With only 105 black men and 40 black women in professorial roles in higher education, the 6th annual BME How to Stay in Academia conference aims to 'make the invisible, visible'.

On Thursday 7 July 2022, the University of West London (UWL) will host the sixth annual Black Minority and Ethnic Early Career Researcher - How to Stay in Academia conference. Co-hosted by King's College, London, this year’s theme is Making the Invisible, Visible. The event aims to help and empower young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) individuals through talks, networking and mentoring, addressing the extreme under-representation of BME staff in academia, especially in senior roles.

There are currently around 23,000 university professors in the UK, of these, 6,340 are women, 105 are black men and only 40 are black women. It is noticeable that the diversity of the student body is not reflected in the staff teaching them. This year's conference will be chaired by its founder, Dr Bernadine Idowu, an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at UWL with a line-up of over 17 participants.

Founder Dr Bernadine Idowu said:

There are worrying disparities in academic outcomes in degrees awarded to black students. In 2020-21, there was a difference of 17.4 percentage points between the proportion of black and white students getting a first or 2:1 (source: Office for Students ).

The conference aims to empower BME academics starting out in their careers to remain positive, practical and pragmatic when navigating the academic space, to understand the impact we can make by remaining in academia. We set out to supply tools and resources as well as opportunities to meet inspirational BME academics from various disciplines.

Discussions and workshops will run throughout the day. A previous attendee explains:

To be in a space with that many black academics was the most empowering experience of my career so far. To hear their journeys and obtain direct advice felt like a personal and professional levelling up of my skills and knowledge, and to have that for free was such a privilege.

Deputy Vice Chancellor at UWL, Professor Woodman, who is giving the opening address said:

At UWL, we employ a higher number of women to men at a ratio of 57:43. 35% of its staff are from BME backgrounds with 28% comprising academic staff. Clearly this is not an endpoint but it does provide a research environment where inequality is called out and aspiration for success is generated irrespective of ethnicity or gender.

The in-person conference is fully booked but online tickets are available here.