Looking at dashboard data, 37.8% of students are racially minoritised. At grade 4, 29.1% of staff are racially minoritised. At Grade 5, this rises to 31.5%. UAL’s target for BAME representation in staff is 30%. But, if our student body statistics sits closer to 40%, is our target too low?
The dashboard data does not include international students, which means that the % of BAME students enrolled is higher 37.8%.
There is no space for racism in education. Working to decolonise the curriculum, it’s important to ensure that our studio spaces reflect the vast diversity of LCF’s student body.
Representation can’t be a token gesture. Alice Bradbury (2020) writes “policy is always political: it shapes subjectivities, produces discourses of success and failure, and determines practices and priorities, all in ways which work to advantage some students over others” (p. 256). If students don’t see themselves reflected in those who teach or lead them, it shapes what they believe is possible — and who knowledge belongs to.
To decolonise the curriculum, we have to consider not only the content we teach, but who is delivering teaching. Representation allows students to witness knowledge held and shared by people from a range of racial and cultural backgrounds. That kind of visibility is transformative and ensures a sense of belonging.
The barriers for BAME staff in education are deep-rooted. Kalwant Bhopal, writing from a critical race and intersectional perspective, describes how racialised women in higher education often face a “triple burden” across race, gender, and class (Bhopal & Pitkin, 2020, p. 709). Lewis and Arday (2023) extend this critique further, describing the “whitening of neurodiversity” — showing how higher education tends to reward those who conform to white, neurotypical norms.
Nicola Rollock, in her research on Black Female Academics at professorship level, reveals that ‘Black female academics endure an uneven and convoluted pathway to professorship characterized by undermining, bullying, and the challenges of a largely opaque progression process.’ (Rollock, 2021, p.93) In 2019, there were just 25 Black female full professors in the UK — a shocking figure that speaks to a lack of institutional support. Two of Rollock’s participants resigned during her study, which further shows that education does not have support in place to ensure Black female professors can thrive.
Representation is not just about hiring — we need to create systems that retain and support staff of different ethnicity. That has to include transparent progression, culturally responsive leadership, and equitable access to development. It also includes reviewing assessment practices that may disadvantage racially minoritised students and embedding anti-racist values across policy — not just in EDI statements.
As a white woman in education, I’ve never had to navigate this kind of erasure. That’s a privilege. But it also means I have a responsibility — to advocate, to listen, and to create space. As Bradbury reminds us, we must “draw attention to the role of policy, and the policymakers themselves, in reproducing racial inequality” (2020, p. 256). That includes me.
Representation isn’t an optional extra — it’s the foundation of anti-racist education.
References
Bradbury, A. (2020). A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: the case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), 250–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2019.1665008
Bhopal, K., & Pitkin, C. (2020). ‘Same old story, just a different policy’: race and policy making in higher education in the UK. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(4), 530–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2020.1718082
Garrett, R. (2024). ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education, Globalisation, Societies and Education’ https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2024.2307886 Accessed 22 June 2025
Lewis, M., & Arday, J. (2023). The whitening of neurodiversity in higher education. In J. Arday & H. S. Mirza (Eds.), Dismantling Race in Higher Education (pp. 1–18). Palgrave Macmillan.
Rollock, N. (2021). “I would have become wallpaper had racism had its way”: Black female professors, racial battle fatigue and strategies for surviving higher education. In I. Gabriel (Ed.), Transforming the Ivory Tower: Models for Gender Equality and Inclusive Leadership (pp. 89–105). Trentham Books.