The Colour of Shame: The Lack of Ethnically Diverse University Senior Academics and Professors – Can, and Should We, Expect the Law to Provide Equality?

The UK’s university sector has a reputation for excellence, which enables it to attract some of the world’s finest academics and students; its system is steeped in a rich history and almost 1,000 years of tradition. At the heart of university culture lies the pursuit of objective inquiry and transformative education. Universities need diversity of thought, which can only be achieved by a diversity of academics. It appears that academics in universities are ethnically diverse, as statistics evidence that, save for black academics, almost all other ethnic groups are well represented at a ‘junior’ academic level when compared to the general population. However, these figures are inconsistent with the disproportionate numbers of ethnically diverse students entering university when compared to white students, and meaningless in light of the statistics that show 88% of university professors, and 86% of senior academics, are white. These statistics matter, professors and senior academics are the people who lead universities and who are ultimately responsible for the management, education, curriculum design and research direction of those institutions. This chapter will examine whether the law can effect equality in relation to ethnic diversity in professorial and senior academic positions, and whether it is a fair expectation.