This is not surprising at all. I mean, we don’t necessarily need a study to tell us that the overwhelming majority of top tier Australian university leadership positions are occupied by white/Caucasian. For those of us who attended university, think back to those days and what colour skin were those who were in charge? I can bet my bottom dollar that they were pretty much all white right?
An article published in “The Conversation” in December last year discussed the seriousness of this issue.
“In 2018, of the 699 governing council roles across Australia’s 41 universities, 94% of the incumbents had Caucasian and British backgrounds. The top tiers of senior executives were 94% Caucasian and British in background, as were 96% of vice-chancellors.”
Some of the findings presented in the article include:
- Racially homogenous leadership makes the university as an institution very western and will create “western group think” and blind spots;
- Racially homogenous leadership leads to cultural representation issues in other areas in sectors within mainstream society;
“Research shows diverse groups outperform homogeneous groups in productivity and innovation over the long term. Universities need to play a long game too.”
There is always more advantages with diverse leadership as opposed to racially homogenous leadership. Considering universities are extremely diverse, it is logical that they keep up with the demographics.
This article in The Conversation is worth a read. Check it out!
Image via The Conversation
To read the full article, please click on: Most of Australia’s uni leaders are white, male and grey. This lack of diversity could be a handicap
I remember a racist white lecturer back when I was studying accounting at Manukau Institute of Technology as he would pick on Asian students by asking them questions and if they didn’t know he would accuse them for not knowing that answer. In a way would bully Asian students and would raise his voice at his dissatisfaction, The white lecturer would generalise about Asians and he would use it to his advantage to argue against and debate about Asians. When he was called out about his racist views he would quickly rush off and end the lecture early, his way of not getting involved to answer our questions about his racist actions was to say he would refuse to teach us anymore while he was bullying and critical of Asian students on many lecture sessions.
The problem is greater than just VCs. Just look at the DVCs, proVCs, deans, Head of Departments and the Professors. Structural racism is part and parcel of white privilege BUT academics claim to be colour-blind and merit-based. What a load of BS!!!