Recruitment and bias
This companion page is one of many included in the See My Academic FACE survey findings - officially released November 24.
Featured first are Black and racially minoritised participant answers. Scroll down to see non minoritised or white participant answers to the following question…
Did you identify any bias in the recruitment process? “If you answered yes, please provide further details on what bias you identified or experienced.”
It should also be noted that educators chose to talk about their experiences of recruitment in other sections of the survey so we have added these also.
Black and racially minoritised participant answers.
Nepotism
1. It’s very nepotistic
2.Lots of the jobs advertised, the organisation already knew who there were going to hire and interviews were just them going through the motions. Also I observed lots of places, friends were hired with less experience or qualifications than me. I don't drink and do not like going to pubs or bars and often those who did those things got the permanent jobs.
Often I was rebooked at same organisation as a sessional lecturer but often not short listed for interview for permanent positions that i had been doing as a visiting lecturer for years. Even though students would request to have me as their tutor. Was about to give up and quit teaching , when I tried one more time , I was very surprised when I was successful getting my current role, after 10 years of applying for permanent roles. Then I was the only Black academic on the team. I was often introduced in the first few weeks by other members of the team as the new technician.
“Interview panels are not diverse and new appointments are still ‘white’”
7. Posts were given to friends so not advertised.
12. Other academic colleagues had been vetted before job ads had even gone out so the process of hiring was unfair.
13. At interviews there was always a sense I should be grateful if offered a position. I had been asked about if I had children and once about my ethnicity.
14. It was biased in that the people doing my interview already knew me - I was a known quantity so it was easier for me to get in.
White preference
6. While white colleagues were simply offered full time contracts for course leader jobs. I was required to justify the need for me to also be full time in the same position.
9. A younger/less experienced (white) person with no children was encouraged to apply and offered the job.
10. We need more black educators. There is a very low percentage of black and POC staff, more in the place where I work but still not enough.
54. I was told at one interview I didn’t get the job because I dressed inappropriately - (I was showing my arms)
Inequity
“Black people are judged on their CV’s etc. with no account taken that they may have been denied opportunities.”
25. Race continues to impact recruitment. Often Black people are judged on their CV’s etc. with no account taken that they may have been denied opportunities. So are not on equal footing.
Implicit race bias
26. I wrote to express interest in a teaching role but the younger white person who got the job was brought to be introduced to me and ask about my work!
51. The framework of questioning centred white ideas about the subject matter with no room whatsoever for perspectives beyond it.
52. The panel was all male for some interviews. When interviewing for this current insitution, the panel was not particularly diverse and again leaned male and white.
53. I interviewed 7 times, the feedback was always, you were amazing BUT someone was more qualified than you, I have since found out that the two positions they filled, which were two jobs I was doing and interviewed for, were in fact less qualified than me. Therefore the feedback was incorrect, and seemed made up. The entire process has put me at a disadvantage as someone who is nuerodiverse too.
56. The admin staff asked for my passport to photocopy, I handed her my UK passport and she asked again if she could have my "foreign" passport from the country of where I was from (not believing I was from the UK).
57. I have not been afforded the same opportunities of re-application during the restructuring process of the school as white colleagues who have less experience.
“I sit on almost all interview panels for my programme because there are so few non-white staff, and very few non-white staff are interviewed (I think I've only seen one in 4 years).”
60. I am the only Black origin male academic in my programme in my School in my HE institution. And until recently only 1 of 2 men of colour, there are about 3 women of colour. This is out of around 35 academics in my programme on a full or part time basis, plus more HPLs.
“I don't think my university does enough to reach out and hire black academics or people from industry whose skills might translate into our sector.”
I don't think my university does enough to reach out and hire black academics or people from industry whose skills might translate into our sector. I sit on almost all interview panels for my programme because there are so few non-white staff, and very few non-white staff are interviewed ( I think I've only seen one in 4 years).
There is a clear push for decolonising the curriculum from myself and staff in general, but we do have huge workloads - we need more time to build discipline specific networks and research that cater to a wide variety of students and their backgrounds, so these subjects are handled with rigour and depth and not superficial. I also find student groups can become segregated, which is also about the university culture and environment outside the classroom - I think student unions should do more to bring students together.
“Both race and gender has impacted my development as an educator. I have a greater workload and also lower paid than all of my male white colleagues.”
66. Both race and gender has impacted my development as an educator. I have a greater workload and also lower paid than all of my male white colleagues. I was previously informed by a previous line manager that I shouldn't apply for promotion because only a year had passed since I was on maternity leave. I was unable to apply for an (overdue) promotion for 3 years due to having children.
91. I do not feel that my institution has hired enough diversity. This company would benefit from more international hires and programmes to include non-native speakers, refugees and immigrants. I would like to see more work to hire internationally. More people of colour working here. Different ethnicities represented and more diversity in staff as well as students. I'd like decolonisation workshops to be mandatory. I would like to see LGBTQIA+ workshops to be mandatory as well. I feel the company is doing some of this work, but there is still so much room for more.
92. I see recruitment in our department of a more diverse range of academics as still a problem. Interview panels are not diverse and new appointments are still ‘white.’
94. I am disadvantaged because of my gender and accent not because of my race. White people with non British accents are often overlooked in education.
CV
“…the application process and criteria do not support candidates with non-standard routes of development, but who could contribute enormously…”
71. I do not identify particular biases. What I do identify is that the application process and criteria do not support candidates with non-standard routes of development, but who could contribute enormously to education (e.g. working class people who had to take career breaks and get different jobs to make ends meet or people who come from different academic traditions were progress operates differently)
Ageism/gender
73. Being a young female I felt I wasn’t given the opportunity to become a technical manager at two posts I applied and interviewed for I was acting in a role through an internal informal application.
96. Ageism - people thinking I was a junior based on my appearance because I don't age in the same way due to my ethnicity. White middle class senior women taking an instant disliking to me due to my urban working class ethnic expressions. People not believing I could have the mental aptitude. Projection of stereotypes of me as being too strong or too weak. Viewed as fundamentally lacking in skills and competency without grounds. Accused of both overselling and underselling my experience.
Challenge
16. I had to fight to become senior even though the policy was that you could become senior if you had formal teaching training.
77. It has taken time for me to progress from visiting lecturer to lecturer to a course leader and then a director. Now in the space of senior leadership, 15 years later, I can affect small change and currently have a more diverse range of people working with me. In the teaching teams I used to be in, they were predominately white and the micro aggressions were more from students and parents.
There were 112 non minoritised and white responses to the question… Did you identify any bias in the recruitment process?
Nepotism
104. There is a lot of nepotism in academic hiring.
112. Friends and family are recruited, or those that studied at the institution or non-white men to tick decol boxes
117. Towards friends of those who lead courses and programmes and an ease once those relationships are built. Tough to enter into the inner circle of decision makers without introductions and networking…
118. I was externally interviewed but it was more normalised culture to be brought in if you were a friend, Family or associate of the team or graduated previously from that university. Being different to that meant I had to work harder, longer, workload more varied than my colleagues.
123. Nepotism is rife in education. It’s not what your CV looks like but who you know.
The patriarchal, heteronormative, middle class gaze
102. Bias towards my availability as a working mum - the Programme Director was not interested in a proposal of a course leader job share
103. Bias towards male counterparts
106. I was the only female applying and I felt that they were surprised by my answers and didn't realise that I would end up being a preferred candidate.
“There is misogyny in the department and women are slower to progress in their roles.”
107. My department is all-male. The interview panel only had men on it. There is misogyny in the department and women are slower to progress in their roles. The few women who work here have raised this with the EDI team who do nothing
108. I was the only female applying and I felt that they were surprised by my answers and didn't realise that I would end up being a preferred candidate.
109. After completing my PhD I was initially employed on what the university/department were calling a 'post-doc' but the salary band was at the lowest level of Research Assistant despite the demands of the role being far above this level. I feel that the low salary band was directly linked to the assumption that the applicants would be women. Had those pitching the role had male post-doctoral applicants in mind they would not have envisaged them applying for a position with that salary.
“I feel that the low salary band was directly linked to the assumption that the applicants would be women.”
111. As a working class male I am in the minority in my particular department, which is very female and middle class leaning. I was lucky that two jobs were available when I applied, as one of the jobs was clearly intended for a middle class female academic who hadn't previously worked in the department but came with positive recommendations from elsewhere (her mother was a respected academic elsewhere).
“Queer men who do not present as "traditionally" or conventionally masculine are not taken seriously in the recruitment process.”
113. Some gender bias.. I saw other male colleagues appointed quicker
114. Queer men who do not present as "traditionally" or conventionally masculine are not taken seriously in the recruitment process. We have to modify our voice, behaviour, clothing, to be seen as professional. My intial experience of teaching was in further education, and this is also not taken seriously in the university sector despite clearly transferable skills.
116. Yes having been in place for one year as a casual staff member, a male member of staff was recruited over me. I was then offered a fractional lectureship at 0.3FTE (1 and half days a week), it has taken me over 10 years to eventually be made full time, I am also aware that my step is considerably lower than my counterparts. During my employment, I had one maternity leave
120. A couple of years ago I applied for 5 jobs at a head of department level. For every role I was told I was the second choice candidate and got very positive feedback. All the jobs went to white men in their 50s.
121. Gendered bias, perceived class bias probably based on accent
124. Person conducting the interview kept me waiting over an hour before seeing me and it was obvious during the interview that they had already decided on a previous candidate.
125. I was moving from further education to higher education, there was definite snobbery about this and my research
“I routinely feel my gender has affected my value, progression, opportunities and perception by others.”
156. I do feel class and gender has had an impact on my career progression
159. I have not felt/perceived any impact due to my race, which in turn shows a clear bias - the absence of this feeling like a factor so surely a clear privilege. Comparatively I routinely feel my gender has affected my value, progression, opportunities and perception by others.
Neuro diversity
105. learning disability and neurodiverse
110. Having disclosed my neurodiversity I believe the barriers to getting a permanent job are real. The application process and the job interview procedure are not accessible, I have experienced a negative outcome on a number of occasions
“…but what do staff with little or no sight for others with processing challenges do?”
162. One of my rolls is to mark papers. Being dyslexic this is difficult for me and I struggle to find ways of combining reading, commenting and grading in the time given (or paid for). I've ended up NEEDING to build a suite of tools and processes enable me to manage this, but it's out of my own pocket. I know this is due to my cognitive diversity, but what do staff with little or no sight for others with processing challenges do? Surly their knowledge and opinion is just as valid as the "able" staff members. This also is also relevant to the students, as dyslexia and ADHD is clearly evident in my students. With many of them being international students they won't have gone through the same processes as the UK students, so they don't think to ask or engage, but just cope. How can we help them?
Research/CV
115. Candidates with a larger research profile were given preference regardless of job role.
119. There is a form of bias in teaching positions towards those who have certain higher qualifications such as a PhD, which disfavours those who have non-academic experiences, skills, knowledge. A doctoral qualification is pretty niche, high end, exclusive.
125. I was moving from further education to higher education, there was definite snobbery about this and my research.
Assumptions
49. I have a strong suspicion that I was partly employed as being the race I am, others assume I can speak the language that many overseas students speak, which unfortunately I cannot. Although I was born in the UK, unfortunately my parents never taught me how to speak in their native languages.