Executive Summary

This paper summarises the work undertaken by the Race Equality Working Group (REWG) to implement the School's Race Equality Policy and Plan during the last 12 months. The key issues for the School that it highlights are:

1. The continued significant under-representation of Black British undergraduates (see paragraph 3.2.1)
   
   
2. The continued significant under-representation of Black British ethnic minority groups in senior administrative positions (see paragraph 3.2.2)
   
   
3. The continued significant under-representation of ethnic minority groups on Court and Council (see paragraph 3.2.5)
   
   
4. To address how the School markets itself to ethnic minority groups in job adverts and to ensure that the steps academic departments are required to take to ensure effective race equality measures are not over burdensome.

1.

Purpose of Paper

For Council to note the progress in implementing the School's Race Equality Policy and Plan since its last report to Council on 10 February 2004. The current Race Equality Policy has been updated to reflect and address the requirements set out by the CRE (Commission for Racial Equality) and HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council) (see Annex A LSE Race Equality Policy).

2.

Background

2.1

The School has always recognised that respecting diversity among its staff and students is a matter of enlightened self-interest because it broadens the pools of talent into which the School may tap to achieve its Strategic Purpose and Objectives.

2.2

 LSE's traditional commitment to respect diversity among its members was given sharper definition through the statutory requirements placed on the School by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act:

(a)

to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination

(b)

to promote equality of opportunity

(c)

to promote good race relations amongst different racial groups

2.3

"Specific duties" have been placed on LSE, as on all HE institutions, to achieve these aims by:

(a)

preparing a race equality policy

(b)

assessing the impact of the race equality policy on different racial groups

(c)

monitoring & reporting on staff & student recruitment and progress

(d)

submitting an Annual Report to its Governing Body on implementation of these responsibilities

(e)

publishing the race equality policy and monitoring progress against policy objectives.

2.4

Council has established the Race Equality Working Group (REWG), chaired by Professor Tim Murphy to:

(a)

oversee the translation of the duties placed on the School by the RR(A)A into processes and structures that will enable the School to demonstrate compliance against nationally accepted applicable measures and benchmarks.

(b)

demonstrate that LSE is at least taking active steps to meet its obligations under the 2000 Act and

(c)

urgently address areas where it is falling short of appropriate benchmarks.

2.5

In August 2004 the appointment of a Race Equality Officer was funded to continue for a further year until August 2005. This Annual Report gives the REWG's assessment of progress, issues, and challenges.

3.

Progress, Issues and Challenges in Implementing Race Equality Policy and Plan

3.1

A summary of the progress on the implementation of the detail of the Race Equality Policy and Plan is attached as Annex B. (See LSE Race equality action plan 2004-2005)

3.2

Overall, the School is making sound progress in implementing the Policy and Plan to meet its statutory duties and is meeting targets against recognised benchmarks. The key successes and present challenges are:

3.2.1

Monitoring student data

The work undertaken by the Academic Registrar's Division has continued to build on that undertaken in 2003-04.

Student data 2001-04. The Group has considered LSE's percentages of students by ethnic category, comparing them with some national and regional data, for the 2001-02 and 2002-03 years. No national data on 2003-04 is yet available for comparison.

Non-white representation

At LSE

At London HE Institutions

At South East HE Institutions

At UK HE Institutions

All Undergraduates

42.5%

49.6%

11.4%

16.8%

All Taught Postgraduates

33.9%

36.2%

16.4%

20.7%

All Research

26%

24.5%

11.2%

11.6%

TOTAL

40.1%

46.8%

11.6%

16.8%

3.2.2

Monitoring staff recruitment and career progress

In benchmarking staff, the REWG has used data from the Labour Force Survey for 2003 which gives the percentage of those employed from ethnic minorities in Great Britain as a whole as 3.9%, the South East as 5.0%, and London as 25.3%. Council will wish to note that the Labour Force Survey figures are not broken down to indicate what proportion indicate ethnic minority staff who are also hold British nationality.

The School operates in different labour markets according to the type of staff it is aiming to recruit. Academic and academic related staff are recruited from a national labour market (although in practice the School is operating in international labour markets for academic staff); other academic support staff (eg portering, security) are generally recruited from the local labour market i.e. the London area).
In 2004, 18.1% of LSE's total workforce was from ethnic minority groups.

10.2% of Academic and research staff described themselves as from an ethnic minority; comfortably exceeding the national figure of 3.9% given above.

10.1% of the senior academic support staff and 26.4% of the junior support staff are from ethnic minorities. Where the latter figure exceeds the benchmark figure for London, the School is very aware that it needs to do more to increase the participation of more senior academic support staff from ethnic minorities and plans to take steps to address this during the course of this year in collaboration with the Leadership Foundation and another UK university.

Work has been undertaken since the last report into the under representation of ethnic minority staff at senior management level. There are no Black British African or Black British Caribbean staff in the top 164 LSE senior management positions at all. The Secretary and Director of HR are leading a project to discover the causes of this and to correct it. It is essential that in the long term the School's staff mix reflects that of the society in which the LSE is situated. The project will be a collaborative one with Warwick University, Leading Coaches, and the NHS, which has expertise in this area. The project has attracted national interest and funding from the Leadership Foundation of the UK Universities, is likely. It is hoped that work will begin in the next couple of months. Last year, the School commissioned Barkers (an Advertising Agency) to investigate how people perceived the School as an employer - staff from within the School were interviewed, as were people from outside and individuals from ethnic minorities. A second Barkers report was commissioned in the Autumn term, to focus on why there are few people from ethnic minorities in senior management roles. The outcome was that the School was seen as an organisation, which was off-putting to people from ethnic minorities. More needs to be done to improve how the School markets itself in job adverts and to sell the benefits it provides e.g. pension, leave etc. Work also needs to be done about the image of the School among black ethnic minority groups.

A key challenge with staff ethnicity recording is the proportion of staff not providing personal ethnicity information. However Council will be pleased to note that this figure now stands at 11.6% compared with 15% last year. The REWG is currently working with Human Resources to address this issue and has set a target to reduce this figure to 10% by 2008.

3.2.3

Embedding race equality measures at departmental level

The Commission for Racial Equality emphasises the importance of having local plans underpinning the Race Equality Policy and Plan of the School. Since the last report was submitted to Council, all Academic Departments, Institutes and Research Centres have submitted Race Equality Plans. The larger Research Centres have produced their own plans, the smaller ones have bought into those produced by their affiliated departments. Government, International Relations, the European Institute and DESTIN have worked together and produced a joint REP. Examples of good practice in these departmental plans include:

• departments designating a member of staff to act as compliance officer, acting as point of contact for both staff and students
• including race equality issues on exit interviews and in feedback from the student experience
• running a one-day conference for first year sixth formers at targeted schools where the majority of the pupils are from ethnic minority groups
• promoting race equality on their web sites
• producing an annual report for their departmental staff meeting.

In May 2004, Race Equality Checklist Part 1 (Annex C) was provided to support the departments that still needed to develop their Race Equality Plans and to help those that already had to provide the information necessary for the School to demonstrate compliance with the RR(A)A. Further Departmental guidelines for implementing good race equality practice were produced during the summer. These guidelines provided departments with practical advice on how to implement a range of race equality initiatives. It is planned that Race Equality Checklist Part 2 will be sent to Departments in early February 2005. This will give Departments an overview of the ethnic breakdown of their students against London, South East and UK benchmarks, so that they will be aware of under-representation and consider possible remedial action.

Similar work with administrative divisions is currently being undertaken to complete the submission of Race Equality Plans.

3.2.4

Review of LSE's Race Equality Policy and Plan by HEFCE

In March 2004, LSE with 70 other HEI's across the country was asked by HEFCE to submit its Race Equality Policy and Action Plan and with other significant internal papers to enable HEFCE to assess our progress with the implementation of the RR(A)A.

The review was undertaken on behalf of HEFCE by the ECU (Equality Challenge Unit). They considered that the progress made by the School was impressive. The School was acknowledged for having good monitoring systems in place; support from leadership; good action planning; progress with departmental work and the development of the Checklist. The report also made some recommendations, including addressing training; consultation and engagement with students and staff; and developing British ethnic minority representation at senior levels.

The Race Equality work that LSE has carried out is currently being cited as an example of good practice by HEFCE and the CRE in their publications and at conferences, LSE activities being referred to include the development of departmental race equality plans and the implementation of the Checklist.

3.2.5

Under representation of ethnic minorities on Court and Council

The objective is for 20% lay ethnic membership of Court by 2008. At present 7 out of the 100 strong Court, and 2 out of the 28 Council members are from ethnic minority groups. More progress needs to be made on the ethnic diversity of lay governance. The Nominations Committee is aware of this.

3.2.6

Harassment Policy

A small group of senior members of staff from the Academic Registrar's Division, Human Resources Division, the Secretariat together with the Advisor to Women Students met during the Summer vacation to review a draft harassment policy and procedure that would cover both staff and students. The policy makes direct reference to racial harassment. This policy was presented to the REWG in October and to the Student Affairs Committee in November 2004 for comment. The feedback from these groups is currently being incorporated into the draft policy before being presented to the Academic Board and the Trade Unions.

3.2.7

Ethnicity Monitoring Sub-Group

At its meeting in October 2004 the REWG agreed to set-up an ethnicity monitoring sub-group in light of the increased requirements from HEFCE and the CRE. Membership includes representatives from the Academic Registrar's Division, Human Resources Division, the Secretariat, the Chairman, the Race Equality Officer and a member of the Student Union. The purpose of the sub-group is to analyse and review ethnicity data and identify significant variations in representation of ethnic minorities in LSEs students and staff from appropriate benchmarks, determine the reasons for the variations, and present recommendations for remedial actions to the REWG. The group has to date met on one occasion.

3.2.8

Future governance arrangements

Thought is being given to the appropriate governance structure in LSE to match the establishment of the Commission of Equality and Human Rights in 2006.

4.

Action Required 

4.1

Council is invited to receive this report and note the progress being made and the steps being taken to address issues and challenges in ensuring that the School can show that it is meeting its obligations under the RR(A)A 2000 and achieving its institutional strategic commitment to promote racial equality.