2021 from 2-3pm. The speaker is Dr. Winifred Eboh from the School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex.  

Black academics are underrepresented in Higher Education and our numbers do not reflect the student population we teach. Perhaps the most discouraging statistics are those that show that Black academics are less likely to be professors with figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in 2012/13 which showed that of a total of 17,880 professors, only 85 were Black (less than 1%), 950 were Asian (5%), 365 were ‘other’ (including mixed) (2%) and the majority 15,200 were White (85%). Recent statistics indicate a slight rise from 105 to 155 respectively in 2014-15 and 2019-20. These statistics still show that Black academics are less likely to be in positions that can influence Higher Education.

It is therefore important to understand how Black academics navigate the system. To ensure that Black academics progress and influence in areas that matter in HEI it is important to highlight the structural racism and develop supportive and nurturing new structures.