According to HESA data, there are around 350 Black female professors in the UK, out of a total number of 18,000 professors across the UK, meaning that Black women make up less than 2% of the professoriate in Higher Education. This is the first attempt to identify them all and present them in a single location. All those on this site are or have been employed on a full time, permanent basis in a Higher Education Institute (HEI). Honorary Professors are for this reason not included. Based on the information collected to date, only six HEI’s have five or more Black female professors: Warwick (11); Royal Holloway (9); UCL (8); Liverpool (7); Manchester (6) and Kings College London (5). Most Russell Group universities seem to have just one, and many have none. The data suggests that some HEI’s are doing better than others but that overall there is much room for improvement.
The Black Female Professors Forum (BFPF) was created to work towards this improvement. The goal of the Black Female Professors Forum (BFPF) is to generate positive narratives to underpin successful pathways and trajectories for Black women in education. We hope to empower and engage Black women at every level in academia through collaboration, communication and consultation with like-minded partners and regulatory authorities. We will do this by tackling the virus of institutional racism in higher education. We seek to challenge and change any stigma surrounding Black academics and students.
Our strategic actions will not only influence and inform decision-makers but encourage innovative solutions and inspire new ideas. Through confident and pro-active leadership, we will liaise with and support each other as we promote acknowledgement and recognition of our interests in academia. In the long term, the BFPF will impact upon the visibility of Black women in higher education, validate our presence and secure our place within it. Our task will be complete when all Black women academics are respected, and have the opportunities and enabling environments to fulfil their potential”
The creation of this website is integral to the goals of the BFPF. As well as promoting the visibility of Black female Professors in the UK, we hope that it will be not only a resource for research but more importantly a source of inspiration especially for Black female students and scholars in the UK and elsewhere. We are grateful for the support of the Equality Challenge Unit and the Wellcome Trust in achieving these goals.
If you have any questions about the project please contact Iyiola Solanke at i.solanke@leeds.ac.uk .