See My Academic FACE report

FACE Announces latest report November 25 Download our report for 5 key recommendations

  1. We agree we require greater numbers of culturally competent educators able to future proof our systems against race bias and Eurocentric fixation in our institutions.

  2. We agree that the building of a pipeline to diversify senior management must be a priority.

  3. We understand all learners are calling for diversification of teaching staff, to achieve enlightened cultural insight.

  4. We recognise culturally competent, decolonised teaching environments are an asset with the potential to attract new recruits and create a more stable financial environment. A goal that should be prioritised a key business objective.

So why operate a counter-intuitive system?

Our survey findings present the barriers which impair recruitment, maintenance and progression of Black and minoritised educators. Download our report below with links to anonymised comments from educators up and down the country. We also propose a further 5 questions to and for HR and EDI teams. These are framed using our FACE pillars: Recruitment, Curriculum, Progression, Culture and Policy.

Download our report for 5 key recommendations

Black academics make up just 2% of the academic population (Adams, 2020) and are not recruited or progressed with the same keenness as white/non-minoritised colleagues.

This study, hosted and initiated by Fashion Academics Creating Equality (FACE) and sponsored by Kingston School of Art (KSA) EDI Race and Ethnicity group presents the anonymised comments of both Black and non-minoritised educators, support staff and technicians together with those of white teachers to make 5 vital recommendations.

Download full study with images here

Download and print study without images here

November 2021.

See My FACE

Download study: See My FACE PDF here

Findings reveal daily psychological and educational trauma for minoritised learners in higher education to show these students are twice as likely as white students to strongly disagree that they are taught by a diverse and inclusive teaching body.

There was also and 11.6 percentage point deficit gap presented by minoritised students in response to whether they experienced a diverse, unbiased and inclusive curriculum.

Sampling from over over 50 institutions nationwide to feature 881 student voices: minoritised and non-minoritised, found significant discrepancies in educational experience pertaining to race, which emerge only when race aware and race equality questions are asked.

When asked to comment on how race had affected ability to study, four main themes emerged:

  1. How we experience our race

  2. My knowledge has been curated through a white lens.

  3. The absence of Black and Brown academics.

  4. Aggression – the observed behaviours of white teachers and students.

The case for institutional cultural competency as a remedial imperative as well as race equality and race aware questions to be added within the National Student Survey, is underlined by us in our report: Teaching excellence policy must not remain race blind here.

Download study: See My FACE PDF here