Black and minority ethnic staff make up fewer than two in every 100 employees in Scottish colleges, new figures from the Scottish Funding Council show.
That proportion is less than half the proportion of BME people within the population in Scotland, which stands at four per cent.
College staffing data for 2015-16, published last week, shows the number of BME staff dropped from 326 in 2014-15 - 2.2 per cent of the total workforce - to only 234 in 2015-16, which represented 1.6 per cent of all staff. That is a drop of 28.2 per cent in a single year.
Black and minority ethnic staff made up 1.8 per cent of teaching staff in 2015-16, compared to 2.5 per cent in 2014-15, and 1.4 per cent of the non-teaching staff in 2015-16, compared to 1.9 per cent in 2014-15.
These figures compare poorly to the overall staffing rate, which has remained stable.
Reflecting realities
The data was published in a report for the SFC and represents the first publication of its kind since the commencement of college regionalisation in 2013-14.
Colleges need to do more to attract and support staff and students from diverse backgrounds
Shuwanna Aaron, Black Students’ Officer at the NUS Scotland students’ union, said the lack of diversity within colleges was “incredibly worrying”. “If we truly want to see our education system reflect the realities of our diverse society, colleges need to do more to attract and support staff and students from diverse backgrounds,” she said.
Ms Aaron added colleges also needed to ensure they were providing support for staff from diverse backgrounds faced with racism, “whether that’s on or off our campuses.”
“A campus where the staff team doesn’t reflect the student body, and wider society, can be isolating for students of colour, leaving them with no role-models among staff, which leads to disengagement in courses and creates an additional barrier to seeking support.”
At its annual conference two years ago, the EIS teaching union, which represents college lecturers, passed a motion asking its council to gather data on this issue. A spokesman told Tes Scotland that it was concerned about under-representation of BME staff in education.
“Research shows learners benefit in multiple ways from being taught by people from a wide range of backgrounds, including BME staff who can bring valuable social and cultural capital to their establishments,” they said.
“Scotland has an increasingly diverse learner population. In the interests of social justice and securing strong outcomes for all learners, it is crucial that the teaching workforce in colleges and schools fully reflects the diversity of the population in Scotland as a whole.”
The EIS said employers within the education system therefore needed to do more to address the current under-representation of BME people within the profession.
The SFC is supporting colleges to build an inclusive culture valuing the benefits of diversity, a spokesman said. “Although colleges are responsible for their own human resources, we fund the Equality Challenge Unit and College Development Network to provide them with expertise, research, advice in this area.”
A spokeswoman for Colleges Scotland said it recognised the benefits of a truly diverse workforce and colleges had a role to play in tackling the wider issue of barriers to equality and diversity in our society.
“As employers, colleges take their responsibilities very seriously and already undertake a number of duties that are specified in the Equality Act such as developing equality outcomes and publishing equality mainstreaming reports,” she said.
“Staff move on for a variety of different reasons, however we acknowledge that there is still work to be done to ensure that college workforces reflect the diversity in the wider community and it is essential that we build on existing good practice and work with others to make more progress in this area.”
