ABSTRACT

The Race Equality Charter (REC) was introduced in 2014 as a national policy initiative that aims to support UK universities in developing cultural and systemic changes to promote race equality for Black and minority ethnic (BME) staff and students. Drawing on quantitative data, we locate the REC within a complex picture of undergraduate student diversity and significant attainment gaps between white students and Black and ethnic minority groups. Using qualitative interviews and observations to further explore the questions our quantitative analysis raises, we show that the REC is not perceived as a significant vehicle for progressing race equality work in award-holding institutions. Rather, it is mostly applied as an enhancement tool to help shape and sustain existing race equality initiatives that produce incremental change. This, we argue, suggests the REC’s intention to inspire race equality approaches that favour institutional strategic planning at the highest level, is yet to be realised.

摘要

种族平等宪章 (REC) 作为一项国家政策倡议于 2014 年推出，旨在支持英国大学开展文化和系统变革，以促进黑人和少数族裔 (BME) 教职员工和学生的种族平等。利用定量数据，我们将 REC 定位在本科生多样性和白人学生与黑人和少数族裔群体之间的显着成就差距的复杂图景中。使用定性访谈和观察来进一步探索我们的定量分析提出的问题，我们表明 REC 并未被视为在获奖机构中推进种族平等工作的重要工具。相反，它主要用作增强工具，以帮助塑造和维持现有的种族平等倡议，从而产生增量变化。我们认为，这