The White Rose Universities, together with Sheffield Hallam University, and the University of Bradford, have come together to form the Yorkshire Consortium for Equity in Doctoral Education (YCEDE) which has been awarded funding from the Office for Students and Research England to tackle ethnic inequalities in access to postgraduate research.

The consortium, with an investment of over £3.6m, will reform admissions criteria and practices to better assess applicants’ potential to do ground-breaking research and generate new knowledge.

Project lead, Professor Kathryn Arnold, Dean of York Graduate Research School, said: “All five universities want to learn from and collaborate with our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students to transform the way we recruit, select and support people from all backgrounds who aspire to exciting careers in research and innovation.”

“Such fundamental change isn’t going to be quick or easy but we have commitment from our executive boards to make this happen.”

The project is funded by the Office for Students and Research England.