Education is in a State: Exploration of In/Equalities Shown in Statistical Data of Academic Staffing in UK Higher Education

Description

This presentation provides a brief introduction to a study, commissioned by BERA, which explored inequalities in Education in UK higher education. The study was informed by an analysis of existing statistical data on academic staffing collected by higher education institutions and submitted to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) during the five academic years 2015/6 to 2019/20.

The report of the findings provides a snapshot of the state of the discipline during a five-year period. It is limited by gaps in the completeness of the datasets; how and what data is recorded by institutions and curated by HESA; and the research questions and foci. Conducted in the interests of addressing inequalities, as researchers we paid attention to where the markers of sameness and difference of staff – in terms of age, sex, ethnicity/ race, disability, religious belief and nationality – seem to have impacted on staff employment within the discipline of Education in the period from 2015-2020 in each devolved nation of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and how this compared with statistics of UK higher education in general. Analysis of the numbers, percentages, proportions and changes captured in the HESA data, enabled some identification of the differential and, where possible to ascertain, intersectional impacts on staff access, positioning, attainment, progression and attrition. Because the study was informed by quantitative data, the report does not provide insights into the qualitative experiences of staff, nor understandings of why this is the state of the composition nor employment conditions of Education. Instead, in the report, we provided discussion of the findings in ways which brings them into proximity with current scholarship of UK higher education, and made recommendations for further research.

The report evidences the homogenous state of Education in the United Kingdom; the marginalisation of academic staff recorded as Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME); the exclusion of academics from the majority world (or Global South); continued inequalities when it came to the flourishing of female staff; and concerns about the conditions for younger staff. Questions were raised about areas of insufficient and problematic growth in Education generally and in relation to certain social groups; and about gaps in HESA reporting. While some of the patterns were consistent across the UK, differences were observed between the devolved nations which suggests care should be exercised in representations made by scholars of higher education in the United Kingdom.

In this presentation, highlighted findings will be shared about specific aspects of the composition of the heterogeneity of Education’s academic staff members, in addition to their employment conditions. Approaching the data through the specific ‘entry points’ of sex, ethnicity, and nationality, findings about each grouping, intersectional impacts and related employment conditions will be shared using data visualisation. This will include sharing findings about sex, such as that there were larger proportions of females to males in Education; yet, despite their smaller numbers, indications were that male staff were advantaged in their participation within Education; with a shorter career duration for females to flourish at senior levels. Findings related to ethnicity include that Education had larger proportions of staff recorded as white than the sector. While there were increases in access of staff recorded as BAME over the five-year period, the rates of growth were insufficient, with the proportion of those Education staff recorded as BAME in 2020 less than half the proportion of the UK HE sector.
Close analysis revealed that those increases were primarily at junior level and through ‘teaching only’ contracts. Under-representation was most severe for those categorized as black and Asian/ Asian British Bangladeshi. It was found that Education was homogenous when it came to nationality, with significantly larger proportions of staff with UK primary nationality than the sector. Access for staff with EU and non-EU/UK primary nationality was thus proportionately far smaller. More diversity of nationalities was reflected in those recorded as BAME. However, the vast majority of Education staff held primary nationality from High-Income Countries, at significantly larger proportions when compared to the UK sector as a whole. Those few Education staff whose primary nationality was recorded as from the Global South were mostly employed in junior positions. The proportion of staff employed from Low-Income Countries was rounded to zero in Education.

Period	07 Sept 2022
Event title	British Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2022
Event type	Conference
Location	Liverpool, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International