Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to increase the number of black and minority ethnic professors teaching in public universities.

Mr David Willetts

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are independent, autonomous bodies and are entirely responsible for the recruitment, promotion and retention of their staff. Universities, like other employers, are subject to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and must ensure they do not discriminate in their recruitment practices. Universities are also required to meet the Public Sector Equality Duty and take a proactive approach to advancing equality of opportunity.

I understand that employer and employee representative organisations are taking action to address issues of equality in the higher education sector workforce. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) through the Equality Challenge Unit and in other ways, works with the higher education (HE) sector to support activities to address issues of representation both in the HE workforce and student population.