{"id":121251,"date":"2020-12-17T15:48:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T14:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=121251"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:18","slug":"diversity-at-the-university-well-never-get-there-without-hard-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/12\/17\/diversity-at-the-university-well-never-get-there-without-hard-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity at the university: \u2018We\u2019ll never get there without hard data\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018More diversity?\u2019 At universities, this is generally taken to mean \u2018more women\u2019, says Saskia Bonjour, a political scientist and a member of The Young Academy. Not much is being done to support other target groups.<\/p>\n

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Are universities allowed to record the ethnicity of their students and staff? Should more diversity officers be appointed? MPs recently clashed<\/a> on these types of questions during a debate on the National Plan of Action<\/a> for greater diversity and inclusiveness.<\/p>\n

There were basically two sides to the debate. One said, don\u2019t focus on diversity and background, because all that matters is quality. The other said some people can\u2019t live up to their potential because they are being put at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, everyone seeks to achieve the same goal, says political scientist Saskia Bonjour. However, people often disagree on how to get there. \u201cMany studies have shown that at present, people often aren\u2019t<\/em> assessed on their qualities. So that means that something is still going wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mentoring programmes<\/h2>

Bonjour is an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam and also a member of The Young Academy, a group of relatively young academics affiliated with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In association with Professor Marieke van den Brink and student Gwendolyn Taartmans, she mapped out<\/a> what the Dutch universities\u2019 diversity policies are like in 2020. The conclusion they drew was that there are many opportunities for improvement.<\/p>\n

This is because, paradoxically, the universities\u2019 diversity policies fall curiously short on diversity. \u201cAt present, the focus is mainly on women,\u201d says Bonjour. \u201cAll sorts of measures have been implemented on their behalf over the years, such as targets, fellowships and mentoring programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to that, there seem to be few policies focusing on other target groups, particularly as regards anti-racism measures. The word \u2018racism\u2019 is hardly ever mentioned in most universities\u2019 diversity policies. And there are hardly any usable figures on students and staff members of colour, Bonjour and her colleagues have pointed out.<\/p>\n

Necessary step<\/h2>

But is it not perfectly understandable that keeping track of such figures is a rather sensitive issue? Bonjour will be the first to admit that. \u201cAnd it\u2019s an incredibly complicated discussion into the bargain. So how many people of colour do you want, and how do you define \u2018of colour\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, she believes that collecting quantitative data is a necessary step. \u201cIf we don\u2019t, we\u2019ll never get there. Now some people are saying, \u2018you can\u2019t do that, because it\u2019s racist\u2019. And on the other hand, we know that people are being excluded, but we don\u2019t have enough data to show how and where exactly this is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as attracting more female lecturers is concerned, data on promotions and drop-out rates really did make a difference, says Bonjour. \u201cAnd there are <\/em>highly meticulous ways to collect figures on ethnicity. For example, the methods used by Statistics Netherlands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gender-neutral toilets<\/h2>

The three academics emphasise that there is more to diversity than just attaining targets \u2013 something that is called \u2018fixing the numbers\u2019 in academic literature. If universities really wish to become inclusive, they will have to bring about a culture change first. In other words, they will have to \u2018fix the institutions\u2019.<\/p>\n

For instance, they could do so by using better recruitment and promotion procedures, but they could also establish gender-neutral toilets or prayer rooms. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s about creating room for people who might deviate from the current standard a bit,\u201d says Bonjour. \u201cBecause why would you recruit people if they are only going to end up not feeling at home at the university?\u201d<\/p>\n

Different perspective<\/h2>

And then there is a third and final step: \u2018fixing the knowledge\u2019. <\/em>In other words, incorporating diversity into degree programmes and research projects. This may involve answering questions such as, are students being encouraged to view things from a different perspective? What kind of knowledge on social categories such as gender, ethnicity and class is being imparted during classes? And how do we make sure that this knowledge is incorporated into research projects?<\/p>\n

Bonjour says that this step may be the most important one of the three, but also possibly the trickiest one. \u201cDecisions as to which academics to quote or which texts to discuss are often made as a matter of course, purely because we have always done things that way. Moreover, executives don\u2019t like to tell lecturers what subjects to discuss in their courses. Yet we have to take another look at this, all of us, together. And we could do with a little boost in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lack of time<\/h2>

In short, there is a lot of work to be done. However, no one is quite sure at present who is to do all that work. Of the eighteen diversity officers the researchers spoke to, most lack the time and funding to be really effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, they are allocated two to three days a week to look into the entire university\u2019s policy,\u201d says Bonjour. \u201cOr alternatively, they are academics whose superiors tell them to \u2018do a little diversity\u2019 on top of their regular duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is another problem, as well: diversity officers are accountable for the policies they draw up, but are hardly given the opportunity to exert any influence themselves. \u201cIf you really wish to make a change at a university, the work must be done by those who are in charge of appointments, promotions and the subject matter discussed in courses,\u201d says Bonjour.<\/p>\n

A diversity officer may issue recommendations on those things, but at the end of the day, Bonjour says, it is the executives and supervisors who make the decisions. \u201cAnd I think that many of them are not sure how to go about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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