Professors are now questioning hiring practices in the United Kingdom after reports show that out of more than 14,000 professors at the universities, only 50 are black.
Although discriminating against a potential employee is illegal in the U.K., many feel that informal discriminatory practices and nepotism contribute to the extremely low number of black professors.
Harry Goulbourne, professor of sociology at London South Bank University, said that while the crude racism of the past had gone, universities were riddled with “passive racism”. He said that, as a black man aspiring to be a professor, he had had to publish twice as many academic papers as his white peers. He said he had switched out of the field of politics, because it was not one that promoted minorities. He called for a “cultural shift” inside the most prestigious universities.
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