Professor Kalwant Bhopal recently spoke at a Higher Education Policy Institute/Higher Education Academy breakfast seminar on 'Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity: do universities reflect society enough'? At that seminar she argued that universities should lose funding if they fail to tackle the under-representation of ethnic minorities in senior roles. Only 21 institutions applied for the Equality Challenge Unit's Race Equality Charter and just 9 have achieved the charter mark which she says is 'hugely disappointing'.
She believes that the use of quotas for the representation of black and ethnic minority staff at senior levels and mandatory unconcious bias training would help ensure greater diversity in universities. Support such as networking and mentoring would also encourage career progression to enable academics to make the most of opportunties.