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Do we know how many Black professors there are in UK higher education?

by Zarus Cenac

UK higher education is known to have too few Black professors (eg Hubbard, 2026). The presence of Black professors can be thought about by looking at 1) the number of Black professors or 2) the percentage of professors who are Black (Adisa et al, 2025; Gibney, 2024). The number/percentage has been referred to, for instance, in journal articles (Adisa et al, 2025; Arday, 2022), the media (Coughlan, 2021), and in the House of Lords (House of Lords, 2025). We can keep an eye on the number, or the percentage, to have an idea about if the situation is improving (Gibney, 2024; Nowell, 2025). So, is it not vital that we have accurate numbers and percentages? In a recent post on SRHE Blog, I considered how to statistically analyse the representation of Black professors in different ways –analyses showed that Black professors are underrepresented (Cenac, 2026a). In the present blog post, I discuss issues with the apparent number of Black professors and the apparent percentage of professors who are Black – this blog post asks if we actually know the number and the percentage (Figure 1), and this blog post considers if we really should say that Black people are underrepresented in the professoriate.

Figure 1: Factors Which May Affect Our Measurement of the Black Presence in the Professoriate

Note. Figure 1 is based on the literature/data (Dembosky et al, 2019; HESA, 2026; Gibney, 2022). See the main text for full explanations. HESA is the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA, nd-a).

The number of Black professors

When people wish to say how many Black professors there are, a source they can use is the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (eg Essilfie-Quaye et al, 2025; Gibney, 2024) who “are the experts in UK higher education data” (HESA, nd-a, para 1). However, there are two points to consider: firstly, we should be mindful of how HESA categorises an academic as a professor (HESA, nd-b), and, secondly, ethnicity is unknown for a proportion of professors in the HESA data (HESA, 2026). Those two points are discussed next.

Professors in HESA data

In the HESA data, a professor may be classified as a professor (HESA, 2026, nd-c). Alternatively, a professor can be categorised into a different senior group for academics, for example, if the professor’s role is managerial (HESA, 2026; nd-c). So, there is a good chance that the HESA professor category shows us fewer professors than there truly are, and HESA are open about this (HESA, 2026) – see Figure 2. The different senior group is not limited to professors (HESA, 2026, nd-b); from looking through the HESA website (HESA, nd-b; 2024, 2026), HESA seem not to have data which specifies how many professors there are in the different senior group (eg overall or for Black professors).

Going by HESA data (HESA, 2024; 2026) and literature on the presence of Black professors, we can see instance after instance where the number of Black professors (eg Arday, 2022; Essilfie-Quaye et al, 2025; Gibney, 2024; Nowell, 2025) seems to have been derived from the HESA professor category, and (to my knowledge) without mentioning the issue that the HESA professor category may not include all professors because some professors are potentially being put into the different senior group. If awareness of this issue is not as good as it should be, perhaps HESA should consider if the issue could be communicated more obviously, for example, referring to it just before/after the table in HESA (2024) or HESA (2026) which breaks down the HESA professor category by ethnic group.

Figure 2: Black Female Professors

Note. Figure 2 refers to WHEN Equality (2026) and uses data from HESA (nd-d).

Unknown ethnicity

Ethnicity is not known for all academics in the HESA professor category (HESA, 2026). For example, ethnicity it is not known for 2,210 of those professors in the 2024–25 academic year (HESA, 2026). Because of this, we really should expect the number given for Black professors in the HESA professor category to be fewer than the true number of Black professors.

The percentage (proportion) of professors who are Black

If we want to see how well Black professors are represented, we can look to the percentage or proportion of people in the HESA professor category who are Black (eg Adisa et al, 2025; Cenac, 2026a; Essilfie-Quaye et al, 2025). For instance, statistical analyses (of people whose ethnicity is known) indicate that Black people are substantially less represented in the HESA professor category than they are in 1) the UK working-age population overall (Cenac, 2026a), and 2) an older section of the UK working-age population (Cenac, 2026b). Next, we will consider (in two ways) if percentages (proportions) from the HESA professor category actually are useful for looking into the representation of Black academics.

Professors in the HESA data

As covered earlier in this blog post, in the HESA data, professors can be in the professor category or the different senior group (HESA, 2026). We do not know if the percentage of professors who are Black would be different in the HESA professor category than it is for professors in the HESA different senior group. In the HESA data, professors with (at least) a certain level of seniority will not be categorised as professors, instead being put into the different senior group (HESA, 2026). Black representation is known to decrease the higher up people are in the academic hierarchy, from undergraduate student to professor (eg Gibney, 2022). So, it would not be surprising if Black representation is greater amongst the HESA professor category than amongst professors in the different senior group. Therefore, the percentage of Black people in the HESA professor category could be higher than the true percentage of professors who are Black. This means that the notable underrepresentation of Black people in the HESA professor category (Cenac, 2026a) would likely be found even if analysis included professors from the different senior group.

On the other hand, out of people whose ethnicity is known, Black people are 1.13% of the HESA professor category in 2024–25 (Cenac, 2026a), but 1.69% of the different senior group in the HESA (2026) data for 2024–25. So, it might not be the case that Black people are represented worse in the HESA professor category than they are amongst professors in the different senior group.

In the HESA (2026) data for 2024–25, there are nearly four times as many people in the professor category than in the different senior group. Therefore, findings with the HESA professor category are likely to be representative of what is happening with professors in general. So, it does seem useful to use percentages from the HESA professor category if we wish to know about the representation of Black professors.

Unknown ethnicity

Ethnicity is not known for some academics in the HESA data (HESA, 2026). When it comes to people giving their racial or ethnic background in a survey, some people refrain from giving their background (Dembosky et al, 2019). This refraining is suggested to not be the same across different backgrounds, with results indicating that Black people refrain the most whilst the group who refrain the least are White people who are other than Hispanic (Dembosky et al, 2019). If Black professors hold back on declaring their background more than other groups of professors, that could make it seem like the percentage of professors who are Black is lower than it truly is. However, the difference in the rate at which Black people and non-Hispanic White people refrain from giving their background (in a survey) is suggested to not even be 4% (Dembosky et al, 2019) – a difference in rates would probably not be an issue when it comes to using the HESA professor category for looking into the representation of Black professors.

Conclusion

The HESA professor category probably does not show us how many Black professors there really are, giving us a number which is lower than the true number of Black professors (eg Figure 2). Although HESA are forthcoming about how professors can be partitioned between the HESA professor category and the different senior group (eg HESA, 2026), HESA should consider if they can convey this better. Even if there truly are more Black professors than the HESA professor category suggests, this blog post is not implying that Black academics are well represented in the professoriate. Overall, the percentage (proportion) of Black professors in the HESA professor category shows a marked underrepresentation (Cenac, 2026a), and, as discussed above, that percentage should give us a good indication of the true representation (the underrepresentation) of Black professors despite factors which may somewhat affect how good the percentage is at indicating how the situation really is (Figure 1). So, when the HESA professor category is used to explore the presence of Black professors, far more emphasis should be put on the percentage or proportion of professors who are Black rather than the number of Black professors.

Zarus Cenac has worked at UK universities, for example, he was a visiting lecturer at City, University of London. He is currently an administrator at UCL. His interests include race and ethnicity from an interdisciplinary perspective.


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Sidestepping: my experience as a female Black tutor

by Olajumoke Orebamjo

I have been teaching for over 16 years (with the last 10 years in the tertiary sector) and I have had the pleasure and sometimes, unfortunately, the displeasure of interacting with individuals from diverse backgrounds, races and perspectives. Lately, my role, amongst others, entails one-to-one supervision sessions. This is a role like many other university roles which is repetitive and sometimes mundane in nature. Nevertheless, I particularly enjoy working with mature adult learners as I find my interactions with them intellectually stimulating. The sessions often deviate from the topic of focus to other issues that are not necessarily relevant, but what is gained from these interactions is not just a fulfilment of the aims of the meeting but also a general sense of wellbeing that is cerebral in nature.

The ‘dance’

Because most students of colour have had little or no interaction with a successful individual from a minority ethnic group, what often ensues is what I like to call ‘side-stepping’, as we initially engage in a mental dance around each other, trying to determine each other’s thoughts, and oscillating between ‘prey’ and ‘predator’. This is a natural reaction of defended subjects; ever vigilant and ready to ward off potential threats. We spend some time on this preamble before one of us goes on the attack, which would usually be the student, who would ask the question I’ve heard countless times: ‘how did you get this job?’. There is the assumption that I could only have attained this position by questionable means. The perception of the student is that I’m ‘culturally suspect’ (Orebamjo, 2024) and a possible stumbling block to their academic success. I have even been ascribed the moniker ‘oreo’ – black on the outside but white on the inside – by students who felt the need to express their disappointment that I was not Black enough for their liking or that I ‘act white’ (Orebamjo, 2024). 

The students’ negative reactions never come as a surprise as I have become accustomed to this form of ‘friendly fire’ (Philip, Rocha and Olivares-Pasillas, 2017). It was a recurring phenomenon I endured while delivering the top up degree programme in health and social care in a London-based university. My attempt to mitigate the academic challenges of the mature students, who were all from minority ethnic groups, was met with fierce opposition from the students. In their view, my actions, as a Black tutor, not only exposed their inadequacies, it simulated the unrealistic, unfair and discriminatory practices of a hegemonic system (Orebamjo, 2024).  The students’ thinking was that my being Black meant I would have a better understanding of their lived experiences.

It is therefore no wonder that any encounter with students of colour automatically triggers the ‘caution’, ‘get ready to attack’ and ‘attack!’ or ‘stand down’ (in that order) signal within me. I spontaneously assume a defensive persona, with a corresponding reaction in the student.  Each encounter is the same, commencing with psychological dance; the student undulating between delight (of sharing the commonality of ‘minority’), suspicion (that judgement is looming) and disappointment (that no hoodwinking can take place). I’m also mentally prancing; assured of the semblance of authority I believe I possess, wary of the fact that a ‘deadly’ attack may occur at any moment, while at the same time, trying to convey to the student that ‘you are in a safe place’.

It is what it is

As a Black woman, I am aware of all these defensive tactics from global majority students and my experiences mirror those of colleagues from minority ethnic groups. The reactions of this profile of students are taken for granted and are ‘to be expected’. I do however tread carefully in these interactions because I do not want to fulfil the students’ negative expectations and so spend more time than necessary salving their sense of self-worth in a futile attempt to dispel all negative perceptions they may have about me. It’s like I’m saying, ‘hey I’m one of you so don’t judge me too harshly!’. Eventually though, I resign myself to thinking, ‘it is what it is’.

The racial tension between Blacks and Whites is a common occurrence that is often presumed. Hence it is difficult, if not impossible, to explain these experiences to my White colleagues as these actions and reactions are born of the simple reality of an ’other’ interacting with another ‘other’ within a highly hierarchical higher education arena. Each one is engaged in a constant mental negotiation with the dominant values that pose a threat to their individuality and self-worth, whilst attempting to justify their membership of a seemingly hostile establishment that has no appreciation of their individuality (Tormey, 2021).

Constant reflection, together with extensive engagement with literature on mature learners from minority ethnic groups in higher education, has given me in-depth knowledge and understanding of the educational challenges of this erstwhile marginalised group of students and so I am well equipped to manage the students’ attitudes and emotional baggage. Of greatest value is my engagement with intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989), which has given me an awareness of how social identities such as race, class, social economic status and gender intersect and overlap to result in complex experiences of disadvantage or privilege. Many students of colour would have experienced multifaceted oppression resulting in defensive attitudes, which they end up bringing into their learning environment (Orebamjo, 2024). To therefore come face to face with a Black individual with some level of authority – especially in a university that has a demographic footprint of almost 100% White – is reason enough for the student to call in the ‘defence calvary’.

And so, the dance continues!

Dr Olajumoke (Jumie) Orebamjo is a lecturer in Practice Development: Health and Social Care and Paramedic Practice at University of Cumbria where she oversees undergraduate and graduate research projects. She’s also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a committed academic with over 12 years of experience teaching and supporting students to overcome academic challenges by developing agency. Proven record of designing and effecting teaching and learning methods that develop students’ skills particularly in metacognition.


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How many Black professors should there be in UK higher education?

by Zarus Cenac

There has been discussion on the low number of Black professors in UK higher education institutions (Arday, 2022; Essilfie-Quaye et al, 2025). The number of Black professors has risen over time (Nowell, 2025) – see Table 1; are there still too few Black professors? There are different methods of assessing Black representation amongst the professoriate (Essilfie-Quaye et al, 2025; Advance HE, 2021). This blog post explores such methods in order to gauge whether there are too few Black professors. This assessment is organised through three headings: 1) professors and the UK population, 2) the professorship gap, and 3) professors and non-professors. Additionally, in the context of the different methods, this blog post estimates how large the shortfall of Black professors is. Data for the 2024–25 academic year (HESA, 2026) are used to represent the present-day situation.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) provides data which have been referred to regarding Black professors (eg Arday, 2022; Parr, 2024). This blog post analyses data from HESA. When it comes to academic staff, HESA presents data regarding i) professors, ii) non-professors, and iii) a senior staff category which can include professors (HESA, 2022, 2024, 2026). Therefore, the number of professors in HESA data is probably lower than the actual number of professors (HESA, 2022, 2024, 2026). Consequently, data regarding that third category (senior staff) are not included in the analysis for this blog post.

Table 1 The Number of Black Professors in UK Higher Education

Note. Data are from HESA (2022, 2024, 2026). HESA rounds data to the nearest five (HESA, 2022, 2024, 2026). It should be noted that, in each year, race/ethnicity is not known for every academic (HESA, 2022, 2024, 2026). Going by HESA (2022, 2024, 2026) data, for the academic years 2016–17 to 2024–25, race/ethnicity is not known (on average) for 7.94% of professors and 9.31% of non-professors; for (all other) analyses (eg Table 2) undertaken in the present blog, data were not analysed regarding academics for whom racial/ethnic grouping is not known.

1. Professors and the UK population

For the 2024–25 academic year, the data (HESA, 2026) show that 1.13% of UK professors in higher education are Black. When assessing the representation of Black people in higher education, it is useful to make a comparison with the representation of Black people of working age in the UK Census (Gibney, 2022). Indeed, by consulting UK Census figures (Office for National Statistics, 2025), we can see that 4.05% of the UK working-age population is Black; when compared to Black representation in the UK working-age population, Black people are underrepresented amongst the professoriate (Table 2). As for how much of a shortfall there is, use of HESA (2026) and UK Census (Office for National Statistics, 2025) data suggests that the number of Black professors is 699 people short of where it ought to be as of 2024–25 when compared to what would be found if the proportion of professors who are Black was to match the proportion of the UK working-age population who are Black (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Calculating the Shortfall of Black Professors

Note. Numbers are from (or calculated from) HESA (2026) and Office for National Statistics (2025).

2. The professorship gap

We can find the percentage of White academics who are professors, and the percentage of racial minority academics who are professors (racial minorities as a whole or for more specific categories), and then we can find the difference between the two percentages (Advance HE, 2021). What should we call this difference? Inspired by the term, the degree awarding gap, which refers to the difference in undergraduate degree performance between UK-domiciled White students and UK-domiciled racial minority students (London Metropolitan University, nd), we can refer to this difference in professorship percentages as the professorship gap. The term, the professorship gap, has been used elsewhere (eg Branson and Whitelaw, 2025), but, to the knowledge of the author, not in the same way in which the term is used in the present blog post. There is a professorship gap between Black academics and White academics (Figure 2, Table 2). The professoriate gap looks to be greatest when Black academics are the group who are compared to White academics – this gap, like other professorship gaps, shows no indication of declining (Figure 2). Therefore, results suggest a continuing difficulty which Black academics will encounter in attempting to advance to professorship. Indeed, using HESA data (HESA, 2026), we can see that there is a shortfall of 806 Black professors when the situation in 2024–25 is compared to a situation where the ratio of professors to non-professors is the same for Black academics as it is for White academics (Figure 1).

Table 2 Statistical Tests

Note. Using HESA (2026) data of academics (professors and non-professors) for 2024–25, and census data (Office for National Statistics, 2025), z-tests (one- and two-proportion) were undertaken in R (R Core Team, 2025). Samples sizes are in the thousands (HESA, 2026); with huge samples, the smallest of differences can be statistically significant (Wasserstein and Lazar, 2016), therefore, statistical testing regarding Table 2 is not too informative. What would be informative is seeing if differences between proportions are big enough to mean something important, which can be achieved by calculating and interpreting Cohen’s h (Cohen, 1988). Regarding interpretation, Cohen offered suggestions for small but important (h = .20), medium (h = .50), and large (h = .80) differences, although suggestions were not intended to simply be applied in a blanket and definitive fashion (Cohen, 1988). Cohen’s h (Cohen, 1988), using code (Zieffler, 2025), was calculated in R; all hs are very close to .20 or equal/exceed it.

Figure 2 The Professorship Gap: The Gap Between White Academics and Racial Minority Academics

Note. Data used are from HESA (2022, 2024, 2026) for academic years 2016–17 to 2024–25.

3. Professors and non-professors

From the data (HESA, 2022, 2024, 2026), amongst non-professors, the percentage who are Black was 1.99% in 2016–17, and that percentage has steadily risen over the years, reaching 4.21% in 2024–25. Therefore, compared to the UK working-age population (Office for National Statistics, 2025), there was not an underrepresentation of Black people amongst non-professors in 2024–25. Accordingly, given that Black representation is lower amongst the professorship than in the UK working-age population (Table 2), it should not be surprising that, for 2024–25, Black people are represented less amongst professors than non-professors (Table 2). Regarding the extent of the shortfall in Black professors, a calculation using the data (HESA, 2026), shows a shortfall of 737 Black professors (Figure 1).

The shortfall: lowest acceptable number of Black professors?

Our estimation of how many Black professors there should be (and the shortfall) is affected by which of the three methods is used (Figure 1). Nevertheless, for each method, we can ask the question: how many Black professors would be an acceptable minimum number? For example, if there should be 969 Black professors given representation in the UK working-age population (Figure 1), would it be acceptable if there were 960 Black professors? 950? 900? The Cohen’s h statistic (Cohen, 1988) is where the answer may lie (for brief details on Cohen’s h, see Table 2). Essentially, Cohen’s h can be used to quantify the difference between the level at which Black professors are represented and how represented Black professors ought to be (see Cohen, 1988). The larger Cohen’s h is, the larger the difference is (Cohen, 1988). Therefore, if we examine the formula for calculating Cohen’s h (eg Zieffler, 2025), it is relatively straightforward to use Cohen’s h for calculating the smallest number of Black professors which is acceptable, ie the number which is close enough to the expected level (expected, for example, given the UK working-age population). However, what really would need to be decided is the smallest value of Cohen’s h where a difference actually means something important (ie a difference which is not negligible) when it comes to Black professorship (see Cohen, 1988). 270 Black professors (for the 2024–25 academic year) produces a Cohen’s h of/near .20 in the context of the UK working-age population and non-professors (Table 2) and there appear to be considerable shortfalls (Figure 1). This suggests that the shortfall does indeed represent an important and non-negligible difference, and it also indicates that a Cohen’s h of .20 is too high a value to use if we want to calculate the minimum total of Black professors which is satisfactory.

Conclusion

Based on three methods of analysis, there are still too few Black professors in higher education within the UK (Table 2). An averaging of three shortfall estimates (from the three methods) gives an averaged shortfall estimate of 747 Black professors for the 2024–25 academic year. Given that there were only 270 Black professors in that academic year (HESA, 2026), this shortfall is concerning. What may also be concerning is that (as shown in Table 1), in 2024–25, the increase in the number of Black professors was just half that of 2023–24, and just under half of what was found in 2022–23 (there was a sharp rise in 2022–23 (Gibney, 2024). Why may this have happened? It is worth considering if a greater appreciation of the vital need to increase the number of Black professors led to the boost in Black academics being promoted to professorship in 2022–23 (see Gibney, 2024) which carried on through to 2023–24. Therefore, the gains (promotions) in 2022–23 and 2023–24 may have had the effect of significantly decreasing the number of Black academics who would have been strong candidates for professorship in the next few academic years. However, if the bar is set high for Black academics when it comes to promotion (eg Adisa et al., 2025), then there may very well still be a healthy number of Black academics who are strong candidates in those next years.” Essentially, we must thoroughly address if the relatively notable gains of 2022–23 and 2023–24 were temporary phenomena, and if there is now a return to a norm of the weaker increases of earlier academic years (Table 1). Data for 2025–26 will be crucial for helping to address these ideas and concerns.

References: Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Zarus Cenac has worked at UK universities, for example, he was a visiting lecturer at City, University of London. His interests include race and ethnicity from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Vikki Boliver


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Universities must act collectively to remedy lower offer rates for ethnic minority applicants

By Vikki Boliver

The Runnymede Trust has just launched its publication Aiming Higher: Race, Inequality and Diversity in the Academy which shines a spotlight on ethnic inequalities in UK universities. The report brings together 15 short essays written by academics and policy makers which make clear that radical change is needed to address ethnic inequalities in university admissions, student experiences, degree attainments, graduate labour market outcomes, and access to academic positions especially at senior levels.

In my contribution to the Runnymede publication (see chapter 5) I focus on the issue of ethnic inequalities in university admissions chances. Although British ethnic minorities are more likely to go to university than their White British peers, some ethnic minority groups – notably the Black Caribbean, Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups – remain strikingly underrepresented in the UK’s most academically selective institutions including Russell Group universities. Of course this is partly due to ethnic inequalities in secondary school attainment which means that members of these groups are less likely to have the high grades required for entry to highly selective universities. But we also know, from analysing university admissions data that British ethnic minority applicants are less likely to be offered places at highly selective universities even when they have the same grades and ‘facilitating subjects’ at A-level as White British applicants. Continue reading →