Are Scotland's universities hot beds of radicalisation on making equality happen ?

If most of what are often described as the 'best minds' in Scotland are involved in running Scotland's universities and educating the coming adult generations, a few of whom will go on to clutch the levers of power which decide the shape of our society and the moral values which stitch it all together, it would not be unreasonable to look to those universities to be exemplary in identifying and eliminating discrimination in their own practices, cultures and systems.

Recent research on the employment rates of Black Minority Ethnic [BME] people in Scotland's universities suggests a creditable performance across all universities of 6.83%.  And yet, when a deeper look is taken into published data such as that for Napier University, their rate of 23.09% contains an interesting take on what counts as minority ethnic [ME].  Napier explains that out of the 403 staff listed in the research report under the heading of BME :

The two largest groups of minority ethnic staff within the University identified as ‘White Other’ and ‘White Irish’, accounting for nearly 50% of the total (203).

Napier’s workforce profiling report does not explain why it has elected to use ME as opposed to BME as an identifiable cohort to be used in work aimed at delivering race equality. In the course of reading reports for this research, Napier would appear to be on its own in taking this approach to data gathering, using, and reporting. No mention is made in the report of any dialogue on the use of ME with community groups and organisations who represent the voice and lived experiences of BME.

In the wider context of race equality and universities, just one university, Stirling, has reported it is working at making sure the academic attainment of BME students is comparable to that of non-BME students.  The university Mainstreaming Equality report sets out :

OUTCOME 9 - DEGREE ATTAINMENT Degree attainment levels of students who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it will be broadly comparable.

The report then advises :

Proportions of students achieving a 1st or 2:1 are very similar between BME students (67%) and white students (69%) which is a significant improvement from the position in 2011/12.

In the case of people identifying as Lesbian, Gay or Bi-sexual [LGB], universities are struggling.  Research shows that the overall employment rate across all is 1.31%, quite a way short of the government's estimate of 5-7% of the population identifying as LGB.

While Stirling university has evidence of the attainment of BME students is comparable to that of non-BME students, it does not offer similar evidence on LGB students in relation to non-LGB students.  It does however offer some evidence on the continuation rates for LGB students.  Again, Stirling is the only university which has published evidence of this holistic approach to eliminating discrimination :

OUTCOME 8 - CONTINUATION:Continuation rates of students who share a specific protected characteristic and those who do not share will be broadly comparable.

The report then advises :

 Baseline 2011/12 data indicated that there were no significant differences in continuation rates between females and males, disabled students and those with no recorded disability, students from different age ranges, students with different religion/beliefs and students with different sexual orientations. 2014/15 data indicated this position has been maintained:

When looking at the employment rate across universities of disabled people, research has found that the current rate is at 3.25% of the workforce across all universities, falling significantly short from the government's estimate of 20% of the population identifying as disabled.

Stirling university is again on its own in linking work on disability equality as an employer with work on disability equality as a service provider to students :

OUTCOME 9 - DEGREE ATTAINMENTDegree attainment levels of students who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it will be broadly comparable.

The report then advises :

 A disparity in the degree attainment of students with a disability and those without has been identified; 60% (sample size 211) of students who disclose a disability achieve a 1st or 2:1 in comparison with 68% (sample size 1560) of those who do not share this protected characteristic.

We are continuing with our programme for transforming the student experience We anticipate that the new Reasonable Adjustments Panel and procedures will address the disparity which has been identified. Work will also be undertaken with the University’s Disability Service to understand the difference in outcome for students who share this protected characteristic.

When it comes to the position of Catholics employed in Scotland's universities, the performance is dire.  Research reveals that the employment rate aggregated across all universities is 1.78%, which suggests fundamental barriers are in place in the structures, cultures and practices of universities as employers.  Given the proportion of Scotland's population identifying as Catholic is over 15%, it is difficult to imagine that there can be any other explanation.  

Stirling university, while offering a moderate performance in employing Catholics - at 7.54% of the workforce - is unable to evidence the academic attainment evidence for Catholic students that it has for other protected characteristics.  This appears to be because it has only recently started to gather religious/belief data on the profile of the student body.

Taking all of what recent research reveals on the performance of universities as employers, the case can be made that universities are indeed hot beds - just not of radicalisation on equality, more a deep, thick, quagmire of conservatism.  They, like other major institutions of society itself, seek to preserve the status quo.  Discrimination has its roots in the robust defence by the status quo of the current hierarchical distribution of power and privilege, including access to paid work and career progression.  In this context, institutional discrimination in universities would appear to remain deep-rooted and rudely vigorous.