Posted 7 October 2024

We are in the middle of a run of national awareness campaigns, from South Asian Heritage Month (July-August) to Black History Month (October). Many Higher Education (HE) providers engage with such campaigns in a way that is well intentioned but risk being tokenistic and performative.  

In order to go beyond awareness campaigns and deliver impactful race equity work, providers could learn from Advance HE’s Fellowship requirements. The award demonstrates a commitment to professionalism and provides recognition of practice, impact and leadership in teaching and learning. It has four categories: Associate Fellowship, Fellowship, Senior Fellowship, and Principal Fellowship. 

Shames Maskeen (Leeds Trinity University), who Co-Chairs Go Higher West Yorkshire’s (GHWY) Black Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Students Network, recently submitted an application for Senior Fellowship. His ethos of ongoing CPD and self-reflection, which are Fellowship requirements, have helped to drive our Network outputs, including our cultural competence CPD. 

In this blog, I reflect on how Fellowship requirements can help to inform HE providers’ race equity work, drawing on practical examples from our work 

Sustained impact is key 

It can be easy to undertake ad hoc race equity work and/or not see things through to demonstrate sustained impact.  

A Senior Fellowship requirement recognises the value of long-term activities and of considering why things are done in a certain way. For example, if peer mentoring for minority ethnic students does not work, could reverse mentoring be tried instead? This takes an evidence-based approach and adapts an activity rather than just ceasing it.  

At GHWY, we take an approach of undertaking pilots to inform future and long-term delivery. For example, we piloted a teachers’ and advisers’ conference in May 2024 that included a presentation by Shames on degree awarding gap. We used the appetite for this pilot to plan a conference again in 2025 (date tbc), which will be informed by learnings and participant feedback. 

It is not role dependent 

There is no requirement for you to have a senior role to be awarded a Fellowship, as everyone can and does have influence at different levels of an organisation. This can also be said for race equity work. We all have a role to play and it does not depend on your role but on how you approach and show a commitment to your work.  

For example, one of the in-progress outputs for our Black Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Students Network is a collaborative Systematic Review that recognises we all have a role to play. Read more about the Review. 

Spheres of influence matter 

One of the requirements for Senior Fellowship is how you support colleagues who then impact on their students. That is, it is about the indirect impact and how you can influence even if your role does not involve working directly with students.  

You do not have to be in a student-facing role to advocate for race equity work or to draw upon the expertise of colleagues to shape your influence. For example, members from our Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Students Network inputted into the GHWY under-represented groups section of the Yorkshire Universities Inclusive Recruitment guide for student employability. 

Summary 

It is hoped that this blog post will inspire individuals to take a different approach to race equity work. While there is value in engaging with national awareness campaigns, there also needs to be work that is sustained, impactful according to your role, and positively influences those around you.  

 

Tahera Mayat, GHWY Collaborative Outreach Officer