A Closer Look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and ...

students. While such activities are generally viewed positively,and appear to be growing in number, there is a lack of evaluativeevidence to help employers, institutions, students or others tojudge which of them are most effective and for whom.Under-representation in graduate intakesA greater commitment to ethnic diversity in the workplace hasfiltered into graduate recruitment programmes, especially in mostpublic sector organisations and some of the larger private ones(section 8.1). Though there are some exceptions, on the whole,minority ethnic graduates continue to be under-represented ingraduate intakes of large firms (section 8.2). There are a number ofexplanations for this but the main ones are:• the policies of some large employers’ of targeting theirmarketing on certain institutions (usually those with high ‘A’level intakes, from the pre-92 group and so with lowerdensities of minority ethnic students)• the lack of minority ethnic role models, especially at middle/senior management level• indirect or (but less likely) direct discriminatory practices inselection methods (eg in competency frameworks, testing, useof ‘A’ level scores, interviewer bias, assessment centre formats)• work permit issues, and eligibility to work in the UK (studentsmay be classed as UK domiciled by universities, but do nothave a UK work permit) (section 8.3).The research has shown that the recruitment process is a key areato be addressed: minority ethnic graduates usually have lesschance of getting through each of the stages in the graduaterecruitment process of large organisations than White graduates;and Black graduates appear to do the worst on average, whileIndians and Chinese fare better.The more committed employers are actively engaged withuniversities in a number of ways: improving their image; morepre-recruitment activities with universities, eg offeringinternships/vacation work placements, diversity mentoring forstudents; and by also undertaking more diversity awarenesstraining of staff (section 8.4). However, these represent a verysmall proportion of the total number of employers, especially inthe private sector, recruiting graduates these days.Implications for policy and further researchThis report has shown considerable diversity in the HEparticipation of minority ethnic students, which means that adetailed understanding of minority ethnic patterns and theirvarious causes is important in developing future policy. Variousxix