Participants are eligible to apply to be part of the Equity in Leadership programme if they meet the following criteria:

● They are a member of staff who are from the global majority and are at a grade 8 or above (Sheffield and Leeds) or grade 7 or above (York).
● Aspire to a senior leadership role within the next 12-18 months.
● They are employed at one of the White Rose universities (Leeds, Sheffield or York) for the duration of the Equity in Leadership programme (until May 2027).
● They can commit to attending all three in-person training days. Attendance at all the following programme elements is mandatory.

• Applications open: September 2026  
• Online information session Thursday 22 October 11am-12pm (Register here)
• Applications close: 23.59, Sunday 22 November 
• Assessment panel: Week beginning 7 December   
• Applicants notified: Week beginning 14 December

The core programme runs from February – April 2027 (1 day per month).

Attendance at all the following programme elements is mandatory.

• Day 1 – 2 February, Guildhall, York  
• Day 2 – 16 March, Cloth Hall Court, Leeds  
• Day 3 – 29 April, INOX, Sheffield   

Managers of participants will be invited to the Race Inclusion for Managers Training online session (90 minutes) held on Wednesday 27 January, 10:00-11:30.  

Participants may choose to take part in any or all of the following opportunities. All are at institutional discretion.  

• Cross-institutional peer mentoring 
  Delivery period:  May – October 2027 

• Sponsorship 
  Training delivered to sponsors: June 2027 
  Sponsorship begins: July 2027 

• Coaching 
  Delivery period: October 2027 – March 2028 

There is a glaring lack of ethnic diversity in senior leadership roles across the UK Higher Education sector.

Statistical data from Advance HE (2024) reveals that while global majority academics comprise 19.1% of the overall academic workforce, they occupy only 8.9% of academic senior management roles, and 10.9% of Professorial roles. The representation remains similarly low within senior leadership across professional and support services.

Structural barriers and implicit biases prevalent in UK institutions of Higher Education translate into experiences of exclusion, marginalisation, or being overlooked for professional development opportunities.

This, combined with institutional culture where everyday microincivilities may remain unchallenged or unaddressed, further exacerbates these challenges. Repercussions of these racialised structures and experiences are significant, as reflected in troubling national sector statistics such as a sector-wide mean ethnicity pay gap hovering around 5.8%–8.0%.

The situation is even more pronounced across institutions in the Russell Group, where the average mean ethnicity pay gap rises to 9.0% (and up to 15.9% for Russell Group institutions in London and the South East).

In addition, experiences of people from different global majority backgrounds can vary significantly, particularly when considered with intersecting marginalised identities such as gender, disability, and religion.

References

• Advance HE. (2024). Equality in higher education: Staff statistical report 2024. Advance HE. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/equality-higher-education-statistical-reports-2024

• Arday, J., Branchu, C., & Boliver, V. (2022). What makes a professor? Race, inequality and the professoriate in UK higher education. British Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1087–1108. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3816

• Bhopal, K. (2022). Academics of colour in elite universities in the UK and the USA: The ‘unspoken system of exclusion’. Studies in Higher Education, 47(11), 2127–2137. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.2020746

• Queen Mary University of London. (2025). Pay Gap Report 2025 (including Russell Group benchmark data). https://www.qmul.ac.uk/human-resources/media/hr/edi/Queen-Mary-University-of-London-Pay-Gap-Report-2025.pdf

• Rock, D., & Grant, H. (2016). Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review, 94(11), 2–5. https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter

• Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). (2023). Intersectional Pay Gaps in Higher Education 2022–23. UCEA. https://www.ucea.ac.uk/

The White Rose University Consortium recognises the importance of racial and ethnic terminology and understand that individuals use different terms to identify and represent themselves.

In keeping with the commitment to co-creation for this programme, the Equity in Leadership Programme team asked all participants to vote on the term that they felt best represented them. The term global majoritiy received the most votes, as it provides a more positive perspective compared to the othering narrative of "minority groups."