Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash.

Elizabeth Adams (@researchdreams) is the Researcher Development Manager at the University of Glasgow.

In 2019, an Equality and Human Rights Commission report (Tackling Racial Harassment, Universities Challenged) highlighted what many of our PGRs, students, and staff already know: that there are issues surrounding race pervading the UK higher education system.  

This report echoes some of the comments I have heard over the years from PGRs, staff and alumni, brought into sharp focus recently due to the differential impact of covid-19 on minorities and the Black Lives Matters movement.  Following discussion within the researcher development and PGR teams, I wanted to write this post to share some of our thinking on what specific actions we can (and are already) taking as a team and also how we might use our own privilege to advocate for systemic change.   

For anything to change in a University, there needs to be a mixture of University level, local and individual actions (I found this blog helpful for thinking about this: ‘No single action can change the entire system’). Many of us will already be thinking about what we can do as individuals, starting by reading and some honest self-critical reflection. The University’s Equality and Diversity unit and Race Equality Group are leading on work in this area for the Institution, looking at University level barriers and actions.  

In this blog, I’ve tried to focus on specific things that we can do as a researcher development team, either because they relate to the events and training that we provide or because we are often in the position of being able to input to policy and communications and advocate for change in other parts of the complex ecosystem of the university, or indeed externally, with funders and policy makers.   

As a team, we want to support our research staff and students, both during these difficult times and also longer term.  We know we don’t have all of the answers, but we hope that by being open about our intentions and approach, we can invite further dialogue and improve the environment at UofG.  

So what are we doing already?  

As a team, we’ve tried to educate ourselves by listening to students and staff, inviting feedback, reading, and reflecting. We’ve undertaken the University’s active bystander training and engaged with internal and external groups, such as the University Equality and Diversity Unit and the UK Council for Graduate Education, to think about what we could be doing differently to offer support to our staff and students and create an inclusive environment.  

We’ve had to understand that the challenges for BAME students from the UK might be different to those experienced by international students, and that we need to think about these issues separately and also understand where issues are compounded and overlapping. The barriers and challenges I’ve heard described are wide ranging: Being judged on accents and skin tone. Being the first in the family to go into Higher Education. The difficulty of moving from a more racially diverse part of the UK to somewhere like Glasgow, where the BAME staff and students tend to be international. Visa worries for international PGRs and staff– for finding the next job, for conferences or for internships. Power dynamics. Unfamiliar systems. English as a second language. Lack of support systems and role models.  

When we invited participants to a PGR Communities study a few years back, we were struck by the number of responses which started with ‘I’m probably not your typical PGR, but…’. 

But all of our PGRs are our ‘typical’ PGRs, because our PGR Community is a diverse group of individuals from around the world, at different stages of life, with different racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds, different family dynamics, and different living situations.  Following this study, we instigated regular PGR Townhall meetings, to try to ensure greater diversity in the voices that are heard around the PGR experience.  Through this, and in other meetings, we aim to provide an open door and platform for students and staff to raise issues and suggest solutions, without it being a burden on our BAME colleagues. 

This year, we have introduced online Supervisor training which embeds thinking about equality, diversity and inclusion at all stages. We’ve tried to give practical suggestions for how to avoid damaging assumptions at the recruitment stage (e.g. based on accents or participation in summer research projects as an UG); on setting expectations for responsible diversity and inclusion in your research group as part of induction; and on supporting students and researchers, particularly in scenarios where they don’t see themselves represented (e.g. at conferences, in seminars). 

Some areas where I think we could do more:  

1. Making sure the processes for raising issues are accessible and clearly communicated. We are considering how, through our training and events, we can raise awareness of the University’s Respect Advisers, the Dignity at Work and Study Policy and the work of the Race Equality Group.  

2. Diverse speakers and role models at events: we already look carefully at speaker line-ups and the diversity of our trainers, but we know we still have work to do here in terms of racial diversity. We have guidance on embedding equality, diversity and inclusion into researcher development but will be updating this—and reviewing how it is monitored and implemented—in light of recent events and the implications a shift online for researcher development might have for inclusion.  We also want to advocate, through our training, for local seminars to include more diverse speakers. While so many seminars are being done by Zoom, now is the ideal time to rethink how scholars from other countries might be able to access and participate in these where normal conference fees might prohibit inclusion.  

3. Encouraging more discussion in the research community on how ideas or thinking are influenced and shaped by cultural norms or historic inequalities, and how our choices when presenting our findings can either be respectful and sensitive to communities or not. A researcher who works with viruses highlighted an example of this and some questions to think about: someone might think that showing images of the human suffering caused by a particular disease or parasite brings their presentation to life, but how carefully have these images been chosen and what stereotypes might they be playing up to, depicting starving children in rags? How can we ensure that our training isn’t just written from a white, Western perspective?  And how do we facilitate necessary discussions such as these, within our PGR and public engagement training?  

4. Talking to our staff and students, understanding more about what support might be needed for minority groups, including looking at what has worked elsewhere, because we know other institutions have been thinking about this for longer than we have. We are already engaging with the University’s Race Equality Group and BAME student society via the SRC (e.g. in understanding the impact of covid-19 on minorities) and external groups, such as the UKCGE, and other institutions and organisations outside of HE, to learn from them.  

5. Equipping researchers to speak up, either on behalf of others, or for themselves, on issues that they care about, and supporting them when they do. We are looking into what type of training might be most useful here, should people desire it.  

6. Making sure staff and students have access to clear visa information, which helps to break down the power imbalances with PIs or the stress of attending an international conference (which might be important for career progression) or making career choices. We are thinking about where we might signpost to relevant information on this, and also to ensure that where we might discuss PGR internship opportunities, we are mindful of visa limitations and challenges. 

Many of the ideas in this blog aren’t our own, but come from researchers and alumni who have contacted us over the years to share their experiences and suggestions, and I’m really grateful for everyone who has taken the time to do that.  

What next?  

I know that people are worried this will be a passing moment of attention on a serious issue and that good intentions might fall by the wayside (as they have done in the past, as different things take the spotlight), so I want to emphasise that this is something we are committed to addressing as a team.  We will continue to review our practice at team meetings, making inclusion a standing agenda item, and intend to provide an update to this blog later in the year. We welcome feedback and continued discussion with the University community.  

In no way am I an expert on this and still have a lot of work to do myself, but if you are looking for ways to increase your knowledge and understanding of these issues within HE, I have found following #BlackintheIvory and @MinoritySTEM useful sources of insight. A recent PGR Graduate from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing has also set up @ThePhDPodcast to discuss PhD Life, Diversity, Inclusion, Race + Gender Equality in Academia, and I know there are many more. I hope that you will join us next week at a talk by Angela Saini, the author of Superior: The Return of Race Science, which was organised by the University Equality and Diversity Unit. Register here.