Students’ Perceptions of Racial Diversity and Inclusion in UK Universities

Jones, Christopher; Boliver, Vikki

Abstract

Building on previous studies of racial inequality in higher education, this paper reports the findings of an online survey (N = 407) exploring the extent to which UK university students recognised the existence of racism in wider society and perceived the need for greater racial diversity and inclusion on campus. Utilising the CoBRAS scale developed by Neville and colleagues together with a new Racially Inclusive Attitudes Scale (RIAS) designed by the lead author of this paper, we find that most students reject the notion that we live in a colour-blind society and feel that their university needs to do more to foster racial diversity and inclusion on campus. However, while the rejection of colour-blind narratives was equally strong across students from all ethnic groups, Black students were significantly more likely than students from other ethnic groups to perceive the need for their university to become more racially diverse and inclusive.

Citation

Jones, C., & Boliver, V. (2025). Students’ Perceptions of Racial Diversity and Inclusion in UK Universities. Social Sciences, 14(2), Article 84. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14020084

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 29, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025-02
• Deposit Date: Mar 4, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 4, 2025
• Journal: Social Sciences
• Electronic ISSN: 2076-0760
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 84
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14020084
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3672158