Black & Minority Ethnic Representation in the Built...

Black & Minority Ethnic Representation in the Built Environment Professions

Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London

Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment

© June 2005

Royal Holloway, University of London Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to the individuals who agreed to be interviewed for this study. These included professionals employed in the built environment sector, employer organisations and professional bodies, students and tutors at academic institutions who study/teach courses in the built environment, and people who had left the sector or moved out of their original profession. The people who provided us with details about their experiences of seeking employment and of being employed in the sector were from a range of ethnic origins. Collecting information from people of diverse ethnic backgrounds has meant that we have been able to identify particular areas which need improvement in order to encourage a greater representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) people within the built environment sector. We hope that the conclusions and recommendations do justice to the stories which were told, and contribute to the move towards greater equality and diversity in the sector.


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This report was researched and written for CABE by a research team led by the Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London. The team carrying out the research and developing findings included members from Loughborough University and was also able to draw on a panel of practicing BME professionals.

PROJECT STEERING GROUP Paul Ducker CABE Pamela Edwards RIBA Doreen Lawrence OBE Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust Chris Murray Director of Learning and Development, CABE Chris Nasah Society of Black Architects Greville Percival MFC Group Sunand Prasad (Chair) CABE Commissioner Carlton Roberts-James CABE Afolabi Spence F-l-u-i-d Kate Trant CABE

RESEARCH TEAM Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway research team Professor Humayun Ansari Ms Amir Aujla Dr Andrew Caplan Mr Jamie Gilham Ms June Jackson Ms Preeti Kathrecha Administrative support Ms Helen Chowdhury Academic adviser Professor Kate Loewenthal Special advisers Mr Musa Garba (Architect, Prior Manton Tuke Powell) Mr Arith Liyanage (Performance Improvement Director, Carillion) Mr Samir Pandya (Architect, Associate, Shepheard Epstein Hunter) Associate consultants Professor Barbara Bagilhole (Loughborough University) Dr Andy Dainty (Loughborough University)


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CONTENTS Page no.

Acknowledgements 1 Project steering group and research team 2 Abbreviations 5

List of figures and tables 7

1. INTRODUCTION 8 1.1 Background 8 1.2 Research aim and outcomes 8 1.3 Research methodology and sample 8 1.4 Report structure 10

Summary of Key Issues 13 SECTION 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND EDUCATION

AND EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS 14 2. SURVEY OF RELEVANT RESEARCH AND SECTOR

INITIATIVES 14 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 Previous research and sector initiatives 14 2.3 Summary 18

3. THE STATISTICAL REPRESENTATION OF BME PEOPLE

IN EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT 20 3.1 Introduction 20 3.2 General statistics 20 3.2.1 Population 20 3.2.2 Education 21 3.2.3 Labour market 22 3.3 Make-up of the industry and projected recruitment needs 23 3.3.1 Current make-up of the industry and projected skill needs 23 3.3.2 BME professionals in employment 23 3.4 Representation of BME people in construction-related education 25 3.4.1 Applications 25 3.4.2 Enrolment 25 3.4.3 Qualifiers 32 3.4.4 First destination of graduates 32 3.4.5 Construction Industry Training Board trainees 34 3.5 Monitoring by professional bodies and employers 34 3.6 Summary 35 3.7 Chapter 3: Key Points 36 SECTION 2: BME EXPERIENCES AND INDUSTRY INITIATIVES 37 4. EXPERIENCES OF QUALIFYING FOR THE BUILT

ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONS 37 4.1 Introduction 37 4.2 Influences on choice of career 37


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4.3 Careers advice within the education system 38 4.4 Experiences within the education system 39 4.4.1 Learning in a multi-cultural community 39 4.4.2 Student support 40 4.4.3 Getting a work experience placement 41 4.4.4 Achievement and success 43 4.4.5 Racial discrimination in the education system 44 4.5 Summary 45 4.6 Chapter 4: Key Points 45 5. EXPERIENCES OF GETTING WORK 46 5.1 Introduction 46 5.2 Recruitment practices 46 5.3 Getting an interview 49 5.4 The interview experience 52 5.5 Getting contracts 56 5.6 Heritage and culture 57 5.7 Summary 58 5.8 Chapter 5: Key Points 59 6. FACTORS AFFECTING CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND

PROGRESSION IN EMPLOYMENT 60 6.1 Introduction 60 6.2 The ‘glass ceiling’ 60 6.3 Are there discriminatory factors? 62 6.4 The need to ‘fit in’ 65 6.5 Gender 68 6.7 Managing in a diverse workforce 69 6.8 The experience of being the ‘pioneer’ 72 6.9 Challenging the system 73 6.10 Summary 74 6.11 Chapter 6: Key Points 76 7. ORGANISATIONAL ACTION: EXAMPLES OF GOOD

PRACTICE IN THE EMPLOYER ORGANISATIONS 77 7.1 Introduction 77 7.2 Organisational action 77 SECTION 3: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 79 8. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 79

9. RECOMMENDATIONS 82

References 89 Report Annex: Research methodology and sample 92 List of tables in Appendices 100 Appendices 103


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ABBREVIATIONS ACAS Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service ACE Association of Consulting Engineers AIA American Institute of Architects APM Association for Project Management ARB Architects Registration Board BE Built environment BIAT British Institute of Architectural Technologists BME Black and minority ethnic CABE Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment CertHE Certificate of Higher Education CIB Construction Industry Board CIBSE Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers CIC Construction Industry Council CIH Chartered Institute of Housing CIOB Chartered Institute of Building CITB Construction Industry Training Board (now CITB-ConstructionSkills) COO Chief operating officer CRE Commission for Racial Equality CV Curriculum vitae CWSET Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Technology DfES Department for Education and Skills DipHE Diploma of Higher Education FDS First Destination Supplement FE Further education GNVQ General National Vocational Qualification HE Higher education HESA Higher Education Statistics Agency HNC Higher National Certificate HND Higher National Diploma HR Human resources ICE Institution of Civil Engineers IIP Investors in People IMechE Institution of Mechanical Engineers IStructE Institution of Structural Engineers IT Information technology LA Local Authority LFS Labour Force Survey LI Landscape Institute MSc Master of Science M4I Movement for Innovation NVQ National Vocational Qualification ONS Office for National Statistics PGCE Postgraduate Certificate of Education QS Quantity surveyor RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects RICS Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors RTPI Royal Town Planning Institute SIC Standard Industrial Classification


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SOBA Society of Black Architects SVQ Scottish Vocational Qualification TSO The Stationery Office UCAS Universities and Colleges Admissions Service


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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES REPORT: LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Geographical location of student sample 12 Figure 2: Geographical location of professional sample 12 Figure 3: UK minority ethnic population as a percentage of the

total UK population, by broad ethnic group 20 Figure 4: UK minority ethnic population as a percentage of the

total UK population, by ethnic category 21 Figure 5: Percentage of BME applicants as a percentage of all

applicants for each subject area, 2003 25 Figure 6: UK domiciled BME students at English

institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03: first degree 27

Figure 7: Participation by broad BME group as a percentage of all students in each subject, 2002/03: first degree 28

Figure 8: UK domiciled BME students at English institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03: other undergraduate 29

Figure 9: Participation by BME group as a percentage of all students in each subject, 2002/03: other undergraduate 30

Figure 10: UK BME domiciled students at English institutions by subject of study, 2002/03: postgraduate 31

Figure 11: Participation by ethnic group in each subject, 2002/03: postgraduate 31

Figure 12: UK domiciled BME qualifiers at English institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03 32

Figure 13: Engineering students: first destination, 2001/02 33 Figure 14: Architecture, building and planning students: first

destination, 2001/02 33 REPORT: LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Percentage of BME people in architecture and built environment professions 24

Table 2: BME first year trade trainees as proportion of total, 1999-2002/03 34

ANNEX: LIST OF FIGURES Figure AN1: Ethnicity of student sample 95 Figure AN2: Ethnicity of professional sample 97 Figure AN3: Profession of sample (CABE categories) 98 ANNEX: LIST OF TABLES Table AN1: Sample achieved 94 Table AN2: Gender of student sample 95 Table AN3: Age of student sample 95 Table AN4: Course of study 96 Table AN5: Students’ place of study 96 Table AN6: Gender of professional sample 97 Table AN7: Profession of sample (detailed categories) 98 Table AN8: Sector by profession (CABE categories) 99 Table AN9: Geographical location by profession (CABE categories) 99 List of Tables in Appendices 100


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background This report examines the representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) people within the built environment professions, barriers to entry into the professions and progression in the sector. The research follows on from previous work by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and carried out by the Policy Studies Institute into BME students in architecture. 1.2 Research aim and outcomes The aim of this report is to explore issues of diversity within employment in the built environment professions, and to look at representation and barriers to access for BME employees. The research aims were to:

1. bring together existing information on the representation of BME people in the built environment professions

2. identify perceived and real barriers to entry and progression and examples of good employment practice

3. produce suggested areas for action by: employers; educators; professional bodies; and policymakers.

1.3 Research methodology and sample There are four distinct but overlapping stands to this research: Strand 1: A survey of relevant literature pertaining to the representation and experiences of BME people in built environment employment. This exercise was vital to establish what relevant research had already been conducted and to identify whether there were any gaps or omissions in the existing body of research. Strand 2: A comprehensive and in-depth mapping exercise to determine current levels of representation of BME people in built environment education and professional employment. The mapping exercise is an important step in monitoring any progress achieved, and also in setting objectives for the future. Strand 3: An exploration of individual BME experiences in the built environment professions. This qualitative research focused on barriers to recruitment and progression for BME professionals working in England with the intention of identifying key areas for action to bring about greater involvement, recognition and retention of BME people in the range of built environment professions. Strand 4: A synthesis of strands 1-3. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed to produce a final discussion and conclusions, which fed directly into the formulation of a set of practical recommendations. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in order to ensure a comprehensive and rigorous research study which took account of factual information regarding study for and representation in the industry, as well as actual experiences and perceptions which could impact on levels of representation and quality of experience. The quantitative data point to the extent of the potential workforce, and highlight under-representation in the industry, and in specific professions. However, quantitative data alone have limitations for this type of research as, in order to develop our understanding of reasons for any under-


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representation, we needed to explore people’s actual experiences of the industry as well as their perceptions of potential barriers. Therefore, qualitative data were obtained through constructing a purposive sample and conducting interviews with students and professionals in the sector, built environment subject tutors, employers and professional bodies, and professionals who had left the sector or moved out of their original profession. Although interviewing as a research method is open to interviewer effects, the advantages of being able to clarify questions and ask for further information outweighed this potential danger. In addition, all of the interviewers are experienced in researching sensitive issues, in particular on the subject of discrimination and disadvantage. The qualitative information gained from the discussions with 112 people with varying positions in the industry therefore helped to shed light on the statistical data. Existing quantitative data were obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), CITB-ConstructionSkills and the Labour Force Survey (LFS). In addition, quantitative data were available from some of the professional bodies. We interviewed a total of 37 BME students and 50 BME professionals (including five people who had left the sector or moved out of their original profession). We also interviewed managers from 12 employer organisations who were from a cross-section of the industry and six lecturers/tutors/careers advisers from six universities across England. Interviews were also carried out with seven key informants, who represented different industry bodies and levels of experience. Quantitative data were collected and frequencies and cross-tabs produced using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The interviews followed a semi-structured questionnaire, which allowed an interactive approach and followed the ethos of researching collaboratively with respondents. The qualitative data were collected through a number of individual interviews. Those with BME students and professionals focused on:

• the influence of ethnicity on their educational experiences • the experience of applying for jobs in the built environment sector • factors that hinder progression and retention for BME professionals • examples of positive and/or negative situations of being in a minority in the

sector • suggestions to improve the representation of BME people in the

sector/profession(s). In addition, interviews with employers particularly examined:

• the representation of BME people in built environment organisations and the professions

• reasons for the overall under-representation of BME people in the professions • recruitment trends and practices • the nature of the organisational culture and working environment and its

impact on BME people • factors that hinder progression and retention for BME professionals.

And interviews with lecturers particularly examined:


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• how many BME students were enrolled on built environment further education (FE) and higher education (HE) courses

• the collation of student achievement, destination and progression data • aspects of the education process that discourage the retention of BME students

in education and employment • reasons for the overall under-representation of BME people in the built

environment professions • recruitment trends and practices • other factors that might prevent BME people getting jobs in the built

environment sector/staying and progressing. Interviews were taped, when respondents agreed, and transcribed verbatim. For the few respondents who did not agree to be interviewed, shorthand notes were taken and comprehensive notes, with verbatim quotes, typed up. The research team then identified the topics emerging from the data collected from the interviews. Manual coding of documents was possible and facilitated by the use of a semi-structured interview questionnaire, which meant that the information collected was already grouped into broad common areas. The sub-sections of Section 2, Chapters 4 – 6 cover the themes which emerged from the interviews with students and professionals. A more detailed description of the methodology is set out in the report Annex. The students and professionals were from a range of ethnicities, largely black and Asian. There was a geographical spread across England, a gender mix and a range of ages. Students were from 12 different construction-related courses and the professionals from the six professional categories identified by CABE for this study (i.e. construction professionals, architects, planners/urban designers, engineers, surveyors and landscape architects/designers). The professionals were from both the public and the private sectors. The maps at the end of this chapter show the geographical spread of the student and professional sample. 1.4 Report structure The report is composed of nine chapters. After the current chapter, Chapter 1, which has set out the research aim, objectives and approach, the report is split into three sections. Section 1 sets out previous research in this field and maps the representation of BME people in construction and the built environment. In this section, Chapter 2 surveys previous research and initiatives that have focused on the experiences of BME people within the built environment sector and Chapter 3 presents data showing the statistical representation of BME people in the built environment sector, from education through to employment in the sector and the main built environment professions. The mapping exercise thus forms a backdrop to Section 2, which presents the findings from the research fieldwork. These are presented thematically, again from educational experiences through to the employment situation. The analysis of qualitative data (Chapters 4 - 7) is interspersed with comments that were made by individuals to convey the experiences of the informants themselves. A qualitative rather than quantitative approach was selected for this aspect of the study because it offered the opportunity to identify and then examine in depth barriers


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experienced by BME professionals and examples of good employment practice within the sector. To that end, the qualitative data from the individual interviews were analysed for emerging themes, similarities and differences. The robustness of this exercise was assured by the fact that the report writers had conducted and transcribed the interviews between them, and therefore all had a strong familiarity with the data. Finally, Section 3 combines a discussion and conclusions from the findings collated together in Chapter 8, which feed directly into the formulation of the recommendations (Chapter 9).

Research Aim, Objectives and Approach

SECTION 1 Previous research in the field

Representation of BME people in construction and the built

environment

SECTION 2

Experiences of qualifying for the built environment professions

Experiences of getting work

Factors affecting career development and progression in

employment

SECTION 3

Discussion and conclusions

Recommendations


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Figure 1: Geographical location of student sample

Figure 2: Geographical location of professional sample

Rickmansworth - 2Letchworth - 2

Heathrow - 1 London - 24

Winchester - 1

Maidstone, Kent - 1

Dagenham Essex - 1

Northampton - 1

Birmingham - 7

Leicester - 1

Nottingham - 1

Leeds- 8

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

Brighton University - 4Portsmouth - 4

University of West England - 1

Loughborough - 4

University College London - 1London South Bank - 16University of Westminster - 1Greenwich University - 1

UMIST - 4

Leeds Met - 1


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Summary of Key Issues

The following figure summarises the key helping and hindering factors which have emerged from this study regarding access to and progression within the built environment and construction industry professions. These issues are then explored in detail in the chapters which follow.

BME students well represented HELPING FACTORS Identification of potential good employers

Improved recruitment policies and practices

REQUIREMENTS FROM THE LEADERSHIP

Networks are important

Champions and mentors are important

Increasing good practice and policy development

Development of pro-active approach to equality

Education Job seeking Employment Senior Management Sector Leadership

Negative image of sector

BME people under-represented

Struggle to recruit BME experienced professionals

Poor collation of ethnicity data Data collection seldom comprehensive

Poor careers Counselling

Lure from other professions

Need to fit in

Strategy lacking for increasing senior BME professionals

CURRENT HINDERING FACTORS IN THE INDUSTRY

Euro-Anglocentric curriculum Lack of work experience

BME less likely to go in to sector

Glass ceiling

Fail to offer support

Colour-blind approach of tutors Networks/work experience critical

Jokes and banter

White male seen as norm

HINDERING FACTORS


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SECTION 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

CHAPTER 2: SURVEY OF RELEVANT RESEARCH AND

SECTOR INITIATIVES 2.1 Introduction This chapter surveys previous research and initiatives that have focused on the experiences of BME people within the built environment sector. It highlights findings relevant to and expanded upon in the present study, and thereby establishes how this report contributes to the current body of research on BME representation and experiences in the built environment sector. 2.2 Previous research and sector initiatives Several studies have previously highlighted that there are limited data on the BME workforce within the built environment sector in the UK, especially regarding the transition from education through to employment and for trainees, graduates and professionals.1 The limited research that does examine BME experiences of the built environment sector has its origins in the early 1990s, when several reports commissioned to address the position of women in the professions and construction industry more widely also raised questions about the position and experiences of other minority groups. For example, the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (CWSET, established in 1993) urged that equal opportunities policies should become part of general corporate strategy and cover a wide range of practices relating to, among others, recruitment, job allocation, promotion, flexible working, training and development.2 Concerns about equal opportunities and the stark under-representation of women in both the trades and professions within the British construction industry were also expressed in the 1994 report, Constructing the team, and reaffirmed by research undertaken by the Construction Industry Board (CIB) two years later.3 The CIB report stressed that if the industry as a whole continued to fail to attract more women, then

1 See, for example, O’Donnell, L. and Golden, S., Construction apprentices survey 2000: national report (CITB, 2001): http://www.citb.co.uk/research/pdf/ca_survey_2000.pdf [Accessed 07/01/04]; and Spielhofer, T. and Golden, S., Construction apprentices interim survey: draft report (CITB, 2001): http://www.citb.co.uk/research/pdf/ca_survey_interim_2001.pdf [Accessed: 07/01/04]. 2 Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, The rising tide: a report on women in science, engineering and technology (London: HMSO, 1995), p.36. Much additional research on the position and experiences of women in the built environment professions has been conducted in recent years, often echoing the recommendations made by the CWSET in 1995. See, for example Ellison, L., Raising the ratio: the surveying profession as a career: a report for the RICS Raising the Ratio Committee (London: RICS, 2003); and de Graft-Johnson, A., Manley, S. and Greed, C., Why do women leave architecture? (London/Bristol: RIBA/University of the West of England, 2003). See also the RIBA’s response and action plan to de Graft-Johnson et al’s report, which aims to extend support for diversity and equality in the profession: RIBA, ‘Why do women leave architecture? Report response and RIBA action’ (2003): http://www.riba.org/fileLibrary/pdf/WWLARIBAResponse.pdf [Accessed 07/01/04] 3 Construction Industry Board, Tomorrow’s team: women and men in construction (London: Thomas Telford, 1996).


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construction companies would become ‘less representative of the customers and clients who keep them in business.’4 Moreover, the CIB argued that the industry must follow the lead of other sectors and address the issues of older workers and BME groups.5 Indeed, their report briefly addressed the position of BME people within the industry, but found that it was difficult to assess their representation due to a lack of consistent data. The CIB thereby concluded that there was a need for more detailed research, together with consistent monitoring, to gain a more accurate picture and to indicate where action might be taken to improve BME representation.6 CITB-ConstructionSkills echoed the call for consistent and widespread monitoring by ethnic origin of construction trainees, construction workers, and membership of professional bodies and trade unions in 1999.7 The present study draws upon data obtained from interviews with built environment professionals, students, professional bodies and employer organisations to establish whether or how far repeated calls for widespread monitoring from within the construction industry have been realised within the built environment sector as a whole. The ‘business case’ for greater equality of opportunity was given a high profile by the Movement for Innovation (M4I) Working Group on Respect for People, which sought to respond to the challenge to find practical and effective ways for the construction industry to radically improve its performance on ‘people issues’. The group argued that there was a strong business case for such improvement, hinging on the belief that firms who failed to improve their attitude and performance towards respecting people would fail to recruit and retain the best talent and business partners. It followed, therefore, that it was important for firms to ‘involve, engage and empower all people in issues that directly affect them’, with the issue of diversity in the workplace central to this.8 A ‘Respect for people, equality and diversity in the workplace toolkit’ was subsequently produced to encourage the construction industry to become ‘more representative of the total labour available, to eliminate poor stereotypes and recruit and develop the best, most talented people.’ It stresses that managing equality and diversity will help the industry to achieve the long-held ideal for a skilled, professional and steady workforce to deliver good performance, and also help to improve the image of construction as a sector that can offer an attractive and life-long career.9 As with studies on women, the modest research conducted to date specifically on the experiences of BME groups also stems from their apparent numerical under-representation within the built environment sector.10 Few studies have explored the under-representation of BME professionals, though their under-representation has been

4 Ibid., p.2. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid., p.63. 7 Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (Royal Holloway, University of London), The under-representation of black and Asian people in construction (CITB, 1999), p.75. 8 Movement for Innovation/Rethinking Construction, ‘A commitment to people, ‘Our biggest asset’: a report from the Movement for Innovation’s working group on Respect for People’ (2000), p.5. 9 See the Constructing Excellence website: http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/resourcecentre/peoplezone/details/toolkit.jsp?toolkitID=99 10 This under-representation has been highlighted in recent years by Owen, D., et al., ‘Patterns of labour market participation in ethnic minority groups’, Labour Market Trends, vol. 108, no. 11 (November 2000), p.507; and Twomey, B., ‘Labour market participation of ethnic groups’, Labour Market Trends, vol. 109, no. 1 (January 2001), pp.33 and 36.


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alluded to.11 For example, a report commissioned by the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Equal Opportunities (Race Relations) Panel highlighted over 10 years ago the ‘continuing phenomenon of an extremely low proportion of planners from black and ethnic minorities within the [planning] profession as a whole.’ It also noted that in ‘only a modest proportion of departments which employ people from black and ethnic minorities are they at relatively senior grades.’12 More recent research conducted for the RTPI suggests that the situation has not improved, with only 1.7% of all planners from BME groups.13 Following a formal investigation of the CITB by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and in order to demonstrate their commitment to equality of opportunity, in 1998 the CITB commissioned the first of a series of research reports into the experiences of BME people in construction. Similar to the RTPI’s research, the first CITB report also found that, while BME people were reasonably well represented on construction-related training and degree programmes (including both craft/trade training programmes and on HE degree courses), they were significantly under-represented within the industry, particularly at middle and senior management levels.14 Reasons cited for this under-representation were many and varied. They included a failure on the part of the industry and companies to develop awareness amongst BME communities of the wide range of opportunities in construction; the predominance of word-of-mouth recruitment practices and information about contracts which, it was found, tended to exclude BME people; a fear of discrimination and racism; the perception that the industry was a white, male-dominated environment where it was difficult for BME people to be accepted in an equal manner; less favourable treatment, widespread name-calling, harassment, bullying and intimidation of BME people.15 In light of the findings and recommendations from the CITB report (which was published in 1999), and in order to develop ways of retaining BME employees, to maximise the potential to the industry that is available amongst the BME population, and to address any lapses in the implementation of equality of opportunity, the CITB was committed to exploring the issues in greater depth. In the first instance, the CITB commissioned a report to examine the reasons why relatively small numbers of both female and BME students progressed from their studies into the industry.16 The study explored the attitudes and experiences of students who were following or had completed GNVQ courses in construction and the built environment at foundation and intermediate levels. It revealed that, although there were reasonable numbers of BME students at foundation level, it was difficult to locate such students at intermediate level and female students at any level. Teachers and tutors typically attributed those shortfalls to a perception that BME parents discouraged their children from following

11 For example, Grant, B., et al., Building e=quality: minority ethnic construction professionals and urban regeneration (1996). 12 Krishnarayan, V. and Thomas, H., Ethnic minorities and the planning system (London: Royal Town Planning Institute, 1993), p.77. 13 Shepley, C., ‘Tomorrow’s planners: it is possible to make a difference’, Planning, Issue 1537 (19 September 2003), p.24. 14 Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, The under-representation of black and Asian people in construction, p.6. Also see, for example, Greed, C., The changing composition of the construction professions (Bristol: University of the West of England, Occasional Paper 5, 1999), p.29. 15 Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, The under-representation of black and Asian people in construction. 16 Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (Royal Holloway, University of London), The impact of race and gender on progression from GNVQ Construction into the industry (CITB, 2000).


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construction courses and careers. Furthermore, they considered that BME parents were difficult to reach, which had a detrimental impact on BME students because of the importance attributed to good family-institution contacts in sustaining academic achievement. However, the qualitative research found a number of variables which affected BME students’ progress on construction and built environment courses, including negative relationships between BME students and their teachers; examples of insensitivity to and unawareness of the harm of racial and gender prejudice within the classroom; and concern about the general quality of teaching on GNVQ foundation courses and the capability of tutors to cope with the needs of both female and BME students. The CITB study also found a growing perception amongst female and BME students that they would be unwelcome in the construction industry. Consequently, those students were not optimistic of getting a good job or having the opportunity for promotion within the industry – which ultimately led them to seek a career elsewhere.17 The present study examines the education experiences of BME former and current students of built environment degree subjects to identify the salience of these and any additional potential barriers to entry into the professions. Few previous studies have investigated the experiences of students of built environment subjects leading to careers in the professions. However, one report on this subject – CABE’s scoping study of Minority ethnic students and practitioners in architecture (published in 2002) – highlighted that, while a wide range of information exists about the representation of BME students in architecture and related HE courses, ‘very little data is available on the situation for architectural professionals from BME backgrounds.’18 Drawing upon limited data, the scoping study found that the representation of BME groups on architecture, building and planning degree courses was lower than for HE as a whole. Moreover, the data presented in the study indicated that although BME applicants on those degree courses were more likely to be accepted onto the courses than their white counterparts, there was a high drop-out rate for BME architecture students, especially during Part II. The study also noted that while the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) statistics for 2001 indicated that some 2% of registered architects were from BME backgrounds, relatively little data existed about BME practitioners in architecture.19 Given concern about the under-representation of BME groups in the architectural profession in recent years, CABE commissioned further research into the experiences of BME students in architecture.20 The research reaffirmed the finding of the scoping study. This was that, while the representation of BME students in architecture appeared poor in comparison with entrants to law and medicine and dentistry degrees, a comparison with all first degree students showed that the proportion of all non-white first degree students in architecture was close to the average for all subjects in England. The report found that BME students also had a higher probability of acceptance onto a course in architecture, building and planning than other subjects,

17 Ibid. 18 Barnes, H., Bonjour, D. and Sahin-Dikmen, M., Minority ethnic students and practitioners in architecture: a scoping study for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (London: PSI, 2002), pp.3 and 12. 19 Ibid., p.3. 20 Barnes, H., Parry, J., Sahin-Dikmen, M. and Bonjour, D., Architecture and race: a study of black and minority ethnic students in the profession (London: CABE, 2004).


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thereby indicating that they did not face a particular barrier at the initial entry stage.21 Whilst limited data again made firm inferences about BME drop-out rates difficult, the report concluded that, compared to Part I, once in training there were fewer BME students at the advanced levels of both Part II and III.22 The study also usefully explored the experiences of students working in architectural practice, highlighting that, besides common problems of working for low wages and the difficulties of finding employment, BME people drew attention to a number of difficulties in practice that related to their ethnicity or gender within a largely white, male profession. Indeed, examples of both direct and indirect discrimination were linked to the association with the construction industry more broadly and its perceived white, ‘macho’ culture.23 Researchers have generally neglected the barriers to recruitment and progression for BME people within the built environment professions. The only comparable substantive research to that presented in this report is a study commissioned by the CITB (published in 2002), which examined the retention and career progression of BME people throughout the construction industry, across all levels of employment.24 The CITB report showed that relatively high levels of BME people studied construction-related subjects, and identified a number of factors that had a detrimental impact on BME students, job applicants and professionals in construction. These included perceived unfair treatment of some BME university students, which had a later impact on their ability to network and thereby get work placements or first employment; racial banter as an accepted feature of life on site, which BME people either resigned themselves to or avoided by leaving the industry; unequal access for BME people to training and development opportunities; and negative experiences of BME professionals in interviews and with recruitment agencies. The CITB report found that the experiences of women to an extent mirrored those of BME people, and that BME women suffered a dual disadvantage. The present report expands upon both CABE’s recent research into architecture and the CITB’s 2002 report on retention and progression by examining data regarding the range of built environment professions (i.e. architects, engineers, surveyors, construction professionals and planners/urban designers) to establish current levels of BME representation and determine barriers to entry and progression within those professions. 2.3 Summary This survey of previous research and initiatives confirms that there are limited data on the BME workforce within the built environment sector in the UK, particularly regarding retention and career progression of BME people. In considering BME professionals in particular, research is even scarcer. The limited existing data are nevertheless suggestive, and generally point to: • historic and ongoing racial (and gender) discrimination within the built

environment sector and professions, from education through to employment • aspects of the learning and working culture that adversely affect BME workers in

education and employment

21 Ibid., p.14. 22 Ibid., p.36. 23 Ibid., pp.66-68. 24 Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (Royal Holloway, University of London), Retention and career progression of black and Asian people in the construction industry (CITB, 2002).


19

• the subsequent and continual under-representation of BME people across the sector, particularly at middle and senior management levels.

The present study aims to fill the gaps in the current body of research on this subject: it gathers and analyses a range of quantitative and qualitative data to help establish the current representation of BME people within the built environment professions. In addition, it identifies where further data are still required, identifies and assesses common barriers to entry into the professions and progression once in the sector, and highlights positive measures that could increase the representation of BME professionals. The next chapter examines the existing statistics on BME representation within built environment education and employment.


20

CHAPTER 3: THE STATISTICAL REPRESENTATION OF BME PEOPLE IN EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

3.1 Introduction This chapter describes the representation of BME people within built environment education and employment. It provides background information about the relative proportions of BME groups in the UK population, education system and labour market. This is followed by an examination of employment trends and demands for labour in the construction and built environment sector, and then a closer look at the representation of BME people in construction-related FE and HE, from applications and enrolment through to qualifiers and the first destination of graduates. Recent CITB-ConstructionSkills data are also presented, which indicate trends in the proportion of BME first-year trainees since 1999. Where possible, comparison is made between the most recent data and previous years. However, data relevant to this study remain patchy and are often not comparable between years, typically due to frequent changes in categories used for ethnic group, subject of study and jobs. Moreover, data for some specific groups were simply not available – for example, data for ‘urban designers’ were subsumed within the broader heading of ‘planning’. 3.2 General statistics This section describes the ethnic breakdown of the UK population in general, in education and in the labour market. 3.2.1 Population BME people account for 7.9% of the UK population.25 The largest ethnic group in 2001 was Indian, followed by Pakistani, mixed race, black Caribbean, black African and Bangladeshi.26 (See Figure 4). Figure 3: UK minority ethnic population as a percentage of the total UK population, by broad ethnic group

7.9%

4.0%

2.0%

1.2%

0.4% 0.4%

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

9.0%

Total BME Asian or AsianBritish

Black or BlackBritish

Mixed Chinese Other

Ethnic group

Perc

enta

ge

Total BME

Asian or Asian British

Black or Black British

Mixed

Chinese

Other

Source: derived from National Statistics, Census 2001 data

25 National Statistics: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=273 [Accessed 07/01/04] 26 Cabinet Office/Strategy Unit, Ethnic minorities and the labour market (London: Cabinet Office, 2003, p.17)


21

Figure 4: UK minority ethnic population as a percentage of the total UK population, by ethnic category

UK Minority Ethnic population by each ethnic category

7.9%

1.8%1.3%

0.5% 0.4%

1.0% 0.8%

0.2%

1.2%

0.4% 0.4%

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

9.0%

Total B

MEInd

ian

Pakist

ani

Bangla

desh

i

Other A

sian

Black C

aribb

ean

Black A

frican

Black O

ther

Mixed

Chines

eOthe

r

Ethnic category

Perc

enta

ge

Source: derived from National Statistics, Census 2001 data BME groups are unevenly distributed around the country and clustered in the major cities and conurbations. Almost half (47.6%) of all BME people live in Greater London, with some concentrations in the West Midlands (13.6%), Yorkshire and Humberside (7.6%), the North West and Merseyside (6.8%), and smaller concentrations elsewhere in the country.27 The 2001 Census data also revealed that approximately 29% of London’s population belonged to a BME group.28 BME groups generally have a younger age structure than the white population due to patterns of migration and family size in certain groups. Data from National Statistics indicate that in 2001/02, the mixed ethnic group had the youngest age structure, with more than half (55%) under the age of 16. Approximately 38% of people from a Bangladeshi background were also under 16, compared with 19% of white people.29 3.2.2 Education Recent data from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) indicate that, overall, young people from BME groups are more likely to be in full-time education – including HE – than their white counterparts.30 This is consistent with previous

27 Ibid. 28 National Statistics: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=393 [Accessed 07/01/04] 29 National Statistics: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=272 [Accessed 07/01/04] 30 Department for Education and Skills, Youth cohort study: the activities and experiences of 17 year olds: England and Wales, 2003 (London: DfES, 2003); Department for Education and Skills, Youth cohort study: the activities and experiences of 19-year-olds: England and Wales, 2003 (London: DfES, 2003). See also Connor, H., et al., Why the difference? A closer look at higher education minority ethnic students and graduates (London: Department for Education and Skills, Research Report RR552, 2004), p.xiv.


22

research which shows that, in recent years, BME people have been well represented in degree and sub-degree programmes in the HE sector as a whole. For example, BME people accounted for 13% of undergraduate students in 2000. They were also much more likely than their white counterparts to take subjects leading to professional qualifications.31 As the 2003 DfES data reveal, however, the proportion of BME people in both HE and FE fluctuates according to ethnic group. For instance, among 17-year-olds, those of Indian and other Asian origin are the most likely to be in full-time education (87% and 88% respectively), compared with 78% of black people and 61% of white. For those who do not stay on in full-time education, initial unemployment is also higher among some BME groups compared with their white counterparts. The higher representation of BME people in both education and unemployment means that young white people are more than three times as likely to be in a full-time job as those from the main ethnic groups (16% of whites, compared with 4% Asian and 5% black). Moreover, young white people (17-year-olds) are also more likely to be in employment and government-supported training (10%).32 Similar trends were to be found among 19-year-olds in 2003.33 3.2.3 Labour market Due to the younger age structure of BME groups, with children and young adults currently in schools and colleges, the Cabinet Office projects that BME people will account for half the growth in the working-age population between 1999 and 2009.34 Although BME people are disadvantaged in the labour market compared with their white counterparts, there are wide variations in the labour market achievements of different BME groups:

• people from a Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean backgrounds experience, on average, significantly higher unemployment and lower earnings than whites35

• recent analysis by the Cabinet Office indicates that there has been a slight rise over the last decade in the proportion of all ethnic groups holding professional or managerial jobs

• white and Indian men have tended to maintain broadly similar rates of higher occupational attainment across the period

• with the exception of Chinese men, the remaining BME groups have lower proportions of professional/managerial employment than their white and Indian peers.

While similar patterns are to be found among BME women, certain groups of women have experienced more rapid progress than others. For example, in 2000, 16% of working Indian women were in professional or managerial jobs, compared to 15% of

31 Pathak, S., Race research for the future: ethnicity in education, training and the labour market (London: Department for Education and Employment, Research topic paper 01, 2000), pp.8-9. 32 DfES, Youth cohort study: the activities and experiences of 17 year olds: England and Wales, 2003, Table A, p.7. 33 DfES, Youth Cohort Study: the activities and experiences of 19 year olds: England and Wales, 2003, Table A, p.8 34 Cabinet Office/Strategy Unit, Ethnic minorities and the labour market, pp.15-16. 35 Ibid., p.4; and National Statistics: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=271 [Accessed 07/01/04]


23

white working women. Conversely, 13% of black Caribbean women fell into this category.36 3.3 Make-up of the industry and projected recruitment needs This section describes the make-up of the industry, along with projected skill needs and current levels of BME employment. 3.3.1 Make-up of the industry and projected skill needs Construction employment has increased rapidly over recent years. The industry in the UK currently employs over two million people and construction-related employment is projected to continue to grow at between 1% and 2% annually, which equates to an average overall requirement of approximately 80,000 new recruits to the industry each year.37 As the recent CITB-ConstructionSkills Construction skills foresight report (2003) highlighted, at that level of demand, the industry as a whole is likely to experience difficulties in meeting its skill requirements, especially in London and the South East, where demand is greatest. This is due to a number of factors, including competition for workers from other industries and a gap in the workforce that occurred as a result of low levels of recruitment during the early 1990s recession.38 Moreover, while recruitment into training has improved steadily since the late 1990s, with the number of first-year students on trade and technician courses up from 29,000 in 1997 to 47,000 in 200139, there continues to be a major shortfall in terms of qualified recruits joining the industry. There is also an over-concentration of training on the main building trades, rather than the growing specialist occupations.40 The construction industry currently employs around 236,000 professionals and technical staff. Just under half of these are civil and other engineers; there are around 60,000 quantity and chartered surveyors, and 36,000 architects (Construction skills foresight report 2003). This report shows that the construction industry needs to diversify its recruitment of professionals with a cumulative trained requirement of 76,800 professionals between 2003 and 2007.41 CITB-ConstructionSkills has identified ‘a significant training need’ for both professionals and technical staff, mainly due to the declining numbers of first-year UK domiciled students on construction-related degree courses (except architecture).42 3.3.2 BME professionals in employment BME groups43 form approximately 2.8% of the total workforce in construction in England and Wales.44 There are, however, limited data on the ethnic composition of

36 Cabinet Office/Strategy Unit, Ethnic minorities and the labour market, p.22. 37 CITB-ConstructionSkills, Construction skills foresight report 2003 (King’s Lynn: CITB-ConstructionSkills, 2003), p.3. 38 Ibid. 39 Department of Trade and Industry, State of the construction industry report: winter 2002/03 (2003): http://www.dti.gov.uk/construction/stats/soi/soiwinter0203.htm [Accessed 07/01/04] 40 CITB-ConstructionSkills, Construction skills foresight report 2003, p.3. 41 Ibid., p.59. 42 Ibid., p.5; Department of Trade and Industry, State of the construction industry report: winter 2002/03. See also Construction Industry Council, Built environment professional services skills survey 2003/04: survey results (London: CIC, 2004).


24

built environment professionals and the data that are available are often inconsistent. Some of the discrepancies in the available data are the result of different definitions for the ‘construction industry’ or, in the case of the Census and Labour Force Survey (LFS), because figures are based on a sample. Nevertheless, recent LFS data (average Winter 2002 – Autumn 2003) indicate that BME people accounted for 3% of employees in the UK built environment professions, an almost identical figure compared with the same period in the previous year. As Table 1 below illustrates, the percentage of BME people ranges from between 1.5% through to 5.5% depending on the profession, and there have been fluctuations within the professions over the two-year period. The figure of 4.5% BME town planners in 2002/03 is low, but appears to contradict the RTPI’s even lower estimate of 1.7% in 2003.45 Yet, in spite of the slight increases within some professions (town planning included) since 2001/02, it is clear that BME people continue to be under-represented throughout the professions and by extension across the sector, when compared to BME people’s representation in the UK population as a whole (7.9% of the population) and their representation in both FE and HE (i.e. 12.3% of built environment-related qualifiers from English institutions in 2002/03). Table 1: Percentage BME46people in architecture & built environment professions

Average Winter 2001- Autumn 2002 (not seasonally adjusted)

Average Winter 2002 – Autumn 2003 (not seasonally adjusted)

Profession Total no. of

BME people Percentage of profession

Total no. of BME people

Percentage of profession

Managers in construction 4839 2.6% 2801 1.5% Civil engineers 1790 2.9% 4058 5.5% Architects 3041 6.6% 1655 3.5% Town planners 565 3.4% 807 4.5% Quantity surveyors (QS) 503 1.2% 1184 2.8% Chartered surveyors (not QS) 512 0.9% 1869 3.2% Architectural technologists and town planning technicians

1194 8.2% 888 5.5%

TOTAL (% in professions)

12443 (2.9%) 13259 (3%)

Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (author’s own calculations, derived from data supplied by ONS) Since the construction industry workforce as a whole remains predominantly white and male47, further efforts to diversify the workforce are necessary, both to stave off projected shortfalls of all categories of workers and to respond to the legal and social

43 ‘BME’ includes all ‘Asian or Asian British’, ‘black or black British’, ‘Chinese’ and ‘mixed’ ethnic groups. It excludes ‘other ethnic group’. 44 Office for National Statistics, Census 2001: national report for England and Wales (London: TSO, 2003), p.140. The industry in which a person works is determined by the response to a question asking for a description of the business of the person’s employer (or own business if self-employed). The responses are coded to a modified version of the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities. See National Statistics, Census 2001 Definitions (London: TSO, 2004): http://www.statistics.gov. More detailed 2001 Census data (i.e. ethnicity by profession within the built environment sector) was not available at the time of writing. 45 Shepley, ‘Tomorrow’s planners’, p.24. 46 ‘BME’ includes ‘Asian or Asian British’, ‘black or black British’, ‘Chinese’ and ‘mixed’ ethnic categories. It excludes ‘other’. 47 CITB-ConstructionSkills, Construction skills foresight report 2003, p.26.


25

pressures to ensure equality of opportunity and to draw on the diversity of the UK population. 3.4 Representation of BME people in construction-related education Having considered the make-up of the industry and the BME workforce, this section explores the levels of participation of BME students on first degree, other undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as traineeships in construction trades and professions. It also provides an indication of success in gaining employment in the industry in the first few months after qualifying. 3.4.1 Applications Data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)48 show that, as a whole, BME people were well represented at all stages of the HE application process in all engineering subjects as well as architecture, building and, to a lesser extent, planning in 2003. They were noticeably less well represented in relation to their overall representation in all stages for both degree and HND landscape design courses (see Table A1 in Appendix 1). Figure 5: Percentage of BME applicants as a percentage of all applicants for each subject area, 2003

Source: derived from UCAS student record, 2003 3.4.2 Enrolment The data for first degree, other undergraduate and postgraduate students have been obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and are grouped under the broad course headings of:

• General engineering • Civil engineering • Mechanical engineering • Electronic and electrical engineering • Architecture

48 UCAS membership is limited to universities and colleges offering higher education courses, and extends to all UK universities (except the OU), most colleges of higher education and a number of colleges of further education.

20.0%

15.6%13.3%

33.6%

17.8%

11.4%

2.7%

9.9%

20.80%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

General engineering Civil engineering Mechanicalengineering

Electronic andelectrical

engineering

Architecture Building Landscape design Planning (urban,rural and regional)

Others inarchitecture, building

and planning

Subject of study

Perc

enta

ge


26

• Building • Landscape design • Planning (urban, rural and regional) • Others in architecture, building and planning.

A full list of individual courses included within the broad headings identified above is included as Appendix 2. Having examined the broad courses data, the research team obtained 2002/03 data for specific courses ‘hidden’ within the broad headings. For example, quantity surveying courses were included under the broad course heading of ‘Building’. Due to the small numbers enrolled on specific courses, much of the data had to be suppressed in line with the HESA standard rounding methodology, which aims to prevent the disclosure of personal information about individuals.49 However, a study of the available figures for undergraduates confirmed the finding of previous research by the CITB (1999) and CABE (2002 and 2004) – that BME people are generally well represented on built environment-related degree courses. However, while the HESA data showed that most built environment-related first degree courses in 2003/04 had a high proportion of BME students in relation to their representation in the population, this was not the case for landscape design (which, as was highlighted above, appears to attract fewer BME people during the application process than is the case for other built environment subjects), and also landscape architecture, planning studies and urban studies. Relevant tables are included as Appendix 3. Enrolment data from HESA show the total number of UK domiciled students studying at an English institution by subject of study and ethnicity at first degree, other undergraduate and postgraduate level. The figures presented below show statistics for 2002/03 using the broad subject categories listed above. For clarity, data for quantity surveying courses have been disaggregated from the broad course heading of ‘Building’. Data for 1998/99 (the oldest data which are broadly comparable with the most recent data50) were also examined and are attached in Appendix 1. The data reveal that different BME groups have been, and continue to be, concentrated in certain subject areas. First degree and postgraduate Asian students were particularly concentrated in all engineering and architecture courses and black students in electronic and electrical engineering and in planning. At other undergraduate level, (foundation degrees, HNDs, HNCs etc), students from an Asian background tended to study engineering subjects, and their black counterparts, again, electronic and electrical engineering and planning. First degree HESA data indicated that BME groups are generally well represented at first degree level, with the exception of landscape design (Figure 6). In the range of courses examined, BME students were concentrated in electronic and electrical engineering and general engineering, and were least numerous in landscape design.

49 Note on the HESA Services Standard Rounding Methodology, which applies to all HESA data: While all proportions are calculated on raw numbers, in order to prevent the disclosure of personal information about individuals, all numbers are rounded to the nearest five; total figures are also rounded to the nearest five, the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column will rarely match the original raw data totals. Note also that percentages calculated on populations which contain less than 50 individuals are suppressed and represented in the tables as ‘..’. 50 The data is not directly comparable due to changes in ethnic categorisation between 1998 and 2003.


27

Figure 6: UK domiciled BME students at English institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03: first degree51

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students. Looking in more detail at representation between BME groups, Asian people predominated, followed by black students and Chinese. Asian students were relatively highly represented in engineering subjects, particularly electronic and electrical engineering, and architecture. The greatest proportion of black students was in electronic and electrical engineering, followed by planning. Chinese students were numerous in architecture.

51 Includes enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees.

7.9%

17.3% 17.6%

14.3%

11.3%

27.8%

16.6%

10.3%

7.3%

4.2%

12.5%10.9%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

BME in U

K popu

lation

All BME fir

st de

gree s

tuden

ts

Genera

l Eng

ineeri

ng

Civil E

ngine

ering

Mecha

nical

Engine

ering

Electro

nic an

d Elec

trical

Engine

ering

Archite

cture

Buildin

g

Quanti

ty Surv

eying

Land

scap

e Des

ign

Plannin

g (urb

an, ru

ral & re

giona

l)

Others

in arc

hitec

ture,

build

ing & pl

annin

g

Subject of study

Perc

enta

ge


28

Figure 7: Participation by broad BME group as a percentage of all students in each subject, 2002/03: first degree

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

Genera

l Eng

ineeri

ng

Civil E

ngine

ering

Mecha

nical

Engine

ering

Electro

nic an

d Elec

trical

Engine

ering

Archite

cture

Buildin

g

Quanti

ty Surv

eying

Land

scap

e Des

ign

Plannin

g (urb

an, ru

ral &

regio

nal)

Others

in arc

hitec

ture,

build

ing &

plan

ning

Subject of study

Perc

enta

ge

Mixed

Chinese

Black

Asian

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students. Although the total percentage for BME groups was slightly lower in 1998/99 (with a total of 14.2% of BME students on architecture and built environment courses), the data from that year in relation to take-up of specific courses were in broadly similar proportions to that for 2002/03 (see Table A3, Appendix 1). Other undergraduates Data on the representation of BME students on FE and work-based learning architecture and built environment courses were difficult to obtain due to small numbers of students which, according to the Learning and Skills Council, pose data protection issues and makes the analysis redundant.52 However, HESA data for UK domiciled students enrolled on ‘other undergraduate’ programmes (i.e. with qualification aims below degree-level, such as foundation degrees, HND and HNC) show the overall proportion of BME students enrolled on other undergraduate courses has declined since 1998/99. Whereas BME students were 12.1% of students in 1998/99, the percentage had fallen to 9.1% in 2002/03. However, it should be noted that the percentage of students whose ethnicity was unknown increased in the same period. The proportion of white students increased from 73.8% in 1998/99 to 75.8% in 2002/03. In contrast to the degree level data, where Asian students formed the largest percentage of the BME groups, in both 2002/03 and 1998/99, people from a black ethnic background formed the largest proportion of other undergraduate BME students, closely followed by those from an Asian background.

52 Communication from Analysis Adhocs, Learning and Skills Council, 27 January 2004.


29

Figure 8: UK domiciled BME students at English institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03: other undergraduate53

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students. In 2002/03, the largest proportion of black students was in planning (12.7%), followed by electronic and electrical engineering (6.1%). Like their degree-level counterparts, Asian students were most numerous in electronic and electrical engineering (7.2%), then general engineering (6.6%). The numbers of Chinese students at other undergraduate level were small but, similar to their degree-level counterparts, they were most numerous in architecture. There was a high of 91.3% of white students in landscape design; the lowest proportion of white students was in architecture at 60.5%. The data for 1998/99 – Table A5, Appendix 1 – were similar to those for the most recent year, though Asian students were more evenly spread across subject areas (yet still most numerous in electronic and electrical engineering).

53 Includes qualification aims below degree level such as foundation degrees, HND, HNC, Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), foundation courses at HE level, NVQ/SVQ levels 4 and 5, post-degree diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level, professional qualifications at undergraduate level, other undergraduate diplomas and certificates including post registration health and social care courses, other formal HE qualifications of less than degree standard, institutional undergraduate credit and no formal undergraduate qualifications.

7.9%9.1%

10.1%

8.3%

4.4%

14.4%

6.6%5.9%

1.7%1.1%

16.5%

0.0%0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

BME

in U

K po

pula

tion

All B

ME

othe

run

derg

radu

ate

stud

ents

Gen

eral

Eng

inee

ring

Civ

il En

gine

erin

g

Mec

hani

cal

Engi

neer

ing

Elec

troni

c an

dEl

ectri

cal E

ngin

eerin

g

Arch

itect

ure

Bui

ldin

g

Qua

ntity

Sur

veyi

ng

Land

scap

e D

esig

n

Plan

ning

(urb

an, r

ural

& re

gion

al)

Oth

ers:

arc

hite

ctur

e,bu

ildin

g &

plan

ning

Subject of study

Perc

enta

ge


30

Figure 9: Participation by BME group as a percentage of all students in each subject, 2002/03: other undergraduate

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

Genera

l Eng

ineeri

ng

Civil E

ngine

ering

Mecha

nical

Engine

ering

Electro

nic an

d Elec

trical

Engine

ering

Archite

cture

Buildin

g

Quanti

ty Surv

eying

Land

scap

e Des

ign

Plannin

g (urb

an, ru

ral &

regio

nal)

Others:

arch

itectu

re, bu

ilding

& pl

annin

g

Subject of Study

Perc

enta

ge Mixed

Chinese

Black

Asian

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students. Postgraduates The percentage of BME postgraduate students on architecture and built environment courses increased from 8.9% in 1998/99 to 12.0% in 2002/03. Of those, in both years the most numerous were students from an Asian background. In 2002/03, Asian postgraduate students were again concentrated in electronic and electrical engineering (12.4%) and architecture (6.4%). Black postgraduates were most numerous in electronic and electrical engineering (6.7%), building (6.4%) and planning (5.3%). Chinese postgraduates were most likely to be studying architecture (3.7%). In contrast to their BME counterparts, white postgraduates were least likely to be studying electronic and electrical engineering (51.5% of all students). The 1998/99 data were broadly similar in distribution to the 2002/03 data (see Table A7, Appendix 1).


31

Figure 10: UK domiciled BME students at English institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03: postgraduate54 Figure 11: Participation by BME group as a percentage of all students in each subject, 2002/03: postgraduate

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

Genera

l Eng

ineeri

ng

Civil E

ngine

ering

Mecha

nical

Engine

ering

Electro

nic an

d Elec

trical

Engine

ering

Archite

cture

Buildin

g

Quanti

ty Surv

eying

Land

scap

e Des

ign

Plannin

g (urb

an, ru

ral & re

giona

l)

Others

in arc

hitec

ture,

build

ing & pl

annin

g

Subject of study

Perc

enta

ge

Mixed

Chinese

Black

Asian

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students.

54 Postgraduate programmes of study are those leading to higher degrees, diplomas and certificates – including Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) and professional qualifications – and usually require that entrants are already qualified to degree level (i.e. already qualified at level 3 of the National Qualifications Framework).

7.9%

12.0%

9.6%8.0%

9.5%

21.6%

13.7%

10.4%

17.1%

4.1%

0.8%

6.4%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

BME in U

K popu

lation

All BME po

stgrad

uate

stude

nts

Genera

l Eng

ineeri

ng

Civil E

ngine

ering

Mecha

nical

Engine

ering

Electro

nic an

d Elec

trical

Engine

ering

Archite

cture

Buildin

g

Quanti

ty Surv

eying

Land

scap

e Des

ign

Plannin

g (urb

an, ru

ral &

regio

nal)

Others

in arc

hitec

ture,

build

ing &

plan

ning

Subject of study

Perc

enta

ge


32

3.4.3 Qualifiers Overall, the percentage of BME people qualifying in built environment courses remains higher than their representation in the population (Figure 12). Whilst BME students of engineering subjects (especially electronic and electrical engineering), architecture and planning also gain their qualification at a higher rate than their representation in the population, the proportion of all BME students of building and landscape design who gained a qualification was lower than their representation in the population. Data for 1998/99, which are included in Table A9 in Appendix 1, reveal a similar trend. Previous research by CABE into BME students in architecture pointed to a higher drop-out rate for BME students, particularly at the advanced stage of training.55 Unfortunately, however, direct comparison with the enrolment data for this wider range of courses is not possible, due to the fact that the qualifier data amalgamate all students, regardless of level of study (i.e. it includes first degree, postgraduate and other degree students). Figure 12: UK domiciled BME qualifiers at English institutions as a percentage of all students by subject of study, 2002/03

7.9%

12.3%

10.6% 10.5%

8.3%

22.4%

10.8%

6.2%

2.9%

10.6%

2.6%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

BM

E in

UK

pop

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All

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Subject of study

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. 3.4.4 First destination of graduates The first destination supplement (FDS) data collected by HESA help to present a picture of what happens to students from a range of ethnic backgrounds as they embark on careers. The FDS uses the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) of economic activities to provide a framework for the collection, tabulation, presentation and analysis of data about economic activities.

55 See Barnes, Bonjour and Sahin-Dikmen, Minority ethnic students and practitioners in architecture; and Barnes, Parry, Sahin-Dikmen and Bonjour, Architecture and race.


33

The FDS target population includes all UK domiciled students reported to HESA for the reporting period 1 August 2001 to 31 July 2002 (the most recent data available from HESA) as obtaining relevant qualifications and whose study was full-time (including sandwich students and those writing up theses).56 The data reveal that, while the greatest single proportion of known destination of both BME engineering and BME architecture, building and planning students went into ‘Property development, renting, business and research activities’57 in 2001/02, they were less likely to do so than white graduates. While 3.5% of BME engineering graduates went into the construction industry58, again, they were less likely to do so than their white counterparts (6.3% of whom went into construction). Around 5.3% of all BME students studying architecture, building and planning subjects went into construction, but, at 13%, the proportion of white students entering the industry remained higher. This difference remained, although they become less pronounced when the ‘unknown’ destination figures, which are higher for BME than white people59, were removed (see Table A10, Appendix 1). Figure 14: Architecture, building Figure 13: Engineering students: and planning students: first first destination, 2001/02 destination, 2001/02

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

56 Relevant qualifications for inclusion in the FDS are postgraduate degrees, PGCEs, first degrees (excludes intercalated degrees), foundation degrees, DipHEs, CertHEs, HNDs or HNCs. Therefore, the population for the FDS return does not necessarily represent the full cohort graduating during the reporting period. 57 Includes property development; buying and selling own property; letting of own property; architectural and engineering activities and related technical consultancy; architectural consultancy; industrial design consultancy; and engineering design consultancy. For the full SIC list for this broad category, see http://www.hesa.ac.uk/products/adhoc/info/sic.htm 58 Includes construction; site preparation; building of complete constructions or parts thereof; civil engineering; building installation; building completion; and renting of construction or demolition equipment with operator. 59 It is not possible to provide concrete explanations for the greater proportion of BME than white ‘not known’ responses in the FDS data as HESA do not conduct in-depth analysis on the data they collect.

6.3%

19.5%

3.5%

14.1%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Construction Property Development,Renting, Business and

Research activities

Type of industry

Perc

enta

ge White

BME13.0%

38.5%

5.3%

30.2%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Construction Property Development,Renting, Business and

Research activities

Type of industry

Perc

enta

ge White

BME


34

Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. 3.4.5 Trade trainees It is clear that the proportion of BME first-year trainees at FE colleges has fluctuated since the late 1990s. The proportion in 2002/03 was 4.2%, which represented an increase on the previous year’s figure of 3%. Yet, as Table 2 illustrates, the recent figures did not reach or exceed those of 2000/01: Table 2: BME first year trade trainees as proportion of total, 1999-2002/03 Year

Number of BME trainees

Total no. of

trainees

BME trainees as % of total trainees

1999/2000 1955 42260 4.6% 2000/2001 2383 44919 5.3% 2001/2002 1427 47110 3% 2002/2003 2068 48744 4.2% Sources: author’s calculations derived from CITB-ConstructionSkills, Trainee numbers survey, 2001/02, p.5; CITB-ConstructionSkills, Trainee numbers survey, 2002/03, p.13; and data supplied by CITB-ConstructionSkills research department, 2004 While BME people accounted for 4.2% of the total number of first year starters in 2002/03, there was a strong variation between regions, rising to a high of 32.3% in London and not exceeding 5.2% in any other area of the country. The regional data need to take into account the different ethnic composition of the variety of regions mentioned on section 3.2.1 above, but still point to some under-representation in relation to the overall BME population in the regions (see Table A11, Appendix 1). 3.5 Monitoring by professional bodies and employers This section describes the nature and extent of ethnic monitoring carried out by professional bodies and employers, and points to a need for more systematic monitoring in the sector. The 13 professional bodies we contacted regarding the ethnic mix of their membership were all willing to assist with the study. The exercise revealed that only a few collated ethnicity data, thereby highlighting that little progress has been made in this area since the CIB and CITB called for consistent and widespread ethnic monitoring in the 1990s.60 Those bodies which the research team contacted that do collect ethnicity data are the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the RIBA, and the RTPI. However, the collation is not always comprehensive. Some examples of the type of data available include the following:

60 Construction Industry Board, Tomorrow’s team, p.63; and Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, The under-representation of black and Asian people in construction, p.75.


35

• the RICS has ethnic origin data for members who have joined in recent years. These data show that 8.2% of the RICS membership is from a BME background, though it should be noted that this figure is for their global membership

• the RTPI collates data on the ethnic origin of its members. While a large proportion of corporate and retired members in particular did not disclose their ethnic origin (8.8% and 27.7% respectively), in the most recent survey (January 2004), the data indicate that some 3.3% of corporate members were from BME groups61; as were 6.3% of student members, 2.2% of associate members and 2.1% of retired members

• the ICE conducted a survey of its members in 2001. Some 14,000 members (approximately 19% of the total ICE membership) responded to the section on ethnic origin. 5% of UK members categorised themselves as ‘non-white’; the percentage rose to 7% for graduates and 14% for students62

• the RIBA collects data on ethnic origin through its random employment and earnings survey. The sample size of the 2003 survey was 1,700 (i.e. 7% of the membership).63 4% was from a BME background.64 In addition, when members log onto the members-only area of the RIBA website, they are invited to update their records.

Of the 12 employer organisations interviewed for the study, 11 had collected ethnic origin data for at least some of their staff. However, several of these had only started collecting the data during the last few years. It was unclear to what use the data were put and there was little evidence of comprehensive analysis. Even without a detailed analysis, however, there was some concern amongst the larger employers at the low level of representation of BME professionals amongst their employees. The data from employers are therefore not available to contribute to a more detailed picture of representation of BME professionals in the sector. 3.6 Summary In general, BME students are well represented, relative to their representation in the UK population, on built environment and construction-related degree courses. Although there are limited data relating to their representation in employment, all available figures, including the small amount of information available regarding first destination of graduates, indicate that they are not working or progressing in the industry to the same extent as their white counterparts. We look into the possible reasons for this apparent under-representation in the industry in the next four chapters.

61 ‘BME’ includes ‘Asian’, ‘black – African origin’, ‘black – Afro-Caribbean origin’ and ‘Chinese’ ethnic categories. It excludes ‘other’. 62 ICE Equal Opportunities Forum, ‘Members questionnaire 2001’ report (2001). 63 RIBA, ‘Architects’ employment and earnings 2003’ (London: RIBA, 2003). 64 ‘BME’ includes ‘black or black British’; ‘Asian or Asian British’ and ‘other background’.


36

3.7 CHAPTER 3 KEY POINTS:

• BME people will account for half the growth in the working-age population between 1999 and 2009

• the construction industry in the UK currently employs over two million people and construction-related employment is projected to continue to grow at between 1% and 2% annually

• as there is a cumulative trained requirement of 76,800 professionals between 2003 and 2007, the construction industry needs to diversify its recruitment of professionals in order to contribute to meeting this need

• the construction industry workforce remains predominantly white and male – further efforts to diversify the workforce are necessary, both to stave off projected shortfalls of all categories of workers and to respond to the legal and social pressures to ensure equality of opportunity and to reflect the diversity of the UK population

• BME students are well represented in most of the built environment profession subjects at FE and HE levels, though different BME groups are concentrated in certain subject areas

• the overall percentage of BME people qualifying in architecture and built environment courses remains higher than their representation in the population

• BME engineering and BME architecture, building and planning students are less likely than their white counterparts to go into the construction industry

• data regarding the ethnic composition of built environment professionals are patchy and inconsistent

• the 2001 Census data suggest that, in contrast to the 7.9% BME population in the UK, BME groups form approximately only 2.8% of the total workforce in construction in England and Wales and LFS data for 2002/03 indicate that BME people account for only 3% of employees in the UK built environment professions

• although the percentage of BME professionals ranges from between 1.5% through to 5.5%, depending on the profession, BME people continue to be under-represented in all the UK built environment professions and within the sector when compared to their representation in the UK population as a whole and their representation in both FE and HE

• only a minority of built environment professional bodies collect or collate ethnicity data, and, where it is collated, it is not always comprehensive

• few built environment employer organisations collect and analyse ethnicity data comprehensively.


37

SECTION 2: BME EXPERIENCES AND INDUSTRY INITIATIVES

Having surveyed previous reports on the experiences of BME people in the built environment sector (Chapter 2) and established the numerical representation of BME people in built environment education and employment (Chapter 3), this section presents the qualitative information from interviews with students, tutors, professionals and employers. The qualitative information on this section provides the up-to-date information regarding experiences and perceptions of black and minority professionals in the industry. CHAPTER 4: EXPERIENCES OF QUALIFYING FOR THE BUILT

ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONS 4.1 Introduction This is the first of four consecutive chapters that draw upon the qualitative research conducted for this study to analyse BME individual experiences in more detail. The present chapter explores the educational experiences of BME built environment professionals, including students currently enrolled on HE built environment courses. It examines:

• how BME people chose careers in the built environment professions • the impact of careers advice within the education system • general experiences of BME people within the education system, including:

- learning in a multicultural community - student support - getting a work experience placement - achievement and success - racial discrimination in the education system.

4.2 Influences on choice of career It is clear from this and previous research that family influences play an important role in choosing a career in the built environment professions. As in previous research (Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, 2002), several of the respondents to this study named close members of their nuclear and extended families who worked in construction and the built environment professions or, a generation or two back, in related trades and crafts. By the time these families have become settled in this country, there is a strong desire for the British-born or educated generation to go into a range of professions.

‘For a lot of [middle class] Asians, they plan their careers with advice and guidance from parents, because in the traditional sense you don’t have careers advisors and that kind of thing. You ask people around you, and what tends to happen is you tend to go for [one of] three or four professions.’

There is a strong perception generally, reinforced in this study, that the Asian middle class has a preference for the sciences and mathematics (which are, in fact, good foundations for the built environment professions), the medical professions and accountancy, but an aversion to the built environment professions. In the case of this


38

British-Indian mechanical engineer, the study of science and mathematics at school suggested the probability of a professional career, and the choice of engineering developed out of that.

‘For female Asians [the built environment] is a very male-dominated profession, and maybe it’s not seen to be appropriate; secondly, the industry is not considered to be a particularly good profession to go into. Maybe that’s how it’s perceived, because Asian people are very much pushed towards ‘medical’ [professions], whether it’s physiotherapy, whether it’s opticians. We’re also being pushed towards accountancy and things like law these days. So the building profession probably doesn’t get a good press.’

Recruitment to the built environment professions is not helped by the negative image it carries from its identification with stereotyped male values and building site mythology, rather than the professional opportunities. As a newly-qualified assistant surveyor argued:

‘I still don't think construction is rated up there as one of the top 10 jobs. I mean […] growing up […] I don't think [BME] parents would be out there saying: “Yeah - be a construction manager”.’

However, family experiences are not uniform across and among ethnicities. Parental influences could be positive towards the built environment professions in times of economic buoyancy; the importance of steady and secure employment outweighs feelings about a particular profession or vocation. Indeed, parental pressure on an ambivalent son or daughter, and the lack of quality independent careers information and advice might also explain in part why certain students do not thrive on their course once they have had a chance to see it up close. 4.3 Careers advice within the education system Those growing up in the 1970s remember being dissuaded by their teachers from certain careers – for example, in the uniformed services and professions requiring HE – because it was perceived that they were aiming too high or that BME people would not be accepted in them. This illustrated the potential impact of poor quality careers advice.65 As an architect/town planner of Pakistani origin recalled:

‘Now, when I was doing my 'O' levels, I went to the careers teacher and I said I wanted to be a doctor, and the careers teacher laughed at me and said: “Well, I think the first thing you should do is get a job as a porter in a hospital.” You don’t know what to say when somebody says things like that. Not being guided correctly at that stage [and] from that stage onwards [are] confidence-breaking experiences.’

The 'under-expectation effect' in education has since been recognised as a significant contribution to explaining the lack of achievement of BME pupils and students. A tiny percentage of BME students reported benefiting from careers advice in HE, or that it

65 However, there is some evidence that BME students are also now receiving advice that they may be sought by certain companies who need to meet diversity targets.


39

played a part in their choice of profession. Their experience was that it was inconsistent in quality, provided only general discussions on work and skills, and certainly did not raise consciousness of the wide variety of careers within the built environment professions or the academic pathways to them. Careers advice in most HE institutions in fact meant set piece events involving invited employers or consultants:

‘If jobs came in, then companies would approach the University of ___ and say “we’re looking for some year-out students”, and they’d put an ad on a poster which was open for everyone to look at. But that was really it. There weren’t any sort of meetings in a room where they talked to you, one by one.’

Careers advice needs to be much more flexible, draw upon the experiences of ex-students (white and BME), and relate more closely with the real demands of courses and careers. Careers officers and tutors who were interviewed and who have good contacts with more than just the big national contractors – local, regional and BME firms66 too – felt this put them in a better position to provide an appropriate service for their BME students. A surveying course might prefer students to have ‘A’ levels in science and mathematics, but successful surveyors have joined courses with good grades in Economics and Business Studies too. Given the importance of family and the wider network of contacts – and the perception that ‘most people working in the industry know someone who's in the industry' (confirmed by an employer who found that when they looked back at their statistics, graduates had, in the past, got into the industry because they knew someone) – the failings in the careers counselling and education services means that there is a risk of disproportionately disadvantaging BME students. 4.4 Experiences within the education system The British student body has become increasingly diverse over the last generation (particularly in the London area), with larger numbers of European Union and foreign students as well as BME (including mixed race) students. Post-graduate research courses increasingly seem to rely on overseas recruitment. Consultation with HE staff suggested, however, that changes in lecturing staff have not kept pace with these developments, and many tutors are not sufficiently aware to distinguish between and within these groups and therefore to devise strategies to support and teach them which address their particular educational needs. Thus, experiences vary widely in HE, between and within ethnicities. 4.4.1 Learning in a multi-cultural community Several BME interviewees saw distinct advantages for students of all ethnic backgrounds in going to a university with a diverse student intake, although in their experience it did not necessarily guarantee that the lecturers will either be aware or knowledgeable about minority ethnic students, or sensitive to their needs. Some of the ‘new’ urban-based universities have a tradition of diverse intake and alternative access and students of BME background (and not just recruited from overseas) are more 66 Some tutors and professionals used the term ‘BME firm’ to describe companies (usually small) which were headed by and employed BME staff (not to the exclusion of white staff, but who mostly drew from a pool of BME employees).


40

prominent in the student body. South Bank University, for example, is culturally diverse, and it uses that fact as part of its ‘sales pitch’. BME students are a common feature of the university and the degree of racial harmony seems related to the cosmopolitan nature of the HE student body and their origins. White students from major areas of BME settlement – for example London, Manchester and Leeds – get on with BME students, British or foreign. However, in the predominantly white institutions, when the student intake has not had that experience of diversity, and the college does not do anything to remedy the omission, there is a need to make a conscious effort to create an inclusive environment, and curriculum:

‘There were a lot of colleagues from the shire authorities, and for them to be working with a colleague from a black background sitting with them, culturally it may have been difficult […] I certainly found that they were culturally completely naïve in terms of what the minority ethnic culture of this country was, and I think that was to do with the fact of their own upbringing, [but] the course itself in no shape or form gave you any guidance in relation to that.’

The result, according to a planner from a large metropolitan area, is that white students ‘gain all the technical information, and they learn about the broad principles of community consultation, but they don’t gain knowledge of the actual [BME] communities.’ With reference to the curriculum, most BME students expected to receive a Euro- or Anglo-centric approach to their subject – and were not surprised when they did. In architecture, due to the particular cultural loading of that subject, this certainly impoverishes their studies – some BME architects interviewed for this research referred to the studies being ‘unstimulating’ and ‘unengaging’, due to the lack of a wider global, culturally-diverse perspective, and this reinforces findings from previous research.67 Evidence from respondents who have experience of other European HE systems indicates that other countries are not much better than the UK in this or in the quality of careers advice provided to students. 4.4.2 Student support In exploring the type of support they provide to students, tutors have observed that it is usually only the students who ‘put themselves forward’ who attract attention and, possibly, support. In addition, there are perceptions that Asian students ‘struggle’ and drop out more because of language problems, but it is not clear whether these ‘Asian’ students are British or foreign, and other evidence regarding motivation and achievement contradicts these perceptions. Because of a history of under expectation at school and experience of being unsupported, BME students might be reluctant to approach a white tutor or lecturer with a problem for fear of being ignored or treated summarily:

‘I enjoyed my school days, but I would never go to the teachers or lecturers if I had a problem. When I was coming towards the end of my career at college, I had a strange experience. One of the tutors actually…said: “If you do grade A work, you will only get a grade C. You see these [white] people here? If they do grade C work, they’ll get grade As”.’

67 Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, 2002


41

When support was proffered to students, it was done so on a differential basis, according to a black female architect:

‘I remember once when they were giving advice to some white students who hadn’t done so well (this was back in the '80s). Advice of the tutors would always be: “Well, you need to do some more drawing, get some more experience.” For black students it was always, “Have you considered going into another branch of architecture, maybe computing?” - as that was the in-thing in those days.’

However, it is important not to accept all evidence of apparent lack of contact as lack of support, as explained by this African-Caribbean quantity surveyor:

‘It is sometimes a reflection of what you put in and what you get out. Lecturers are, in effect, better at spotting those who need help. Some people perceive the fact that they are not being helped as not being treated as well as other people. But if a lecturer can spot that you can look after yourself, then they will leave you to do that, because their job is to help the weaker ones as well as the good ones.’

BME tutors are now being recruited in greater numbers, and according to one white lecturer, at the metropolitan universities it is becoming increasingly difficult not to recruit largely overseas-qualified lecturers. Although it is by no means a guarantee, a BME lecturer can help BME students merely by being understanding of their situation as a BME person in a white environment. As this African engineer recalled:

‘I was fortunate because there was an Indian tutor. He said: “Don’t worry about this thing [i.e. potential for discrimination]. It does happen, and you just have to rub it off and get on with it.” And with that inspiration I was able to continue.’

4.4.3 Getting a work experience placement Apart from the academic benefits of placing theoretical study within a practical context, work experience is critical in establishing those professional connections which will assist the student in securing employment after graduation. Outside of positive action education and training schemes, getting a work placement is usually more difficult for BME applicants, who said that they often have to attend many more interviews, in their perception, than their white counterparts, before an offer is made. This sometimes deters students who are not prepared to persevere. Although there were some notable positive examples, some universities were reported as providing very little formal help for students and those without family or other kinds of contacts (such as BME students) find it more difficult to secure a placement in a suitable firm. BME students think that their names, if identifiably BME, might deter prospective placement, but it is difficult to prove.68 68 Though see Bertrand, M. and Mullainathan, S., ‘Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market distribution’, MIT Working Paper Series 03-22 (2003); and follow up research by BBC Radio 5 Live in 2004 for confirmation of the names effect: 'Five Live survey suggests ethnic minority applicants still discriminated against in UK job market':


42

Stereotypes are very powerful inhibitors for considering a BME applicant. One landscape architect, who was brought up in the countryside and educated in rural schools, was told when applying to a local authority, that ‘they didn’t think I was keyed up enough on rural issues and that sort of thing.’ This was ‘a bit of a wake up call’ because he had actually worked his way through sixth form college on a local farm. It seemed obvious to him that another agenda was really at work. The stereotype of BME Britain is an urban one, and in this case that is all the landscape architecture recruitment office saw. An African civil engineer had a related, but ultimately, happier experience:

‘When I was doing my first degree, I was the last one to get a training apprenticeship. So, I was the last one to get my training here (six months out), to actually find an employer. I was the only black guy, and I was the last one to get a training placement. After the first six months, I was the first one they asked to come back for a year. So, I wouldn’t say it is equal opportunity; it is all perception – you go with what you know. But [I believe that] once people have tried you, and see what you can do, then they will trust you and offer you a job.’

That change of attitude was also reflected in the experience of an Indo-Caribbean quantity surveyor who, having secured a placement in an office, was initially treated in what he considered to be a discriminatory manner compared with white trainees. For example, the firm had a policy of placing assignments close to the homes of the trainees, but did not do so for him: ‘I felt I had been given the duff job [and] there was no explanation as to why I was given the job.’ Given that he was just starting out and ‘didn’t want to ruffle feathers’, he did not question the assignment and ‘just accepted that I had to do it.’ In the end he was asked by the company if they could put his picture on their website. He concluded, ‘If you are looking at a website [and] you see a coloured face, you think: “[The company] can’t be that bad”.’ The variety of ethnicities and the current negative perceptions of ‘asylum seekers and refugees’ have provided new impetus for prejudicial attitudes and actions, as described by this African-Caribbean building control surveyor based in the North:

‘I don’t think black people that have come in for training are viewed in the same vein as others that have come in from other backgrounds. The person I’m thinking about is from a refugee background, and when I take him on site and show him different things people think, he’s not really up to it and I think, “Well, come on, English was never his first language, but he can speak English.” The chap graduated as an engineer. He was directed to come here for work experience by one of the college tutors, but it became a bit humorous how certain people saw him, whereas I was a bit more compassionate, knowing there’s a struggle from the very beginning anyway.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/07_july/12/minorities_survey.shtml [Accessed 06/10/04].


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4.4.4 Achievement and success The BME student population is diverse and composed of middle class students with expectations of success fostered by family support and connections, and working class students, often the first in their families to enter HE. Success in HE often requires a degree of mental toughness to overcome the isolation that is not required of white students on the same course. Several of the respondents would have grown up in or would have absorbed a family history of what would have been considered ‘middle class’ circumstances in their countries of origin or descent, but are now considered ‘working class’ in the UK by reason of their ethnicity. Those who were born in this country grew up with the assumption, inculcated at a young age, that they will have to be better than the average to be even a modest success. The expectation of ethnic discrimination affected their development in some sort of way, and so they did not naïvely enter the contexts of education and then a profession expecting equal treatment. This consciousness and heightened awareness must be taken into account when considering their responses to this research project and their reflections on their past experiences. Strategies for success in HE are therefore critical, as one architect illustrated:

‘[It] worked very well for me. I got a first class Honours, and I won a bronze medal, but in a way I felt that I had to do that because I had to negotiate a cultural frame which I wasn’t very nimble in, and I think that’s just because I wasn’t very connected with it. That is a sort of class issue - class shifts across culture. My family would be perceived as middle class where they come from, but actually they wouldn’t be perceived as middle class in an English environment. That is the same for most diasporic kids – most are middle class where they come from, but actually they are [perceived as] more working class here. They may come with a cultural reading, which is quite sophisticated, but ‘other’ […] It is changing [and] I think that people from diverse backgrounds are able to find their positions within that.’

This sort of toughness is required too in employment and perhaps throughout life:

‘My philosophy of life, and I teach the same to my kids, is: don’t assume that the world has a responsibility to take care of you – you have got to take care of yourself, and you have got to work hard. If you see a challenge ahead of you, confront it in a mature way and work through the process – it will make you stronger. It is a very difficult philosophy to preach for someone who has not got a strong will. When I am working as a professional I don’t see my colour. I am aware of it, but I don’t dwell on it. The moment you are too conscious of it, you make yourself into a different class. If I am talking to people, what you see is what you get.’

Although the experience of BME students in HE vary widely, in the opinion of an architect:

‘The difference between the experience of ethnic minorities and the white middle class people is about the connections – it is not something that you can measure. It is about connections that you may or may not have formed during your education; that your parents might have, and so on.’


44

The acquisition of a good degree in the built environment professions need not necessarily lead to employment in the industry, and there is some evidence that, once qualified, other professions, such as the financially-based services, business management, advertising, marketing and communications media are happy to recruit graduates from a wide spectrum of academic backgrounds. This may be particularly so for BME graduates as the ‘brown pound’ and the ethnic market become more attractive to firms who are beginning to actively recruit well-qualified BME graduates.69 4.4.5 Racial discrimination in the education system In general, tutors at best approach BME students with a ‘colour blind’ approach, doing their job but without taking into account the institutional barriers that hamper their students. It is difficult to identify concrete examples of discrimination in educational situations, which involve a large amount of subjective judgement on the part of education staff (e.g. assessments of work), and on the part of students (e.g. perceptions of how much support they had received). The situation is not assisted by the lack of departmental records on these and other issues, such as work placements, even in some of the most prestigious universities. However, situations were related that suggest a lack of awareness of deeply held stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that leave a mark on the student, as in this incident from a landscape architect:

… ‘my tutor on the botany side basically decided that I wasn’t your typical ‘lab-coated’ botanist, yet that had always been my best subject. The only example where I thought there was blatant sort of discrimination against my ability was in a group project, when I was working with four others and I had actually done a lot of the work contributing to the group project. Yet I was actually marked lower than everybody else to the point where [the tutor] was basically saying that I hadn’t contributed in any sort of successful way at all. I tended to be good in exams but it brought my coursework down and that was something I never got to the bottom of. I didn’t get any feedback. I felt that this tutor didn’t take me seriously; I didn’t feel that my face fitted in that environment.’

This was not an isolated remark; similar comments included a tutor referring to the only BME student on the course with, ‘Isn’t it really nice to have a bit of colour on the course!’; and another tutor saying that a BME student would find it difficult to do well on the course, because ‘You are not a community that understands plants’. Several respondents reported being under-marked by their tutors, and that external markers had queried this.

69 Observer Review, 22 August 2004, p.3.


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4.5 Summary Although relatively well represented on built environment and construction-related courses, BME students continue to experience barriers in finding and accessing work experience placements. This is a particular hurdle for those without a family tradition of higher education, or existing contacts in the industry. Some tutors and careers advisers recognise the potential this presents for exclusion and/or discrimination and strive to build up direct links with local and regional companies, including those which are BME-run, as well as with the larger national companies. However, others adopt a ‘colour-blind’ approach – one that does not recognise that students with varied experiences and backgrounds may need different levels and types of support. Stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes clearly continue to exert an influence. BME professionals and students describe a need, early on, to develop a level of additional toughness to succeed. 4.6 CHAPTER 4 KEY POINTS:

• recruitment to the built environment professions is not helped by the negative image it carries from its identification with stereotyped male values and building site mythology, and not on the professional opportunities

• given the importance of family and the wider network of contacts to enter the industry, failings in the careers counselling and education services disproportionately disadvantages BME students

• college and university curricula continue to be Euro- and/or Anglo-centric • work experience is critical in establishing the professional connections which

will assist BME students in securing employment after graduation • many tutors are not sufficiently aware to distinguish between and within

‘home’ and overseas student groups, and therefore to devise strategies to support and teach them which address their particular educational needs; tutors at best approach BME students with a ‘colour blind’ approach, doing their job but without taking into account the institutional barriers that hamper their students

• the acquisition of a good degree in the built environment professions need not necessarily lead to employment in the industry and, once qualified, other professions are happy to recruit graduates from a wide spectrum of academic backgrounds.


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CHAPTER 5: EXPERIENCES OF GETTING WORK 5.1 Introduction Having investigated the educational experiences of BME built environment students and professionals in Chapter 4, this chapter examines their experiences of getting jobs and contracts within the built environment sector. It explores

• recruitment practices • experiences of getting a job interview • the interview experience • the difficulties of securing contracts • the impact of heritage and culture on getting both jobs and contracts.

5.2 Recruitment practices In spite of efforts in recent years to recruit a more socially inclusive workforce, both employers and professionals recognise that barriers still exist for BME people at all stages of the recruitment process. This is typically attributed to ‘traditional’, exclusionary attitudes and prejudicial assumptions more than institutional practices which discriminate, but might vary according to regional demographics. In the opinion of one white employer:

‘I still think there is in the UK in general a problem: there is a prejudice out there, and I would suggest that there are a lot of ‘old school’ people; if you’re in the industry, you’re in it for life and you like the industry and I think there is probably the history of prejudices there. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily worse in construction than anywhere else. But I still think geography plays a part and just basic upbringing; if you're brought up in a multicultural society I think your views on life, on people, on race are totally different to somebody from the more secluded areas.’

There is a perception that employment practices seem to be improving in the larger, urban-based companies in particular, but that, since many firms are dominated by white men, they continue to ‘recruit in their own image’ – to the exclusion of BME people:

‘I think you hear people say: “Well, you know they recruit from their old university and their own image”, and that might be a bit restrictive…I think in my experience we’ve grown out of it. I think in a cosmopolitan place like London it is different to some of the regional offices. I don’t know, but looking at our stats I think you’ll find the mix quite different, probably because of the balance of ethnicity in particular areas.’

BME people need networks to overcome the official, inbuilt resistance to their applications for work. However, several people – white and BME, professionals and employers – observed that many BME professionals in England are the first generation of their family going to university and/or entering the built environment professions, which means that they do not necessarily have the advantages of the connections – family and professional – that many of their white counterparts have:


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‘When I was getting involved, things were not favourable at all, and I found that I had to rely on a network of friends who positioned me, rather than being able to go through the very standard channels of sending out a CV. […] I think there was not a perception of inclusion of diaspora people in the industry. I think people were set in their ways. It was about getting people with similar backgrounds. Familiarity is content-making, I am afraid. They think: “Well, this guy comes from Cambridge, so I’ll have him, and this guy comes from Tanzania, [with] a name I can’t pronounce”. […] It is pretty straightforward.’ ‘It's about informal networks. Sometimes there’s a job coming up; even in the department, you basically know who’s going to get the job. You might get people saying: “Oh, look at this job! It’s made for […]”. You know that they are loyal and they are going to get promoted, and that happens quite a lot in the council. What I’ve boiled it down to is that I think a lot of white people may not want ethnic minority people supervising them or being their manager. I’ve heard people saying: “She doesn’t know what she’s doing half the time”, or “She’s not a good manager”; you know they are talking about an ethnic minority.’

Networking was identified by many of the professionals as crucial, and this could conflict with family and cultural pressures. One Asian professional commented:

‘I think it’s partly to do with the culture of networking. We as Asians have a commitment towards our families and extended families, whereas the white members tend to not have that much pressure on them to do that and they do have a greater tendency to network. They are more ambitious in terms of trying to develop their careers at an early age, whereas I’ve never tended to do that.’

In the opinion of one white engineering employer, due to the shortage of engineers, and the need to recruit quickly, if a candidate who already has a network of contacts attends a job interview, ‘there may be pressure that that individual gets it. Sometimes you would only see that one person.’ Firms traditionally maintain contacts with potential candidates through professional associations and personal contacts and use informal recruiting methods to fill particular gaps or a vacancy. They also headhunt key personnel. Internal advertising policies only disguise this practice. Some of the employer organisations recognised the potential for excluding BME candidates and were taking action to address this. The Head of Employee Relations at a major company signalled that they were taking some action to rectify this problem:

‘One of the things we have done regarding graduate recruitment and fast-track is we have gone through a huge re-engineering process. When we looked back at our stats we found that it was very clear: graduates got into the organisation because they knew someone. Because recruitment was on the ‘nod and wink’, as a consequence we were only getting white people [as the majority of the staff were white]. We made an effort two intakes ago (the current intake, in 2004, will be our third intake), to capture a different [and wider] talent pool. We opened up to different universities as well as those we had traditionally used.’


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The shortage of certain professionals means that previous diffidence about employing BME people or others with overseas qualifications is softening. Some interviewees reported that local authority employers were more receptive to BME applications than the more ‘homogeneous’ private sector. Others complained that local authority work was merely ‘garbage’ because they never enforced their policies when it counted. As is the case in many offices in different industries, the official paths and procedures are undermined by informal practices that contradict equality and diversity policies. Again, with regard to recruitment, some suspected that they were shortlisted only to comply with equal opportunity procedures:

‘With the local authorities it was good – it was open. In all the private firms as you went in, it was: “Hello, how are you?” And that’s it. You could feel it. It was: “Let’s see your face, let’s see who you are”, and that’s it. But the [local authorities] were public; they had to do equal opportunities, so they had a policy, everyone had to be interviewed and that’s how we got our jobs.’ ‘I target mainly local authorities, and they’re more open-minded. I don’t know if it’s the policies that local authorities have - they have to be seen to be fair to everybody - that could be part of it. It could be that they’re less ‘middle class’. If you go to consultants’ offices, they’re mostly the same; same background. If you go to local authorities you get all walks of life, and in general they’ve got a wider employee force, i.e. there’s architects, landscape architects, engineers, safety officers – all sorts of variety.’

However, although it provided employment in the past, the history of local authorities employing minority ethnic professionals in ‘Section 11’70 work or the ‘minority ethnic team’ in a local council does exclude BME people from what they see as the ‘mainstream’ of their profession. The opportunity to do useful work and gain a toehold in the profession has to be balanced against the professional stigma that attaches to such work. In such situations there seems to be a ‘mutual benefit’ at work in local authority ethnic-related jobs:

‘But at the same time they did use me for some mainstream work as well as ‘Section 11’, so from the local authority point of view it was a way of subsidising mainstream work. They were obliged by Section 11 to get somebody who looked black and ‘ethnic’, so therefore the only option they had was me and the only option I had was them – mutual benefit.’

Other organisations seem to be struggling to recruit a more socially-representative workforce. For example:

‘We do the standard, which is make the announcement that we are an equal opportunities employer and we tend to use the standard press. We don’t actively go and hunt certain publications. Because we are looking for professional people we will go to those professional journals like the construction journals Contract Journal and Building. If we’re looking locally for specific things like tradespeople, the lower level of site people, then we would go to the local press.

70 A provision of the Local Government Act (1966) that enabled local authorities to create jobs in certain sectors (e.g. education), which increased assimilation of Commonwealth immigrants.


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So we tend to target locally or professionally not by any other means. But I know there’s a lot you could do. Part of our job is to get on tender lists for organisations and we’ve had one London council put [us] on their tender list and they’ve asked: “How do you monitor, what do you do?” I fully understand why they’re asking the question because they need to be promoting [equality], but in this organisation we try to be as fair as possible; to publicise in specific ethnic minority magazines that wouldn’t necessarily give us the return - that’s what we feel. We have struggled in our response; we’ve basically turned it around slightly and said: “If you require us to start doing this monitoring then we will look into doing it. However, it isn’t a priority for us”.’

5.3 Getting an interview Few BME interviewees – professionals and current students – were prepared to categorically accuse firms of discriminating between job applicants on the basis of ethnicity, but there was a high degree of suspicion that this may happen – it was difficult, if not impossible, to be able to get evidence for what appeared to be subtle exclusion at an early stage in the recruitment process.

‘A lot of [firms] didn’t even ask me for an interview, despite the fact that I had as good a qualification as anybody who I graduated with. And virtually everybody on my course had got a job before I did, which I thought was strange – even people who’d got degrees lower than mine! There wasn’t a surplus of planners in 1984, or jobs. They weren’t easy to come by, but you should have been able to get a job after so many applications.’ ‘On the ‘phone: “There is a vacancy; come down for an interview.” Immediately [I] walk through the door, keenness goes. Might not get the job – but then again might be a stereotyping thing; may be the way you dress, [the] way you talk – difficult to generalise “because I’m black”.’

For a current student, the image of the industry as ‘white’ reinforced their concern about future opportunities:

‘I have got the feeling that if I was to apply to any civil engineering company I would be refused because of my ethnic origin, since the majority of these companies are owned by [white] English people.’

Given these suspicions, one lecturer spoke about directing his Asian students towards only those companies that he was confident would not discriminate (‘that’s not to say others do discriminate, but I suggest ones where I know that the companies are very good in employment’). However, many BME people do not have a detailed knowledge of companies before they apply for a job, and the respondents pointed to a fairly constant refrain of fearing being denied opportunity from the very beginning, due to their ethnic origin. To that end, it was felt that a visibly BME name will be a barrier to being considered for an interview:

‘It’s the name, because obviously it’s not ‘John Smith’. So you might ‘phone up and ask: “Is the job vacancy still there?”, and they’d say enthusiastically “Yeah”, and you’d send in your application, and without an interview it comes


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back not accepting. I'd like to believe that it’s just that I probably wasn’t what they were after, rather than dwell on it. […] You do feel that, if you had a more contemporary [sic] name you would be able to get your foot in. It’s being able to get that foot in to be able to prove yourself first.’

As a British Indian town planner recalled:

‘I remember calling one authority, and I was keen to apply, so I spoke to the person who happened to [be] the person that the job would be under […]. I remember expressing an interest, and he said: “Oh yeah, we’ll get the application form sent out to you”, although it was quite late in the day. As soon as I gave him my name I thought, “I’m not gonna get the application form”, and I didn’t get the application form. It didn’t come through the post and I kind of thought to myself: “He’s obviously [not sent it]. I could tell as soon as I gave him my [Asian] name.”’

As another interviewee observed:

‘This is why some Caribbean kids and some African kids simplify and anglicise their names, in order to get their foot through the door. It is very common. They would use their first Christian name and their middle name, and drop off their ‘ethnic’ name.’

For an applicant of British-Caribbean background, who in writing was not identifiably from a minority background, the situation was somewhat different:

‘There's been nothing in my applications to say that I’m of [minority] ethnic origin. So the only things that have happened is that I’ve sent CVs and I’ve spoken to people on the ‘phone. I haven’t got an obvious ‘ethnic’ accent and there’s no way that someone can really know from me speaking on the ‘phone and writing a letter or application. I didn’t fill any application forms which said ethnic origin or anything like that. So the fact is, I’ve never had to reveal it and it’s [only] taken me perhaps a couple of months to get a job.’

As well as these concerns from BME professionals themselves, employers also pointed out this potential barrier at the shortlisting stage, but suggested that attitudes are changing for both equality and more practical reasons. For example:

‘There may be some people within the industry that are put off by individuals’ names, and I try to get them to overcome that. Like ‘Chang’ for example; if some people saw a CV come through with that sort of name they might think, “Oh no, we don’t want him”, but if I felt that an individual had the relevant experience I would encourage an interview. I think generally things have got better and I think partly because there’s such a shortage of engineers anyway, we can’t afford to be choosy.’

However, some employers seem particularly wary of overseas graduates because of negative assumptions about their grasp of the English language or ability to communicate effectively, both of which are considered key skills in the professions.


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According to one employer:

‘Home applicants are a bit different to overseas ones, because language command is probably one of the key differentiators. Leadership goes to those with strong communication skills, whatever their innate ability. That […] is more class-linked than it is race-linked, but race and class are highly interlocked. People who find difficulty in communicating will not be promoted the same way [as ‘native’ speakers].’

The problem is that language competence (a reasonable criterion) is conflated with overseas origins and minority ethnic names (a dubious assumption) and, by extension, a package of stereotypical qualities:

‘I perceive there is no discrimination against any particular groups. It might appear to be at times that particular groups are not favoured for particular roles. For example, if someone is quietly spoken (and there is a tendency for some racial groups to fall into this category) then, although they may well be good technically, and get to a certain level of seniority, they won’t be allocated to do presentations, and therefore, indirectly, this affects their opportunities for promotion to senior levels.’

There may also be a widespread assumption in some areas that an individual with a ‘foreign’ name is an overseas student and will intend to return home and not stick with the firm in the medium-to-long term. This reasoning is suspect, but it was suggested that it might explain some initial rejections. A lecturer also suggested that strong ‘family ties’ for British South Asians might preclude some from applying for jobs outside their home town, though it is unclear to what extent this affects particular BME groups more than their white counterparts:

‘Some of the students I’ve spoken to want to remain in Leeds and Yorkshire so they obviously have a very strong family link and that prevents them working for a company who won’t specify where they’re going to work, which a lot of companies in our industry do.’

For BME women there is a dual disadvantage at the outset of the application process:

‘Sometimes you apply for jobs and you think you’ve got everything, and then whether it’s because I’ve got two things [against me], colour and sex, it’s difficult to say which is which. As I got on in my career, I began to see the pattern a bit more and I could tell which was which, but certainly at the earlier stages it was difficult. I can only have gut feelings, I can’t prove anything, and so you just let it slide. After I got a few knock-backs I thought: “stuff that”. I just gave my CV to an agency and I got my first job as a civil engineer in the water industry.’

There was sometimes a reluctance to provide feedback to the unsuccessful BME candidate:

‘And so he came to me one day and said: “I’m aware of the fact that we haven’t shortlisted you and we’d just like to tell you that at some point my boss [i.e. the


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director] will sit some time with you and let you know why you weren’t shortlisted - but there are valid reasons.” And on my last day, when I handed in my notice about a year later, I sent them an email telling him that I was still waiting for his explanation – and it never did come.’

Disillusionment with the recruitment process potentially causes BME professionals to seek employment in other industries or, at the very least, question their future prospects in the built environment professions:

‘The companies would come to the university, and they would interview all the students, and they would decide which ones they wanted. So if you didn’t get selected, you went to the next one. I was the last one to get selected. I felt disgusted really. I felt maybe I am in the wrong profession. I think it boils down to perseverance. I was passionate about my belief that this was what I wanted to do and through my own efforts I was able to secure something that wasn’t classified as ‘graduate training’. In fact it was the most junior site job and, taking that job on, I excelled in that, and the following year they said: “Well, we’ll have you back.” So, because of what I am, I have to be three times better than my colleague. I have to be up to speed three times ahead of my peer group who are not black. That’s my own philosophy.’

5.4 The interview experience Many respondents had positive experiences at the interview stage, and subsequently got the job they had applied for. This seems particularly true of younger professionals and recent graduates. As a black Caribbean trainee site manager stated, ‘I’ve never felt I’ve been to an interview and they go: “He’s black”, and they treat me differently – I’ve never felt that.’ More experienced professionals considered that, with hindsight, they had not been given jobs after an interview because they did not have enough work experience or qualifications for the post they had applied for, rather than because they were from a BME background. Conversely, however, some BME people have not been successful because their overseas qualifications have not been recognised in the UK, which has also made it difficult to get membership in the prestigious professional bodies required for professional careers in the industry. There is now, though, some optimism that if a BME candidate has ‘good’ (i.e. British) qualifications and (English language) communication skills, they will be successful at the interview and do well in the industry. It was even noted that fluency in a second (South Asian) language is an asset to companies, particularly those with regional offices in the north. Several of the respondents had applied for jobs or had begun their careers during the period of recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s and considered that their failure to get a job after an interview was due to the economic downturn. However, others thought that being BME automatically reduced their chance of getting a job over their white counterparts. Given the negative experiences of shortlisting and perceptions about the culture of the built environment professions, some BME people were concerned about tokenism:

‘[…] you are always really wary, whether a game is being played – that they interview a black person because they are required to interview one. I have had four interviews. Three I didn’t really want. The one that I did want to do was


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offered to an internal candidate. But you kind of feel you hope you are not being shortlisted because you are a black person. You like to think you are shortlisted because you are a fully qualified planner with good experience, knowledge, etc.’

Similarly, an interviewee who had initially been recruited into the industry through a positive action scheme felt that while the scheme had opened an avenue for otherwise excluded people.

‘The unfortunate thing is that it’s a ‘Catch 22’: some organisations believe that, you know, “We’ve got a [positive action scheme] trainee, so surely that’s sufficient in demonstrating that we’re helping BME communities.”.’

The prevalence of white, male-dominated interview panels made many BME candidates feel uncomfortable during the interview: ‘I can only describe it as not feeling entirely welcome.’ As with the shortlisting process, some BME people with English-sounding names felt that the interviewer(s) expected a white person to enter the room, and were disappointed when they realised that the person they had shortlisted was actually from a BME background:

‘I went for this job interview with my [English-sounding] name; they were expecting a white [person], and you get to know how people behave, especially when you are black, and they were sort of embarrassed […]. I rang the Institute and asked them: “Would you always tell them I’m black, because I found it an awful interview?”, and the Institute said no, they couldn’t do that, so I never used the Institute job thing again. After that, I always made sure that they knew I was black, because I wasn’t going through that again.’

Again, it was felt that subtle discrimination and issues of ‘fitting in’ give white candidates the edge over their BME counterparts in the interview room:

‘The key barrier is not so much what is visible – you can’t see it. Those who are not strong-minded, they immediately see it, and they stop [applying for jobs]. Barriers like, when you apply for jobs, depending on the mindset of those interviewing you – you can tell within five minutes if they gel with you. When I go in for an interview with a group of people, or an individual, I can tell whether they are amenable to working with black people or not. […] What they will try to do is try to benchmark you with another person who is white. He is 35-years-old, he has this experience – they benchmark you against the ‘typical’, which suppresses opportunities for people coming through.’

‘Once I was interviewed by a practice and they asked me a specific question about whether I drank alcohol and if I’d had children, and if I was planning to have children, when was I going to have them? […] I said I do [and] I like going out. They said: “Do you like going to the pub?” I said: “Yeah”, and they said: “You’ll fit in fine, then.” So it’s a bit cheeky. But luckily I fitted the mould because I was single and not planning to have children at the time and I got offered the job. But that’s where it might be difficult for someone who’s Muslim, say, and doesn’t drink.’


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‘You know, as a black man you always… Like I say, you don’t want to play the race card but when you go to an interview, you do really well, everything seems really positive, but you don’t get the job. At the back of your mind you always wonder. It’s sad, but it’s the reality.’

The problem is that it then takes a considerable amount of confidence (or a feeling that there is nothing much to lose) to question the system or managers for an explanation. The decision to consider a BME applicant may fall on what are quite superficial criteria, but seem to affect the basic organisational culture, as described by this managing director of overseas origin:

‘“No, this is gonna be an effort: for a start, they're from a different culture, so there might be a language problem; we have to adjust the culture of our office; they might not be able to play five-a-side football with us; they might not be interested in drinking.” So, there is an issue of fitting in, which is always the biggest problem with professionals, because those who are harder work [to integrate] are less likely to be offered a job because it requires a shift within an organisation.’

Some employers confessed that, while procedures were improving, the interview process itself can be rather ‘hit and miss’ in terms of equality, partly because of the subjective nature of selecting a candidate:

‘If it was explicit you could kill it, you could jump on it. It isn’t explicit. It must be about prejudice and the way we react to people. We always pre-judge when we see people; we judge whether we can get along or not; we put out signals and they’re reflected back which set ‘are you in my culture?’, ‘do you understand these references?’, and this sort of thing. And you’re going to get along better and feel you can make a team better with people who reflect your values. To be able to say, “Oh he didn’t get my jokes” is either because he’s not from your culture or he’s just too young and he’s from a different generation very often happens. The racial thing is only one of the many dimensions of which you could be prejudiced. People don’t notice they are doing it, so how can they tell you what instances occurred?’

Some employers are trying to implement a more ‘competency-based approach’ to the recruitment process in an attempt to select candidates on the basis of merit rather than to recruit in the image of the white male employers themselves:

‘[…] so if you draw up a recruitment document which is the job description and the person spec from our website on a certain grade, it will give you all the competencies for that grade – so you interview against the competency [and] that will give you more of an objective start. Particularly with graduates we have a panel of people, the experts in that field recruiting, so it’s not just a one-to-one.’

Making interview panels more inclusive, by including BME people and women seems to reassure some BME candidates that they will receive a fairer hearing than if the panel was entirely white, as one black female architectural student recalled:


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‘I have had positive experiences where there is a greater gender mix and a greater race mix [and] with people in senior roles who are ethnic minorities. That definitely makes a difference […]. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, understanding more where people are coming from. […] There is less likely to be a negative response to the fact that you are not white.’

However, some BME professionals, especially those working for local authorities, stated that implementing subtle but important changes to traditional practices are being resisted in some quarters. In the case of the following initiative by BME staff, there was a strong suspicion that the upper echelons of the organisation would resist it:

‘Black and minority ethnic [staff…] are putting a proposal to the authority that some of us should be trained, and brought into the recruiting panels, because statistics show that quite a lot of black and minority ethnic people are invited for interview, but don’t get the jobs. We want to find out what is happening. People on the panel have their opinions, from their background, and some black people don’t do very well at all.’

Views of the competencies of BME people are deeply ingrained. Referring to individuals with responsibility for recruiting into the industry, a careers adviser stated, ‘I don’t go overboard in being politically correct, but they are very un-politically correct, which I think is dangerous when you are in a recruitment position.’ Another person commented that ‘there is not a perception of inclusion’ in the recruitment process, that people do not view diversity as a positive. An architect also spoke of what they called the ‘double-take’ phenomenon:

‘I think there is always a ‘double-take’ when there is a ‘diaspora person’, but [with me] that quickly goes, because I work at dispelling that very, very quickly. I worked with some project managers and I could tell that when they were doing interviews – the white consultants were being interviewed by a black project manager – they double-took every time he walked in: it was hilarious!’

There was a definite perception, in his view, that a BME person could not be ‘in charge’ of a project at this level, ‘because most contractors, most construction firms, understand the ‘ethnic class’ as being the ‘underclass’. They don’t see them as senior management, or senior directors.’ In such a situation, the BME professional, by his or her mere presence, is a challenge to white stereotypes and a potential role model, not only to other BME professionals just entering the profession, but to the white professionals who are capable of understanding the struggle that was necessary for him or her to get to that position within the industry. Fortunately, there is positive pay-off for this engineer’s persistence:

‘The key stakeholders have their own views about the competencies of a black person and a white person, and you have to get over that. So, in my experience of getting qualified as an engineer, there were barriers and there were views, and it was my job that, whatever their views, I have to change that, and that is what I do. That is where the challenge comes from, because some are very dogmatic, and set in their views, and some are reasonable-minded. But I have found that as I have


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worked through the system, and I am now engaging with people who have travelled around the world, they are more amenable to black people coming through the system.’

Several people echoed the feeling that BME professionals have to be ‘one step ahead’ of both their potential employers and their white counterparts during the recruitment stage (and once in the industry), to be successful:

‘When you’re going to a job interview consider what you wear and how you talk, act appropriately, play the game.’ ‘I wouldn’t apportion blame to anybody – it is just the way society is. If you have a mental block, and a chip on your shoulder, it’s not worth having a go. You have got to see beyond that. And that’s my biggest motivation – I am always two or three steps ahead.’

5.5 Getting contracts For BME-owned firms, often small and with a brief track record, the problem of getting work and getting big contracts in competition ‘with the big boys’ who have ‘got the muscle, the money, they’ve got the banks behind them’, puts pressure on their viability:

‘We were being pigeon-holed [by white contractors] just to do small schemes, and the small schemes weren’t in abundance. The big jobs were given to the white consultants who’d been in the industry, so I did my research. I found out that the only way I could do the middle and the big jobs was to take the jobs to the clients, so I started researching how to get land and made contacts with three or four property developers who had access to land. I would look for the land; they would go and buy the land; I would take the land to the Housing Association. That’s how we are [now] doing all our schemes […].’

The importance of the contractor is a key factor, and a focus on the professionals may obscure the fact that the contractor is in control of the procurement system and of the sub-contractors and consultants, which is where much of the BME employment at craft level derives. Even when the small BME firm does get the contract, however, they find that they are hampered in bringing with them BME sub-contractors:

‘We’ve tried it but it hasn’t worked because the end point who’s employing you is the white guy. The white guys say: “Yeah, I can do a deal with you, but I don’t know your contractor.” I say: “But he’s in the industry. He's been working in the industry for […]. Sorry, I don’t mind working with you because you brought me the site but I’m not very alright with your contractor” – which is a black contractor. When I took a white contractor with me, the doors opened since he’d got a track record and no-one questioned it.’


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Nevertheless, there is rarely definite evidence of discrimination that would stand up to open scrutiny:

‘Generally, throughout my life, actually I don’t feel that I have come across any sort of tangible discrimination, but I’m sure that there has been discrimination because of what I read about other people. It's hard to believe that there hasn’t been any all of my life, and definitely, particularly in employment.’

However, a combination of being pushed out of the tendering process by larger firms (who, according to one BME employer, simply manage the project and contract out to the smaller companies who are charged with the responsibility for the work), and the suspicion of possible discrimination has led to a feeling among some BME professionals that the industry has become more ‘polarised’ in recent years. Consequently, some respondents had lost all faith in the current tendering system, which, they felt, pits long-established, larger, white-owned firms ‘who know the industry better’ against BME-owned firms who are operating on a much narrower margin without the commercial and public authority contacts that appear to be essential for success, and are thus reliant on word-of-mouth marketing. Even the most seemingly inclusive strategies may not work because they still depend on people's attitudes, as explained by this black contractor:

‘I’ll give you an example: schools. We all advertise in schools – there’s a book each local authority prints; you pay some money and get in there. Those books are in the head teacher’s office. Every school is doing work everyday. [We've] been there [in the book] for more than 10 years, and last week we were called up by a school in Lewisham. They are refurbishing the school and we’re doing the job. The guy said, “Oh, I saw your name, and that name rings a bell. I’ve seen you about, so I called you.” That was 10 years we’d been doing that, and why? It was that guy – he’s a black guy.’

5.6 Heritage and culture Some BME professionals with accents from outside the UK had the experience of people saying they found them difficult to understand. Having an accent may prejudice one’s chances of success since people concentrate on the accent rather than what is being said and there is pressure for BME people to modify their speech to conform to a traditional, white, concept of what a professional sounds like. Some, however, resist this pressure to deny their heritage and this can cause a tension between personal and professional demands, as one architect explained:

‘You've got two elements in there: those [BME people who] feel that they’re white and don’t even want to address the issues will get through; and those of us who know that there are differences and will say: “Yes we exist, these are the differences, we will persevere, come what may”.’

But it is undeniable that success in the professions brings on pressures, and those that have succeeded in their profession might feel that they do not want to take on the added burden of being ‘a representative of their people’:


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‘So, I am always, even just doing what I do, having to work in a double role, having to be aware of the perception of me, within my client body and within my industry. I am always working within a double role, because I am always aware of a sense of me being essentially ‘exotic’, and with that ‘exoticisation’ comes a kind of voyeurism. I am under this light, always, which I don’t want. It is kind of annoying. I just want to develop products, buildings. It is a double-burden. You are always performing. And there is also a perception within the industry, within the white industry, that somehow you thrive on that. So, there is a kind of double attack, where your negotiation to survive is then perceived as you enjoying a kind of character status, which couldn’t be further from the truth. And that underlies a kind of misunderstanding of the position that you are actually in and the sensitivity of that position.’

The pressure may result in an obsession to succeed or in pulling out of the system and going solo in one’s own business (in the words of one BME employer, ‘if you can’t join the system then the best way to go and do what you love doing is to do it on your own on your own rules’), but that also has risks. Another option is to seek work in a post which does not involve contact with conflict and unpleasantness:

‘Going on site is one of the areas, I think, where you can get it in the neck, and I think some people would avoid going on site. It’s one of those areas where you’re gonna come into certain situations a bit more easily, so people may wanna sit in the comfort of an office situation.’

5.7 Summary It was acknowledged by white and BME interviewees, employers and employees alike, that being in a minority, not having a family tradition (and therefore a network and contacts already in the industry), and having a ‘non-English sounding’ name, were all factors which could contribute to a lack of success in being recruited into the industry. Once in the interview situation, there seemed to be a higher level of confidence of success, particularly amongst those who had joined relatively recently, although there is a need to improve objectivity in the recruitment process. There are examples of success. However, how that translates into retention and progression in the professions is questionable and is explored in the next chapter.


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• views of competencies of BME people are deeply ingrained • ‘traditional’, exclusionary attitudes and prejudicial assumptions appear to

disadvantage BME professionals in the built environment sector • white-dominated firms continue to ‘recruit in their own image’ – to the

exclusion of BME people • BME people need – but often lack – networks to overcome the official, inbuilt

resistance to their applications both for jobs and contracts • it was felt that subtle discrimination and issues of ‘fitting in’ give white

candidates the edge over their BME counterparts in the interview room • employers confessed that, while procedures are improving, the interview

process itself can be rather ‘hit and miss’ in terms of equality • the official paths and procedures in recruitment and securing contracts are

undermined by informal practices that contradict equality and diversity policies

• there is pressure on BME people to conform to a white ‘norm’.


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CHAPTER 6: FACTORS AFFECTING CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESSION IN EMPLOYMENT

6.1 Introduction Having explored the experiences of BME students and professionals in getting work in the built environment sector (Chapter 5), this chapter identifies and examines in some detail factors which affect career development and progression for BME professionals in employment. It investigates:

• evidence of a ‘glass ceiling’ for BME people • discriminatory factors which obstruct career development and progression • the need to ‘fit in’ to a white, male-dominated sector • demotivation among BME professionals as a result of discrimination • the experiences of BME women • experiences of management development and support • the experience of being a ‘pioneer’ BME professional • coping strategies and ways of challenging the system.

Once in the industry, retention is dependent to a certain extent on the nature of the working environment, and the access to opportunities to progress and take on responsibility. Therefore, it is important to consider people’s perceptions of what the opportunities are for them in the built environment sector and to explore their experiences as BME staff in what remains a predominantly white, male environment. 6.2 The ‘glass ceiling’

‘The reality is if those at the top continually resist change in the upper levels of an organisation, then the ‘glass ceiling’ can never be broken.’

For BME professionals, there are a series of thresholds to cross and ceilings to break through. For many, the first taste of their profession is in their work experience and the students we spoke to had a range of levels of such experience. Some of the mature students were already employed in the sector and were on day-release courses. In general, students reported positive experiences, particularly those who had limited work experience to date and had therefore not yet had the experience of trying to get access to long-term employment and opportunities for progression. Although some mentioned ‘banter’, which could include jokes or name-calling relating to race, none expected that their ethnic origin would detract from their progression in the sector. Examples of discrimination centred on being from another country (associated with problems of ‘accent’ or communication), rather than being a BME British person. Several did, however, remark on what they had already observed as the few BME professionals in the sector and the lack of any at senior level:

‘And all the higher management are white. I know that I would be really impressed if I saw a black guy or a black woman in a commercial manager’s role in the office.’

Experienced professionals, however, confirmed the suggestion of a ‘ceiling’ which it is hard for BME professionals to break through. Research on equality and diversity


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issues in other sectors of the economy have termed this the ‘glass ceiling’, i.e. initially you can see through to the senior levels (and students had high aspirations and expectations to get to senior level jobs), however the closer you get to it, you find that it is not automatic to pass through that ‘ceiling’ to the other side. Where that barrier is will depend on the specific sector of the economy, and the type of company and its policies and practices. However, in this research, we found that even those companies which had developed equal opportunities policies and who stated a commitment to implementing the policy tended to be attracting BME staff into their organisation as graduate recruits rather than in the more senior levels. When it comes to the more senior, desirable, and powerful positions, i.e. those that make decisions, appoint staff, influence the business, often ‘behind closed doors where company policy is being made’, BME professionals reported experiencing the ‘glass ceiling’. This experience was described by one professional as somewhere between preferment and prejudice – ‘if you are not from the right ‘tribe’, whether race or culture, your chances are significantly reduced.’ It appeared from interviews with employers that companies were at a loss to know how to bring about change at the senior levels. Despite the existence of BME professionals in the industry, albeit in small percentages, for many years, there are still references made, including by BME professionals interviewed for this research, that change will take time. One employer described BME staff as getting to quite senior technical roles, but not to the more general, senior management roles, with responsibility for managing people, clients and projects, and being ‘allowed to influence decisions; to be part of the decision-making process’. In some firms it is possible to see ‘lots of senior engineers, fewer associates, one associate director and no board members. So as you go up, higher and higher, it lightens up.’ A black construction manager, with three years’ experience in his role observed:

‘The only managers I have seen are white. I am always aware of being in a minority – I often look around and say: “Am I the only black person here?” I have never seen another black construction manager in my three years. I very rarely see any black directors or managers. Racism was prominent at one point. And it is like we are catching up, in a way. I think there will be an influx of black managers like myself, moving up to directors and all that. You will see it, but it is early days in a way; but is that a good enough explanation?’

And his point is confirmed by experiences across the built environment professions:

‘There were only two black architects (in the company) when I joined and some members of staff were constantly confusing the two of us. After leaving, and working for medium-sized practices, I was usually the only black person in the office outside of secretarial and cleaning staff, and definitely the only black architect.’

The natural expectation of progressions and preferment (partner, director etc.), all other things being equal, does not operate in the traditional way with BME professionals. Many found problems in getting to the senior levels – they were ‘never included in the design team… never invited to a client’s party, even when you have done all the work for the client on that job…’, never treated in an equal manner. Some see in this as ‘a historical factor’:


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‘We don’t see black managers as exemplars. So, you feel you should not expect high promotion. Because of the history of racism we don’t have senior black managers. Secondly, there is the factor of ethnic minorities ourselves. It is a circle really – demoralised, dissatisfied. You lose your confidence.’

Cultural change works slowly, but in little leaps of activity. It will only take one key appointment for the perception that the industry is not ‘really ripe right now for a black person to be leading a major department’ to change, but that tiny leap may take some time in coming.

‘The point I am trying to make is – the system may be cumbersome, which is demotivating for black and white [people], but when you see who is most demotivated – black people see the system as one barrier, but they also see the people who are running the system as additional barriers. And when they start looking at it, they say it is not worth the hassle. Across the industry, it is like there is a ceiling for black people, and there are only a few who can get through.’

6.3 Are there discriminatory factors? Some of those interviewed referred to experiences of discrimination becoming more ‘subtle’ as they moved up the hierarchy: ‘It’s a lot more insidious because you can’t see it, it is behind closed doors’. This was hard to tackle, in examples of discrimination such as BME individuals knowing that they were on lower rates of pay than white colleagues, for the same (or even higher) level of work Because of a lack of transparency in the system, there was nothing they felt they could do about this. There is a persistent perception that white counterparts are getting more opportunities to progress and move up the hierarchy more quickly, but it is difficult to document. White counterparts seemed to a number of respondents to get on more quickly, and a lot of this was attributed to getting on with senior white people. How quickly an employee gets on depends on whether ‘your face fits’: ‘You just don’t know why you are not being promoted. Younger white people overtake the minority ethnic staff member’. In addition, many of the BME professionals said that, as a BME person, they had to be better than their white counterparts. At one stage, this situation was accepted by BME people as a 'given' of employment in the UK, but fewer people are prepared to suffer such treatment today. One industry leaver recalled:

‘Certainly there were others around me who I can say perhaps had less ability - and that does sound a little conceited - but of a higher grade. And before leaving I spoke to the senior management and just said I feel that in order to progress and to be recognised for the work that I have done, and can do, and am capable of, I’d have to move forward; I have to move on.’

And another who had moved to his own private practice:

‘I couldn’t move forward, I couldn’t progress…so for me, wanting to develop as a professional and not wanting to be pigeonholed, I took a conscious decision to move outwards and onwards, and certainly it’s benefited me. It’s a


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small organisation that I run here, but I’ve got the ability to influence things and to take the organisation forward.’

Because of their relatively small number, BME professionals have to push themselves forward, to be noticed, to be assertive, to make an immediate impression - although that is not always successful either, as a female Asian project manager recalled:

‘I and a friend from ‘Uni’ started with the same contractor. We both asked for pay rises after a period of time. He got his and I was told the pot was empty. I actually ended up leaving them as I had been on the same wage for one-and-a-half years. Obviously, he was white.’

By no means did BME professionals always assume that racial discrimination had occurred, but there were too many experiences of being ‘overtaken’ by white colleagues for this element to be ignored:

‘And you look at your peers, and you see a guy who has come in from a different line, straight into a project manager’s position. And you think: that isn’t right… I would be hard pressed to say race was the full reason. And I have never looked for that excuse. You could also say that I haven’t really noticed it because I don’t want to recognise it.’

In this case, the individual left, possibly with something still to give to his firm, and he suggests that it is not an isolated example:

‘Many other people [are] in the same scenario and it will trigger some people to leave the industry completely. It will lead others to put their head down and just take it, and a lot of people get disillusioned, which is an unfortunate thing when motivation begins to wane and people can become less productive.’

Linked to the need to perform better than white counterparts, and seeing BME individuals being ‘overtaken’ by white counterparts, was a perception of over-scrutiny, or lack of trust in the BME professional, and a lack of appreciation of their work – described by a black project manager as ‘the question mark element’. An assistant architect in the public sector described the need to keep a careful record of contacts with clients. On one occasion, where the client disputed a decision, this rigour paid off:

‘Thank God I had made a note confirming what was agreed. I find, being an ethnic minority, they can say that you have made a mistake. Since then, I have been very careful to protect myself. I am careful with that.’

When trust was displayed in the BME professional, it often marked a major threshold of progress:

‘The trust, and giving you the responsibility in your role is key to helping you progress personally as well as professionally. The first design team meeting I went to with the project team, the senior partner came along with me. I chaired the meeting and obviously as a lead consultant gave instructions out and reported on progress. I got positive feedback, and since then have been able to


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handle this type of meeting on my own. That’s all he needed to see. Hopefully I have managed to maintain that trust.’

It was observed that issues of ethnicity sometimes resonate with other socio-economic conditions:

‘You soon find out how your ethnic background is affected when there is a recession on. [It's] a very good indicator of telling who is going to leave the building first – whether you’re last in or first in, it doesn’t matter. You normally find that it is going to be the ethnic minority.’

Discrimination was not always subtle. Some people related instances where they were actually discouraged from applying for jobs. This had happened to a senior planner who had been acting up to a more senior level:

‘I was taken to one side by the team leader, who said: “Don’t apply for this job, because you won’t get it”. And I said: “Fine, I’m glad you told me, I haven’t wasted my time.” A job that I could do, that I had been doing for the last two years, being told by the team leader… and that was a white person, and they employed a white person. So, when they appointed this new person, you think to yourself: “What the hell am I doing in this place?”’

Another element of the industry which is more overtly discriminatory is in the overall culture of jokes and banter. The point at which this culture becomes discriminatory and unacceptable is debated by BME and white professionals. Jokes and banter have historically been integral to the culture of the construction industry. However, this still includes examples of racial banter, despite the public commitment towards equality and a lack of tolerance of racism: ‘they can joke about immigration and sports without feeling politically incorrect.’ There was some evidence of BME professionals (e.g. in planning) being ‘sidelined’. For example, in the preparation of company publicity, a BME member of staff was specifically selected to be profiled in a BME journal, while white colleagues were being portrayed in the mainstream journals, which of course gave them a higher industry profile. Although race relations work is an important aspect of the built environment professions, such a move can mean that people’s careers stagnate in a backwater. Within the public sector, it is possible to progress if one is in a job that is connected with ‘race’ – ‘you can climb the ladder there, but not mainstream sorts of things’. This was not considered to be mainstream work. One person, referring to having worked for several years on racial equality issues in planning, now saw this as a detriment to their career. In addition, as the work on racial equality was not mainstreamed, it was not sustainable in the long-term:

‘I think the worst thing is that the job I have done for 12 years isn’t valued at all now, there’s nothing I have done which is on record… it’s all dispensed with. If I’d spent 12 years in a mainstream planning job, I would have been a lot better off now myself than I am at the moment.’


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‘Whenever anything comes up to do with equal opportunities they think you are the expert – they’re offering you the job first. But if it’s anything else then you are the last one to be asked.’

Ultimately, the lack of an opportunity to work within the mainstream is a key demotivating factor which, for two interviewees, had contributed to them leaving their profession.

‘Most [black] architecture firms now get housing work, black housing work, black this, black mental health - give it to a black architect. I mean, I want to design Diana’s memorial, I’d like to have a say in the Royal Festival Hall, or I’d love to design a couple of galleries in town. That’s one of the reasons why I left the profession – because I would never be given any of this.’

Despite the examples of subtle and overt discrimination, there are signs of change: ‘People are coming to the realisation that people like me, a black male, can call themselves ‘British’ and want to contribute to Britain’s culture and actually respect British heritage and history’. 6.4 The need to ‘fit in’ There was a strong feeling that there was a need to fit in with the prevailing white, male culture of the industry, if there was to be any chance of being successful. The built environment professions resemble other male-dominated sectors where a drinking culture, for example, is clearly identified. To a certain extent, this is accepted as ‘going with the territory’, as an important element of the industry ‘culture’, if accepted unquestioningly, progression within the industry may continue to be unfairly governed by an individual’s ability to get on with (white) senior management and getting one’s ‘face to fit’ in social situations and at events. This is not necessarily different for white employees, except that their faces fit more easily, which leads to comfort with them, and in turn affects decisions regarding opportunities:

‘[…] ultimately if it was a simple issue that individual A and individual B, two different ethnic backgrounds, both kind of exactly the same, they’d probably pick individuals from the non-ethnic background.’

There is a potential for tension between the individual and the prevailing corporate culture. An inability, or an unwillingness, to contract into this social element can lead to a lack of visibility within a firm; and lack of recognition, rather than low pay grading, can lead to people being overlooked. So, for example, if you do not drink alcohol or go the pub, you can be disadvantaged and sometimes takes the blame for it: ‘I think minorities probably exclude themselves as well as whites excluding them too. It’s a bit of both.’ For British Asians it can be particularly problematic:

‘I think it’s just talking to other colleagues and going out for drinks, sitting round the table at lunchtime, participating in social activities afterwards, going for a round of golf, which we don’t have time for because of our family commitments. We have so many weddings and functions at weekends and parents, whereas I don’t think the English culture is that oriented towards the


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family. They're more in it for themselves: go out for a game of squash with your colleagues, play football in the evenings or join the cricket club.’

‘…because it’s a white environment, they like to talk to people, they like to go down the pub and socialise, but me as a Muslim I can’t do that; well, I can, but not drink or anything or socialise with them on their level.’

One person described a situation where they were moved, sideways, to another job, having been on the receiving end of racist comments from colleagues, such as: ‘What the **** do you know about this? You should go back to [X]. […] What’s an arsey Arab like you doing here?’ Others had similar experiences of resentment from white colleagues, and, illustrating the need for perceptions to be taken seriously, found that the real reason for being moved (i.e. racism from colleagues) was disguised by their colleagues who blamed negative comments and feedback from clients, even though there was no real evidence of this. There is never any concrete proof in these situations; just a pall of suspicion: ‘It’s hard to say whether it was in my mind or whether it was fact – I never actually tested it; I wish I had now’. Thus the need and desire to 'fit in' is constantly thwarted by barriers and resistance:

‘Familiarity is very, very important in construction. You want someone who speaks your language and whenever you get someone who is a little bit different they struggle to fit in and don’t last very long. It’s illogical, really.’

Architects talked about the middle class nature of the profession, and the need to have a certain amount of articulacy, and to be able to operate in a middle class environment. That was a ‘first check’ that one had to pass, to show that one could operate in that kind of environment, and to be ‘culturally nimble’ – to be able to navigate through and engage with the range of culture. This was particularly important for BME architects, as they needed to prove, more than their white counterparts, that they could fit into the middle class environment. Progression within a firm becomes easier if you are within a network, or have the support of senior management:

‘I think you build up relationships and get to know a person better so, when the opportunities do come up, the person who’s interviewing you already knows 'they’ve got the contacts'. If there’s a vacancy somewhere else they will tell you that there’s a vacancy and you apply for it [and] you will get the job. Whereas, in our case, it wouldn’t be because you don’t know anybody there. So they get access first and then the opportunity to impress people and even the interviewer already knows them.’

People often do not know how to work with BME people, and make assumptions that are inappropriate and clumsy, and take actions which are offensive – from overt through to more subtle. For example, a white manager putting on a stereotypical ‘black’ accent when speaking to black staff; or assuming hyper-sensitivity on the part of BME members of staff, even if British, to references to the company being projected as representing British industry or culture in any way. Two employers were of the view that some white managers were worried about accusations of racism. Such perceptions reinforce the BME person as ‘other’: ‘not belonging’, or ‘not being one of


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us’. In practice this is demonstrated by preferring white colleagues for the more prestigious, high profile work:

‘When you are in a group and the team leader wants somebody to go to a meeting they do tend to choose the white colleagues because they can relate to them and they feel they can understand the language better and communicate things better and they can trust them more. I don’t know why that is.’

This lack of wider exposure then disadvantages the BME professional when it comes to promotion opportunities because they have had less access to a greater range of experience. This discomfort with BME people could result in excluding them at professional events:

‘When I have attended professional events in the past, people have been hesitant about approaching me in case they get it wrong. I am normally the one to make the first introduction.’

Thus, a design manager explained his approach tactic at such semi-social events:

‘If I’m at a meeting or a function where there’s higher management, people won’t generally come to myself and start talking, so I tend to work the other way. I’ll go up to them and introduce myself. Once I’ve done that, then they say I’m reasonably approachable.’

However, there were examples of the existence of a different, more inclusive, culture, with a focus on merit, as with this British-African engineer:

‘When I first joined as a senior engineer, I was quite lucky to link up with one of the existing partners who carried out a few jobs and started to work with teams. On the basis of that, the people who I was working for established, “now here’s a guy who can run projects profitably, and can deliver clients’ requirements; can work under strain; so I’ll make him up to an associate”. I think what I found surprising about that is I didn’t have a discussion with him, and didn’t have to think about it; it just happened. It amazed me that it was done on merit.’

An Asian architect also gave a positive example of getting promotion, and at an early stage in his career had been exposed to clients, which was a definite factor in his progressing:

‘[According to a senior partner] I am probably four or five years in advance, compared with comparable colleagues. […] They obviously saw potential there and thought I was a candidate who could be taken on as an associate and developed to be a good contribution to the company.’

The perception of discrimination and pressure to ‘fit in’ in order to succeed could lead to disillusionment with the profession, a feeling of being suppressed, and result in leaving it. For example, computing, an area where there are opportunities to work independently, has encouraged professionals to move out of the industry and ‘become their own boss’:


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‘Individuals felt like “I’m getting put under a lot of pressure by my boss and I feel I’m being unfairly treated”, and they perceived that as an industry-wide problem, because it is a male-orientated industry that’s run by people of UK backgrounds – by whites, in essence. Maybe they ought to have given it more of a chance, but they’ve said: “Well, if it’s like this here, it is going to be like that elsewhere”.’ ‘When I was doing my HNC, about 50 per cent doing the HNC were black. […] Where have they gone? […] When I [got turned down for work], and I thought I had all the qualifications and experience, a lot of people take that to heart. Some people say, I’ll leave and go into computers. If I could do one thing, I would get out of this rat race system that exists and set up my own practice and in my own practice I would ensure I would know how to treat people – you need to give people wings.’

6.5 Gender There is evidence of a sharper focus on the issue of equality for women in the industry, as opposed to BME people, and particularly so in the public sector. So, for example, in one public sector organisation it was routine to have at least one woman on each interview panel as a policy whereas there was still resistance to aiming, at least in principle, to have a BME person on each interview panel:

‘A lot of the emphasis has been put on white women rather than everybody else, they think they are discriminated against more. The white [male] colleagues, I think, would prefer to work with white women rather than ethnic minorities.’

‘50 per cent of the population in this country are women, but eighty or ninety per cent of the top jobs are held by men. So they are trying to address that issue by doing some positive action to bring the women along, because there are certain women councillors in very senior positions pushing that issue.’

However, this historical and current emphasis on equality for women in the industry was also seen as an opportunity. If progress had been made on one area of equality (i.e. gender), then it helped introduce other, more challenging areas of equality, such as race. For the women in the study, their experiences as women in the sector were on the whole more significant to them than the fact they were from a BME background. Black women, in general, were seen as less of a threat than black men, because of the wider experience generally of women not being taken seriously in such a male-dominated environment.

‘A few times, this doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I have gone out, given people advice, and they have 'phoned the team leader, who is white. He’d come up to me and say: “You gave them good advice, I don’t know why they are calling me and wanting the same thing”…I assume it’s because I’m a woman and because I am black. I don’t know which one it is - or both?’


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Once women have a family, some begin to question whether the built environment sector suits them. Alternatively, moving away from site-based work was something they considered. It is difficult to completely separate the issues of gender and ethnicity, though it seemed that being female with children in an environment which was not family-friendly was the major issue for some women: ‘for me, that was the biggest, rudest awakening – after I had my daughter I made a pledge to myself not to go back into private industry.’

‘I went into the interview – everything was going brilliantly; it felt like it was in the bag until I asked what the hours were, because I would need to pick my daughter up. I felt a cold shield – and then, lo and behold, a couple of days later, it was: sorry, you’re not suitable for this post. It was predominantly because I was a mother, not to do with my colour.’

‘[After returning from maternity leave] flexible working became an issue. Opportunities for me to progress became less, without me returning to full-time employment. Rather than focusing on the positive aspects of having someone with experience, it was more that they dwelt on the fact that what I was doing (i.e. working part-time) was different from what everybody else was doing, and they didn’t like the exception.’

6.7 Managing in a diverse workforce Managers are not always trained in generic skills such as giving feedback, supporting the team, or getting the most out of the staff. A senior BME officer in the public sector described the problem as one of organisational culture in which the corporate statement of commitment to equality does not penetrate all the way down the culture. Sometimes, awkward situations are created by a well-meaning desire to be helpful, as in this situation where a black architect was introduced by his manager to a community consultation meeting in a predominantly white area:

‘My boss said to the client: “He’s black, I’m just making you aware of that fact in case you feel it’s going to be an issue, because the area that’s going to be worked in is one where there obviously have been [ethnic] tensions”. […] Obviously enough, my boss felt that he should say something, wrongly or rightly. Many people would have said that he shouldn’t have said anything at all to the client [and] I was surprised that he’d said it. […] My position was that I was leading a community consultation, so I’m leading. So, [with hindsight] I think maybe I’ve been too generous to him. I do think that he handled it clumsily, but that it was more that he was nervous about how I would be perceived by the residents as a black person.’

In this situation, the irony was that the residents did not react aggressively and were perfectly courteous and respectful to the black professional.

Stereotypes and assumptions inhibit or delay trust in BME professionals, and trust is important where managers only feel comfortable with people like themselves, who they then ‘push along quicker’:


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‘The subtle things are definitely there. If you’re working for a [white] English boss he will have preconceived ideas of what you will be like. I’ve seen that with my own boss. Unfortunately that takes a few months longer than if you were just white with a ‘normal’ name – that probably doesn’t go in my favour because it takes them longer to warm to me. So, if they don’t warm to you, they don’t trust you as much, and you just have to work harder to show them that, given half the chance, you can do anything that everyone else does.’

BME professionals can also be undermined by doubting their skills or experience and thus sapping their confidence. This will affect the decision to recruit, promote or allocate them to specific types of work. Several people described repeatedly being 'knocked back' by being told, in a variety of ways, that they just needed to get a bit more experience. This reluctance or hesitancy was particularly apparent when they were poised to move into the tier of management responsible for a bigger team of people who, of course, would be predominantly, if not exclusively, white staff:

‘I remember one of the councillors came to me and said that, if I had any problems with discrimination from any of my staff, to come and let them know. I said: “No, I won’t talk to you, I’ll sort it out myself”.’ ‘The choice now is for the employing organisation to decide whether they would consider you as part of what would fit into their culture. Various organisations have different cultures, and for any organisation to take anyone on board, they would have to take that into consideration because you are coming to be part of that family. And this is where some of us fare pretty badly, so the employing organisation has to think whether they want a black person to be a manager of these other white blokes or not.’

BME professionals could be seen as a threat to the senior white management. For example, an experienced black contracts manager related a situation of enforcing safety measures on a site, only to be sacked shortly afterwards. His actions had shown up the lack of competence of the senior white manager who, to date, had been running the job.71 Support and guidance from management is key to progression in the sector; it appears that advancement is often dependent on having a ‘champion’ or mentor. Levels of support and guidance for BME staff varied, and this to some extent has gradually improved over the last decade, whether due to a genuine commitment to equality or fear of negative publicity, it is impossible to say. A firm with a ‘culture’ of support will be generous with it for both white and BME staff:

‘What I mean by [culture]: the level of support and openness is far beyond what I’ve seen [in other firms]. So, for instance, if I had an issue about a project or person, I can go and discuss it with a partner. Even when I joined here, I linked up with a partner quite early. I was sitting there having dinner with them 'cause we were in the Middle East or whatever, discussing things, and talking about social things and engaging. I think that level of support as

71 The BME professional won a case of constructive dismissal.


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well is apt, because I felt as a black person [in] the industry; I felt as a member of the team.’

In general, however, BME professionals still find that they are not supported by their managers to develop and progress in their professions to the same degree as their white colleagues. Being told after failing to get promotion for the second time that you were the second choice, for example, is not much comfort if you are not told why – and then how to get to be first. The networking effect comes into play and privileges and even ordinary opportunities tend to go to what is perceived as ‘white cliques’, and BME professionals are sidelined (unless they are needed ‘to fill up the numbers’) and their achievements go unrecognised. When it comes to promotion opportunities, this lack of development is interpreted as a lack of ambition. The net effect in many cases is to depress the expectation to progress and thereby to become a self-fulfilling prophecy – i.e. BME people not putting themselves forward for promotion or development because they ‘know’ they will not get it:

‘I think you get to a stage as well – certain jobs you just don’t apply for. I know people say if you don’t apply you don’t get it, but it’s based on what you see and you think: “Why waste my time?” – I am not going through something for someone to be patronising.’

The issue of support is not necessarily related to diversity – it is a generic one of good practice, but has a multiplied effect in the case of BME people. The lack of BME people in senior jobs has meant that it is white people who tend to get supported, and tend to get access to the opportunities. Even when BME people did get into more senior positions, people referred to the pressure on them when they, for instance, passed work onto other BME people, or encouraged them:

‘The black people are not getting there and when they get there they’re so scared of doing things because they’ll be seen as – you know – “Hey, wait a minute, he’s giving a job to a fellow black person”.’

Access to training and development opportunities were something which varied, and depended on support and encouragement from management. Some BME professionals claimed that they got less management support than white colleagues to get access to the relevant training and development opportunities. This then meant that it took them longer to become chartered, for example:

‘I do find that some of the bigger training tends to be a clique and you tend to be excluded from some of the high profile training that [would be] beneficial to you. You find that there are other people who have come in and they are asked to go on these courses and you think: “I’ve been doing these high profile jobs and not been offered the training”.’ ‘You would tend not to get the sort of experience of meeting colleagues and of going to meetings, which are important and advancing your knowledge. And therefore, when the opportunity comes, “You haven’t been involved in that project so you haven’t got the experience, sorry.” These [developmental]


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opportunities don’t arise everyday – they are far and few between – so if you miss them once or twice, you’ve lost your chance for maybe a couple of years.’

6.8 The experience of being the ‘pioneer’ Several of those interviewed described the experience of being ‘pioneers’, ‘trail-blazers’ or ‘pathfinders’ for their ethnic group and, more broadly, for all BME people within their industry. Being a minority in the industry is a ‘double-edged sword’, in that it makes one visible, which can be either positive or negative. There are two broad ways of dealing with the situation – either to fit in, suppressing parts of one’s own identity, or to survive on ‘notoriety’. It was difficult for the BME professional to be ‘average’. As already discussed, some perceived that they had to work two or three times harder than white peers. To succeed, one had to think of ways of coping and for some this meant succeeding by raising their profile, even if they just wanted to get on with their core work:

‘I am in a situation where I am almost forced to have a high profile. Because, in a way, that is what allows me to have access to a certain kind of work. That I am only considered for a certain kind of work because of my profile… if I didn’t do that, I don’t think I would get any work.’

This was particularly an issue for an architect who described being in a minority as, on balance, a good experience:

‘I think it’s helpful – standing out physically, distinctively, obviously helps you to remember someone’s name. When I am in a meeting, if there is a figurehead there, you always seem to remember their name, and I think it works in a similar way for me.’

Being the first can be a pressurising situation; one that may change awareness or consciousness amongst the white majority or one that draws out the traditional racial stereotypes and resistance to change. In any case, it is a situation that has be coped with, as explained by this black engineer:

‘I have always been a minority in the industry, and that has never been a problem for me. When I was doing my first degree, I was the only black guy. When I was with [my first job] I was the only black kid. And I remember they used to joke that in the evening when it gets dark I had to keep smiling so that he could see me coming. When I went to the county council, I was the only black kid. When I began [my second job], where I [remained] for 14 years, I was the first black chap who joined the [X] office. I was the first black director of [that firm]. For [my next job] I was the first black director. And I believe that in my current role I am the first chief executive they have had under the age of 50 and the first black one to have the position.’

‘I worked for a small contractor in Leicester – I think I was the only ethnic minority who worked for that contractor. That didn’t stop me from working for them, [but] that doesn’t affect or change the attitudes of the people working there, because they may still have certain attitudes which are antiquated.’


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Given the degree of demographic change in all industries and professions, the existence of BME people is not as rare as it once was. Many BME professionals, however, were used to being in a minority and experienced the ‘double take’ from the client when they realised that the BME person was, for example, the most senior professional there:

‘I had a meeting with a colleague, who hadn’t met me yet, we had just spoken on the phone. We agreed a meeting place. He just looked past me, and I approached him. He was amazed – they don’t expect me to be black.’

However, despite this experience, there is still resistance to ‘too many’ BME people in one place, as related by this African-Caribbean architect:

‘I had a situation one time where there was a structural engineer who was black, a black architect, and the site agent was black, and the sub-contractor, who was a glass manufacturer from [X], did not like that at all and reacted in a very peculiar way, shall we say.’

In this incident, the contractor refused to co-operate, ‘went on a go-slow’ and had to be removed from the site for impeding progress with the contract. The benchmark for success and competence remains a white one; BME professionals suspect that they would be taken ‘more seriously’ if they were white:

‘It’s really hard to put a finger on it, but just occasionally I’ve felt that the odd contractor hasn’t perhaps taken me seriously, which I know is something that women that I’ve spoken to in my profession [also experience]. And as a contract administrator, which is effectively what you are when you're on site, you’re dealing with contractors. You’re the one that’s in charge of money, of running that contract and you have to have a certain amount of authority, and the contractors also need to respect that authority.’

‘[…] it’s the other consultants. It depends on their age. And you generally find that the mechanical engineers are generally your peer group and there’ll be no problems. It’s the QSs and project managers [that are more likely to cause a problem]. I have actually had one project manager turn round to me and say he would not work with me. And we got rid of him… eventually. The partners – they were fantastic – basically said they wouldn’t have their staff subjected to that kind of behaviour. But I think in any aspect you have to prove yourself and I think just as a woman you have to prove yourself as doubly hard as a man. And I think if you just do your job well and give them no grounds for any gripe, that’s all you can do.’

6.9 Challenging the system Success sometimes means challenging the system, but at a time and place of your own choosing. There was some evidence that white colleagues were more likely to challenge racial discrimination than may have happened in the past. Some BME professionals, with posts in the bigger companies, put up with accumulated experiences of racism, and challenged it through the quality of their work and raising


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their profile in the industry: ‘Sometimes you have to bite the bullet. Let it ride, go over your head to get to your goal’. There is a stress in many of their statements to avoid politics, i.e. the issue of institutionalised racism in the industry, while confronting personal racism directly experienced:

‘Black people need to just ignore racism in the industry – you need to focus on what you want to achieve. [But] if it does happen and it is blocking you, then you need to address that. It is not going to be easy.’ ‘I wouldn’t apportion blame to anybody – it is just the way society is. If you have a mental block and a chip on your shoulder, it's not worth having a go. You have got to see beyond that. And that’s my biggest motivation – I am always two or three steps ahead.’

‘I just want to know that I can tough it out, because it’s never going to stop. I think I personally am part of the bigger picture 20 years from now, because I am going to make it easier for somebody else, and anything I achieve now, the next person won’t have to go through. I’m just trying to break it down in a different way. I don’t want to create excitement and all that kind of stuff – I like to go out there, do my work, and, once they see that, they can’t say anything to you, you know you are right.’ ‘You get contractors who come and they call you “nigger” and all that kind of stuff to your face, but then two minutes later it’s like “alright, mate?” But I have got it in my mind that basically what you’ve said to me is basically what you say down the pub to your mates. But we’re trying to get a job done. Maybe I’m going about it in the wrong way; maybe I should fight it; try and throw these people off site, but if I did…I wouldn’t get any work done. They don’t think we’re capable, so I’m proving to them that we are capable so that the next job they go to they think: “Well, we had that black man and he knew”, and they don’t have those stereotypes after that.’

‘What I’ve learnt is that you can’t bring the black issue up because people who are not normally racist or whatever, they can resent it after a while and think: “Why is this guy always bringing this up?” So, I try not to, I’ve never brought it up as an excuse or anything like that. People always say that, “oh, black guys always say this and that you’re always going to say it is racism”, so if I do it’s just going to be perpetuating that stereotype. So, I try and stay away from that; I try to look for different alternatives.’

6.10 Summary Despite the lack of hard statistical data showing levels of BME employment within the sector, it was clear from the interviews that there is a very real perception and experience of a ‘glass ceiling’. In other words, there are few BME professionals in senior, highly visible roles in the sector. Factors leading to this situation include subtle discrimination and a feeling of ‘otherness’, the experience of being sidelined from the mainstream, and lack of experience of senior managers in effectively managing diversity. Those who have got through to the more senior levels experience being considered as a ‘pioneer’, a ‘trailblazer’, a ‘role model’ for others, with the


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accompanying burden of that position. The fact that they are gradually reaching more senior positions is not only because of their own efforts, skills and qualifications, but also because of the beginnings of culture change in the sector. Some examples of such sector initiatives are outlined in the next chapter.


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• there is a ‘glass ceiling’ for BME professionals, which is difficult for even the more experienced BME professionals to break through

• companies were at a loss to know how to bring about change in BME representation at the senior levels

• even companies who had developed equal opportunities policies and stated a commitment to implementing the policy struggled to achieve representation of BME staff into the organisation beyond graduate level

• progression and promotion is often dependent upon having a ‘face that fits’, and there is a perception among BME professionals that, consequently, their white counterparts get more opportunities to progress more quickly

• visibility, recognition and, therefore, progression within an organisation is often determined by the ability of BME professionals to get on with (white) senior management and ensure that their face ‘fits’ in social situations and at events

• BME professionals feel that they have to work harder than their white counterparts to get recognised, shake off doubts about their competency and to progress in an organisation

• being sidelined into racial equality work and not getting opportunities for wider experience counted against minority ethnic professionals later in their career

• despite the public commitment towards equality and a lack of tolerance of racism, jokes and banter – including racial banter – continue to be integral to the culture of the construction industry

• prevailing stereotypes and assumptions inhibit or delay trust in BME professionals

• while, to some extent, levels of support and guidance for BME staff have gradually improved over the last decade, in general BME professionals still find that they are not supported by their managers to develop and progress in their professions to the same degree as their white colleagues

• the benchmark for success and competence remains a white one; BME professionals suspect that they would be taken more seriously if they were white.


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CHAPTER 7: ORGANISATIONAL ACTION: EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE IN THE EMPLOYER ORGANISATIONS

7.1 Introduction Having examined the individual experiences of BME students and professionals, this chapter reflects on the interviews with the employer organisations to highlight examples of good practice in relation to equality and diversity within the built environment sector. 7.2 Organisational action It is now routine for organisations to have equal opportunities policies – and the construction industry is no exception. Although we found limited analysis of ethnic monitoring in the companies we approached, some had been collecting the data for a few years – Babtie Engineering, for example, began equality monitoring its workforce approximately five years ago. The interviews with the 12 employer organisations highlighted several examples of good practice in implementing the policies and taking a pro-active approach to equality, including:

• efforts to widen their recruitment pool • more robust equality monitoring • pro-active personnel-related initiatives such as Investors in People • increased equal opportunities training • the development of a ‘resources allocation table’ showing the key factors

which affect decisions about who works on each job. Widening the recruitment pool Several companies referred to efforts they had made to widen their recruitment pool. Carillion, for example, had opened up its recruitment to a wider range of universities, in order to attract a greater ethnic mix of graduate applicants. This was a benefit to the organisation in that the company now had a wider ethnic mix. This had a beneficial impact on its image, as it has found that potential employees generally want to work for employers who demonstrate that they have a diversity policy. Willmott Dixon has ensured that it includes BME staff as well as white staff in recruitment literature, including in the professional roles. Thomas Vale, a Midlands-based construction company, found that advertising via JobCentrePlus and Connexions meant that the company diversified its pool of potential recruits and the company indicates on all job advertisements that it is an equal opportunities employer. Birmingham City Council runs a positive action ‘Bridges into the Future’ scheme. This is a programme that has been developed to address the needs of a racially diverse workforce, in which career advancement opportunities are available to everyone, regardless of their ethnic origin. Birmingham City Council Planning Department has found that this innovative programme has increased interest within the Asian community in particular. Birmingham also works with the government’s ‘Tomorrow’s Planners’ initiative, which is committed ‘to increasing the representation of black and minority ethnic groups working in the planning profession to the point where it broadly reflects the makeup of the communities it is intended to serve’.72 72 See ‘Tomorrow’s Planners: the way to a professional career’ http://www.pathuk.co.uk/services/index.cfm?ccs=158 [Accessed 13 July 2005]


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Improved equality monitoring New technology was seen as offering new ways to make progress in equality monitoring. Arup, for example, referred to having quite a sophisticated recruitment approach: many of the applications were now made online, which made the equality monitoring data easier to collect. Davis Langdon has equality monitoring data for a percentage of its staff and is working to improve the records. Wates has an equal opportunities group which meets on a quarterly basis to monitor the implementation of its policy. Demonstrating the commitment from the top, the group is chaired by the Human Resources (HR) Director. Links with good personnel practices There were examples where other personnel-related initiatives and external factors had an impact on equality and diversity. Warings achieved the Investors in People (IIP) standard a couple of years ago, which helped it ensure that its policies and procedures complied with equal opportunities requirements. Skanska has also achieved IIP, and identified the review process as helping it ensure that its processes are in line with best practice on equal opportunities, in particular monitoring. Thomas Vale worked with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) in order to ensure that the company’s equal opportunities policies were comprehensive and fully compliant with current and forthcoming legal requirements, and best practice. Training Some companies provided training on equal opportunities, usually as part of recruitment and selection training. Thomas Vale has provided one-day training in equal opportunities for its directors and senior managers, and, taking a pro-active role in influencing the sector more widely, it plans a series of half-day training seminars for its site managers throughout the business and supply chain. Resource allocation Shepheard Epstein Hunter has developed a ‘resources allocation table’, showing the key factors that affect decisions about who works on each job. These factors include the actual need, availability, level of skills/professional competence required, and how the project fits into the individual’s experience and career pattern, both from the point of view of the business and the individual. There are plans in place to use this as a six-monthly or an annual monitoring tool. Aside from the benefits in terms of overall management of resources, this will assist in monitoring for any discrepancies or unfairness in relation to access to opportunities, for example by ethnic origin or gender for a range of type of work, and high profile jobs. The interviews with this sample of employers offer some hope that good practice and a more pro-active approach to equality issues will continue to filter through the sector.


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SECTION 3: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

This study builds upon previous research conducted into the experiences of BME people in built environment education and employment. It fills a gap in the existing body of research by more systematically mapping the representation of BME people in built environment education and professional employment, and by detailing barriers to recruitment and progression specifically experienced by BME professionals. The mapping exercise presented in Chapter 3 reinforces the finding of previous studies that, while different BME groups have been and continue to be concentrated in certain subject areas, the overall percentage of BME people qualifying in architecture and built environment courses remains higher than their representation in the population. The existing statistical data, supported by the qualitative information, show that a higher percentage of white as opposed to BME graduates of built environment subjects move into the construction and built environment sector and progress within it. Moreover, recent data suggest that, in spite of slight increases within the different professions since 2001/02, BME people remain under-represented throughout the professions when compared to their representation in the UK population as a whole and their representation in both FE and HE. This has been reported as the case for several years. Establishing levels of BME representation within the built environment sector and professions continues to be difficult due to a lack of consistent quantitative data on the UK built environment workforce. In spite of calls over the last few years for more consistent and widespread ethnic monitoring in employment generally, few companies or professional bodies in the built environment sector comprehensively or consistently collate and analyse ethnicity data. Construction employment has increased rapidly over recent years, and the industry currently employs over two million people (of these, around 230,000 are professional and technical staff). Construction-related employment is projected to continue to grow, and the current under-representation of BME employees means that qualified BME people seeking employment in the built environment professions are being under-utilised. Taking into account the fact that BME students are well represented in most of the built environment profession subjects at FE and HE levels, the main fault in the system appears in the recruitment, support and development processes into and through the built environment industries. Particular barriers have been identified in this research which are experienced only by BME people or which they experience to a greater degree than the majority population. Like the previous research conducted for the CITB, this study highlights that the lack of a tradition of employment in the built environment professions and of the networks of contacts that facilitate that employment continue to be a major barrier that BME aspiring professionals must cross. Although HE staff are becoming more ethnically diverse and evidence of perceived unfair treatment of current BME university students was less pronounced than has been found in previous studies (i.e. CITB, 2002), BME students still on the whole experience a curriculum and support system that is largely


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Euro/Anglo-centric. Successful BME students thus get through their courses and succeed by developing a variety of coping strategies and a degree of ‘toughness’ that can be seen as part of the maturing process, but is also an additional burden not shared by the general student population. In spite of efforts in recent years to implement equal opportunities and recruit a more socially inclusive workforce, both employers and professionals recognise that there are a series of thresholds for BME professionals to cross and ceilings to break through which start at the initial recruitment process. This situation is typically attributed to ‘traditional’, exclusionary attitudes and prejudicial assumptions which discriminate against BME employees. There is a perception that employment practices seem to be improving, but that since many firms are dominated by white men, they continue to ‘recruit in their own image’. However, some firms and local authorities are becoming known for their fair employment practices and are more attractive to BME applications. BME professionals who have been frustrated in their initial desire for a career in the built environment professions and self-employment, employment in a related industry (IT, design) and ‘equalities’ work are other options open to them, drawing them away from the mainstream professional roles in the industry. Nevertheless, some successful BME professionals suggest that once trusted and accepted by the firm and, by extension, the sector, progression through the built environment sector is determined by what one knows and can do and not by considerations of ethnicity. Others argue that success for them is a question of working harder than their white colleagues to achieve the same result; taking part in the uncongenial social life of the organisation; denying their cultural heritage and conforming to a corporate norm; tolerating managers who are ignorant of the basic principles of staff management (in particular of ethnically diverse teams); putting up with the daily annoyances that are excused as ‘banter’; and shouldering the burden of being the ‘trail-blazer’, the ‘ethnic’ role model. For some, this has become part of what a BME person must do to expect to progress. Changes in the way staff are recruited – in particular reforming the word-of-mouth procedures which have traditionally inhibited the ethnic diversification of a workforce – can make a difference, but training as a developmental strategy has its limits when it comes to changing ingrained attitudes, stereotypes and assumptions. Support, in the form of mentoring and work experience schemes, as well as professional networks attached to the main professional associations, can also facilitate progression within a firm and the built environment sector. The optimistic view is to rely on the inevitability of small changes as there develops in this country a generation of white and BME young people, born or raised in Britain, who are comfortable with their ethnicity, identity and difference. With positive – though not necessarily radical –action, however, this situation can be accelerated to remove the remaining barriers to access and progress for BME professionals eager to make a contribution to construction and the built environment professions. A range of initiatives have been taken by companies and industry bodies, which demonstrate some leadership on racial equality. It follows that priority for action should now be in the areas of:

• collection and use of data • industry image • professional education and careers support • recruitment practices and entry to the industry


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• opportunities for progression and development • sector leadership.

The set of practical recommendations which follow has been developed with these areas of priority in mind, and are intended to help facilitate and encourage the move towards greater equality for BME people in both the built environment professions and the sector as whole.


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CHAPTER 9: RECOMMENDATIONS The following broad recommendations have been developed to address the barriers to BME built environment professionals entering and progressing within the industry, which were identified in this report. They are grouped into the six key areas of:

• collection and use of data • industry image • professional education and careers support • recruitment practices and entry to the industry • opportunities for progression and development • sector leadership.

These recommendations build on existing action in the built environment sector. Cumulatively, they offer a framework to help pull together that existing action, and to contribute to discussions about how best to create a diverse industry. Action based on these recommendations should bring about an improvement in the opportunities for BME people to work in the built environment professions and contribute to the sector as a whole.


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I. COLLECTION AND USE OF DATA Collection and use of monitoring data by educational institutions, professional bodies, and employers, remains patchy. The need for comprehensive data relating to students in order to track their progress is clear, and was also highlighted in the previous CABE studies into architecture. The lack of comprehensive data about the ethnic mix of employees in the sector hinders action at addressing under-representation: if professional bodies and employers do not have the data regarding the ethnic mix of members and employees, they cannot identify the points where there is greatest under-representation, or the points where there are barriers to progression. However, despite the lack of comprehensive data, it is clear that BME professionals are beginning to move up into the more senior managerial roles. The analyses recommended below should help organisations pinpoint clearly any problems that require investigation and/or a response (either individually or as an industry), such as a relatively high level of recruitment into the organisation, gradually reducing as a percentage when moving into the more senior positions. Particular issues emerging from the research were that:

• data regarding the ethnic composition of built environment professionals are patchy and inconsistent (Chapter 4)

• few built environment professional bodies collate ethnicity data, and the collation is not always comprehensive (Chapter 4)

• few built environment employer organisations collect and analyse ethnicity data comprehensively (Chapter 4)

• direct comparison with the enrolment data is not possible due to the fact that the qualifier data amalgamate all students regardless of level of study (it includes first degree, postgraduate and other degree students) (Chapter 3)

RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Professional bodies and employers across the sector to be able to analyse the ethnic composition of their members and workforces in order to better target action to address under-representation. 2. Educational institutions to be able to access monitoring data for qualifiers and relate it to enrolments, and so use it to analyse retention and success rates by ethnicity. The ethnic monitoring categories as recommended by the CRE should be used in order to facilitate comparisons across the industry and against national population and employment figures. See: http://www.cre.gov.uk/gdpract/em_cat_ew.html


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II. INDUSTRY IMAGE The image of the construction industry, including that of the built environment professions, remains predominantly white and stereotypically male. This has the effect in some quarters of reinforcing discriminatory practices (conscious or unconscious), and in others of putting off those who might otherwise consider a career in the built environment professions. There is a need to address the way the industry is perceived by the general public and to improve the information available to those entering or progressing within the industry. Particular issues emerging from the research were that:

• recruitment to the built environment professions is not helped by the negative image it carries from its identification with stereotyped male values and building site mythology, and not on the professional opportunities (Chapter 4)

RECOMMENDATION

3. Sector organisations, professional bodies and employers to undertake a more coordinated and structured programme of marketing of the built environment professions to schools, colleges and universities.


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III. PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND CAREERS SUPPORT Although relatively well represented on built environment and construction related courses, BME students often enter the industry without the existing network of family contacts possessed by many of their white counterparts. This situation is made worse by the widespread difficulties reported by BME students in finding quality work experience opportunities, which is crucial in starting to build these sorts of networks from scratch. Some tutors and careers advisers recognise the potential for exclusion and/or discrimination that this represents, and strive to build up contacts with local and regional companies, including those that are BME-run as well as with the larger national companies. However, others, adopting a ‘colour-blind’ approach, fail to recognise the particular need for students from different ethnic backgrounds in establishing themselves in the industry. Particular issues emerging from the research were that:

• most BME students expected to receive a Euro- or Anglo-centric approach to their subject – and were not surprised when they did (Chapter 5)

• given the importance of family and the wider network of contacts to enter the industry, failings in the careers counselling and education services disproportionately disadvantages BME students (Chapter 5)

• work experience is critical in establishing the professional connections which will assist BME students in securing employment after graduation (Chapter 5).

RECOMMENDATION

4. Universities and colleges (through tutors and careers advisers) to review the effectiveness of learning and teaching strategies used in built environment departments in meeting the needs of a diverse student body, including curriculum, access to work experience and advice, to guide future development.


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IV. RECRUITMENT PRACTICES AND ENTRY TO THE INDUSTRY

Both employers and employees alike considered that being in a minority, not having a family tradition and network and contacts already in the industry, and having a ‘non-English sounding’ name were all factors which could contribute to a lack of success in being recruited into the industry. In addition, the tradition of the industry as predominantly white, with some negative attitudes about minorities, could undermine recruitment procedures and serve to exclude BME applicants. Particular issues emerging from the research were that:

• ‘traditional’, exclusionary attitudes and prejudicial assumptions appear to disadvantage BME professionals in the built environment sector (Chapter 5)

• white-dominated firms generally continue to ‘recruit in their own image’ – to the exclusion of BME people (Chapter 5)

• it was felt that subtle discrimination and issues of ‘fitting in’ give white candidates the edge over their BME counterparts in the interview room (Chapter 5)

• employers confessed that, while procedures are improving, the interview process itself can be rather ‘hit and miss’ in terms of equality (Chapter 5)

• BME people need – but often lack – networks to overcome the official, inbuilt resistance to their applications both for jobs and contracts (Chapter 5).

RECOMMENDATION

5. Employers to review their recruitment policies and procedures, building on existing best practice, with the aim of making the sector’s recruitment processes more objective: • raising awareness • eliminating scope for discrimination • promoting diversity.


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V. OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROGRESSION AND DEVELOPMENT

In spite of the lack of hard statistical data showing representation of BME professionals across the industry, it is clear that there is a very real perception, and experience, of a ‘glass ceiling’. This is not a situation unique to the built environment professions, or to BME professionals. In different fields, groups such as the Society of Black Lawyers, the Civil Service Race Equality Network, and the Society of Black Architects have all developed models of support and networking that have successfully facilitated the careers of BME professionals in their sector. Particular issues emerging from the research were that:

• companies were at a loss to know how to bring about change in BME representation at senior levels (Chapter 6)

• even companies who had developed equal opportunities policies and stated a commitment to implementing the policy struggled to achieve representation of BME staff into the organisation beyond graduate level (Chapter 6)

• progression and promotion is often dependent upon having a ‘face that fits (Chapter 6)

• visibility, recognition and, therefore, progression within an industry is often determined by the ability of BME professionals to get on with (white) senior management and ensure that their face ‘fits’ in social situations and at events (Chapter 6)

• BME professionals still find that they are not supported by their managers to develop and progress in their professions to the same degree as their white colleagues (Chapter 6).

RECOMMENDATIONS 6. Employers to review mechanisms used to identify and support the development of the professionals they employ, particularly the effectiveness of those mechanisms in supporting career development of those from non-traditional backgrounds.

7. Sector organisations and professional bodies to evaluate the approaches and success of other sectors in championing the development needs of BME professionals (including support groups, networks, mentoring programmes), and assess the need for similar approaches in the built environment sector.


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VI. SECTOR LEADERSHIP

The general duty of public authorities to promote race equality, and the increased use of procurement by the public sector as a lever to promote race equality, has helped ensure that equality and diversity is seen as more of a mainstream issue within the construction industry than in the past. At the same time, there is an increasing recognition that equal opportunities is a benefit to industry and there are a growing number of examples of good and exemplary employment practice being developed. However, although progress is being made, it remains ad hoc, uncoordinated and undirected. More could be achieved, more quickly, with committed leadership. Particular issues emerging from the research were that:

• views of competencies of BME people are deeply ingrained (Chapter 5) • the official paths and procedures in recruitment and securing contracts

are undermined by informal practices that contradict equality and diversity policies (Chapter 5)

• despite the public commitment towards equality and a lack of tolerance of racism, jokes and banter – including racial banter – continue to be integral to the culture of the construction industry (Chapter 6)

• prevailing stereotypes and assumptions inhibit or delay trust in BME professionals (Chapter 7)

• the benchmark for success and competence remains a white one; BME professionals suspect that they would be taken more seriously if they were white (Chapter 6)

• recruitment to the professions is not helped by the negative image it carries from its identification with stereotyped male values and building site mythology, and not on the professional opportunities (Chapter 6).

RECOMMENDATIONS 8. Professional bodies and large employers to lead by example. Developing (where they don’t already exist) clear policies on equality and diversity, with an action plan for implementation and arrangements for monitoring, and communicating them widely within the sector. 9. Professional bodies, large employers and sector organisations to take a lead in promoting discussion of the findings in this research and the development of a framework of action which addresses the barriers and areas of under-representation identified (within the context of sector’s particular structure and characteristics).


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REFERENCES Barnes, H., Bonjour, D. and Sahin-Dikmen, M., Minority ethnic students and practitioners in architecture: a scoping study for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (London: PSI, 2002) Barnes, H., Parry, J., Sahin-Dikmen, M. and Bonjour, D., Architecture and race: a study of black and minority ethnic students in the profession (London: CABE, 2004) BBC press release, ‘Five Live survey suggests ethnic minority applicants still discriminated against in UK job market’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/07_july/12/minorities_survey.shtml [Accessed 06/10/04]. Bertrand, M. and Mullainathan, S., ‘Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market distribution’, MIT Working Paper Series 03-22 (2003) Cabinet Office/Performance and Innovation Unit, Ethnic minorities and the labour market: interim analytical report (London: Cabinet Office, 2002) Cabinet Office/Strategy Unit, Ethnic minorities and the labour market (London: Cabinet Office, 2003) Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion/Bivand, P., ‘Ethnic minorities and the labour market’: http://www.cesi.org.uk/_newsite2002/publications/wb/w132/html/ethnic_minorities.htm [Accessed 07/01/04] Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (Royal Holloway, University of London), The under-representation of black and Asian people in construction (CITB, 1999) Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (Royal Holloway, University of London), The impact of race and gender on progression from GNVQ Construction into the industry (CITB, 2000) Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (Royal Holloway, University of London), Retention and career progression of black and Asian people in the construction industry (CITB, 2002) CITB-ConstructionSkills, Construction skills foresight report 2003 (King’s Lynn: CITB-ConstructionSkills, 2003) Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, The rising tide: a report on women in science, engineering and technology (London: HMSO, 1995) Connor, H., et al., Minority ethnic students in higher education: interim report (London: Department for Education and Skills, Research Report 448, 2003) Connor, H., et al., Why the difference? A closer look at higher education minority ethnic students and graduates (London: Department for Education and Skills, Research Report RR552, 2004) Construction Industry Board, Tomorrow’s team: women and men in construction (London: Thomas Telford, 1996)


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Construction Industry Council, Built environment professional services skills survey 2003/04: survey results (London: CIC, 2004) de Graft-Johnson, A., Manley, S. and Greed, C., Why do women leave architecture? (London/Bristol: RIBA/University of the West of England, 2003) Department for Education and Skills, Youth cohort study: the activities and experiences of 17-year-olds: England and Wales, 2003 (London: DfES, 2003) Department for Education and Skills, Youth cohort study: the activities and experiences of 19-year-olds: England and Wales, 2003 (London: DfES, 2003) Department of Trade and Industry, State of the construction industry report: winter 2002/03 (2003): http://www.dti.gov.uk/construction/stats/soi/soiwinter0203.htm [Accessed 07/01/04] Ellison, L., Raising the ratio: the surveying profession as a career: a report for the RICS Raising the Ratio Committee (London: RICS, 2003) Further Education Funding Council, Construction programme area review (Coventry: FEFC, 1999) Further Education Funding Council, Programme area review: construction (Coventry: FEFC, 1999) Grant, B., et al., Building e=quality: minority ethnic construction professionals and urban regeneration (1996) Greed, C., The changing composition of the construction professions (Bristol: University of the West of England, Occasional Paper 5, 1999) Home Office, Race equality: the Home Secretary’s employment targets (London: TSO, 2001) ICE Equal Opportunities Forum, ‘Members questionnaire 2001’ report (2001) Krishnarayan, V. and Thomas, H., Ethnic minorities and the planning system (London: Royal Town Planning Institute, 1993) Modood, T., Berthoud, R., et al., Ethnic minorities in Britain: diversity and disadvantage (London: PSI, 1997) Movement for Innovation/Rethinking Construction, ‘A commitment to people, ‘Our biggest asset’: a report from the Movement for Innovation’s working group on Respect for People’ (2000) Observer Review, 22 August 2004, p.3 O’Donnell, L. and Golden, S., Construction apprentices survey 2000: national report (CITB, 2001): http://www.citb.co.uk/research/pdf/ca_survey_2000.pdf [Accessed 07/01/04]


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Office for National Statistics, Census 2001: national report for England and Wales (London: TSO, 2003) Owen, D., et al., ‘Patterns of labour market participation in ethnic minority groups’, Labour Market Trends, vol. 108, no. 11 (November 2000), pp.505-10 Pathak, S., Race research for the future: ethnicity in education, training and the labour market (London: Department for Education and Employment, Research Topic Paper 01, 2000) RIBA, ‘Architects’ employment and earnings 2003’ (London: RIBA, 2003) RIBA, ‘Why do women leave architecture? Report response and RIBA action’ (2003): http://www.riba.org/fileLibrary/pdf/WWLARIBAResponse.pdf [Accessed 07/01/04] RIBA Centre for Architectural Education, RIBA Education Statistics 2001-02 (London: RIBA, 2002) RIBA Centre for Architectural Education, RIBA Education Statistics 2002-2003 (London: RIBA, 2003) Shepley, C., ‘Tomorrow’s planners: it is possible to make a difference’, Planning, Issue 1537 (19 September 2003), p.24 Spielhofer, T. and Golden, S., Construction apprentices interim survey: draft report (CITB, 2001): http://www.citb.co.uk/research/pdf/ca_survey_interim_2001.pdf [Accessed:07/01/04] ‘Tomorrow’s planners: the way to a professional career’ http://www.pathuk.co.uk/services/index.cfm?ccs=158 [Accessed 13 July 2005] Twomey, B., ‘Labour market participation of ethnic groups’, Labour Market Trends, vol. 109, no. 1 (January 2001), pp.29-42


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REPORT ANNEX: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLE 1. Stage 1: Project set-up, desk research and design of the method of collecting data In order to identify the potential sources of information for the study and the methods to collect the data, we conducted an initial literature search to familiarise the research team with current knowledge and research related to BME people in further education (FE), higher education (HE) and in the built environment sector generally. The literature search also involved following up some of the data already gathered in relevant previous reports. The research team then began to collate data on the representation of BME people in built environment education and employment. Several key statistical agencies (i.e. National Statistics and the Higher Education Statistics Agency), built environment organisations and professional bodies were contacted with requests for relevant data. Much of the detailed data relating to education and employment were customised and therefore had to be purchased from the statistical agencies. Concurrently, interviews were conducted with key personnel in the built environment sector, identified in this report as ‘key informants’. Key informants were either recommended to the research team by members of the Project Steering Group or were known to the research team through previous research conducted within the sector. They represented the areas of construction education and training, and recruitment and personnel management that are at the heart of this study. They provided invaluable information about the current state of the sector in their areas of expertise. Their views were complemented by information drawn from desk research, and care was taken that their assumptions enhanced but did not skew the study. Contact was also made with BME students, lecturers and professionals who had participated in previous studies with the research team, both to involve them and to reach out to a wider group. This stage also involved the design of the research tools, which were informed by the ideas and data from the literature search and the key informant interviews. A series of topic guides were thus prepared, which served as a format for the questionnaires and individual interviews. The questions and areas covered in the topic guide for BME professionals and students focused on:

• the influence of ethnicity on their educational experiences • the experience of applying for jobs in the built environment sector • factors that hinder progression and retention for BME professionals • examples of positive and/or negative situations of being in a minority in the sector • suggestions to improve the representation of BME people in the sector/profession(s).

In addition, interviews with employers particularly examined:

• the representation of BME people in built environment organisations and the professions • reasons for the overall under-representation of BME people in the professions • recruitment trends and practices • the nature of the organisational culture and working environment and its impact on BME

people • factors that hinder progression and retention for BME professionals.

Interviews with lecturers particularly examined:

• how many BME students were enrolled on built environment FE and HE courses • the collation of student achievement, destination and progression data


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• aspects of the education process that discourage the retention of BME students in education and employment

• reasons for the overall under-representation of BME people in the built environment professions

• recruitment trends and practices • other factors that might prevent BME people getting jobs in the built environment

sector/staying and progressing. 2. Stage 2: The survey and consultation Using a mix of individual questionnaires, semi-structured one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions, information was collected from the following:

• BME professionals in the built environment professions (including a small sample who had left the sector or moved out of their original profession)

• BME students • employers in the built environment professions • lecturers/heads of school or departments in built environment education.

In order to collect the full range of views, the following factors were taken into account in targeting groups for interview:

• geographical spread across England • gender mix to ensure the inclusion of the views of women • range of stages of experience in the built environment professions, from university to

practising in the profession • range of BME groups • individuals originating at home and overseas (with an emphasis on home).

It was never the intention to seek a statistically representative sample. Interviewing statistically representative samples of different groups of people could result in inadequate numbers of those whose views and experiences it is important to target. Therefore, a purposive sample was constructed, whereby it was felt important to: (i) target the full range of groups of people whose views and perspectives are relevant (ii) select sufficient numbers from targeted groups, such that the full possible range of views

and experiences is elicited from each group, achieving ‘conceptual saturation’. We are confident that the number, geographical, ethnic and gender mix as well as the differing levels of experience of the sample provide us with a sample of a wide range of BME experience in the built environment sector. The research team contacted the sample, using a variety of methods. The sample was selected from CABE contacts, universities and employers, and sought by word-of-mouth within the sector itself. Individuals were telephoned directly by a researcher, or contacted by an open letter sent from Royal Holloway or via colleges, universities and employers. Informants were asked to explain the nature and effect of their chosen career and to describe their working environment. Interviews were tape-recorded when the interviewee gave consent, and were transcribed verbatim in order to ensure accuracy and to help contextualise the major determinants of the interviewees’ experiences. The few non-taped interviews were recorded from notes.


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3. Stage 3: Analysis of findings – quantitative and qualitative data Quantitative data from the questionnaires were collated and then analysed using the statistical analysis package SPSS. Those data were combined with the various sources of qualitative information, which were collated into a single document and coded according to topic/theme to form the skeleton of a series of draft report chapters, and from which key barriers and then recommendations were identified. The purely qualitative data from the individual interviews enabled the report writers to identify the major determinants of the BME experience at each significant career stage. The robustness of this exercise was assured by the fact that the report writers had conducted and transcribed the interviews between them, and therefore all had a strong familiarity with the data. Key informant focus group During Stage 3, a focus group was also conducted with a number of the professionals who had been consulted for the study, to test out some of the emerging findings and possible recommendations.

4. Stage 4: Report-writing and formulation of set of recommendations A comprehensive report was then prepared, with key findings, statistical information, analysis of the findings and a set of recommendations. 5. The sample Table AN1: Sample achieved Sample description Number of

people BME students 37 BME professionals with varying levels of experience in the industry, including five who had left the sector/moved out of their original profession

50

Employers from professional practices/companies 12 Lecturers/tutors/careers advisers from institutes of HE 6 Key informants 7

In addition to the above, a number of US architects heard about the study through the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) diversity network, and seven contacted us about the study to express an interest in participating. They provided some information about their own experiences. These responses have not been included in the body of this report, but it should be noted that the kinds of barriers which they referred to related principally to access to progression to the more senior levels in the industry, and reflected a number of the points raised by the UK professional sample.


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5.1 Students The 37 students were drawn from a range of ethnicities, largely black and Asian, and including 27% women. Approximately 40% of the students were mature students. Figure AN1: Ethnicity of student sample

Ethnic Mix of Student Sample

Black Caribbean19%

Black African38%

Asian24%

Chinese11%

Indo-Caribbean3%

Arab5%

Table AN2: Gender of student sample

Gender Frequency Percent (%) Female 10 27 Male 27 73 Total 37 100%

Table AN3: Age of student sample

Age Frequency Percent (%) 18-24 21 56.8 25-31 8 21.6 32-39 4 10.8 40 and over 3 8.1 Missing 1 2.7 Total 37 100%


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Course, length and place of study Students were asked to describe their course of study. A range of the key courses for entry into the built environment sector was covered by the student sample, and most were accredited degree courses by professional bodies representing the various professions in the built environment sector. Table AN4: Course of study

Course of study (students’ own description) Frequency Percent (%) BSc and HND Construction Management 8 21.6 BSc Commercial Management & Quantity Surveying

6 16.2

BSc Civil Engineering 5 13.5 HNC Construction 4 10.8 Project Management Construction 4 10.8 MSc Civil Engineering 3 8.1 MSc Construction Management 2 5.4 Mechanical & Civil Engineering 1 2.7 Construction Engineering 1 2.7 Mechanical, Civil & Environmental Engineering

1 2.7

HNC Civil Engineering 1 2.7 Urban & Environment 1 2.7 Total 37 100%

Most of the student sample was in the latter years of the students’ chosen course of study, 48.6% being in their final year of study. Finally, the students consulted were drawn from all over England. Table AN5 shows that 51.4% were from various London universities – which recruit from a very wide British and international catchment – whilst the remaining 48.6% were from various universities around the Midlands and northern, southern and western England. Table AN5: Students’ place of study Place of study Frequency Percent (%) London 19 51.4 Midlands & North of England 9 24.3 South of England 8 21.6 West of England 1 2.7 Total 37 100%


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5.2 Professionals The sample of 50 built environment professionals was divided between the main BME groups, and a good ethnic mix was achieved. The figure below shows that the largest BME groups in the sample were black African (30%), Asian (30%) and black Caribbean (24%). A gender mix was also achieved, with 14 women included in the consultation. Figure AN2: Ethnicity of professional sample

Ethnic Mix of Professional Sample

Black African30%

Eastern European2%

Asian30%

Black Caribbean24%

Middle Eastern 8%

Mixed race2% Chinese

4%

Table AN6: Gender of professional sample

Gender Frequency Percent (%) Female 14 28% Male 36 72% Total 50 100%

Professions The various professions of the sample were recorded in two ways. Firstly, using CABE’s own professional categories (see figure AN3), and secondly, using a more detailed description of their professions (see Table AN7). The largest number of professionals was architects (24%), followed by engineers (20%), construction professionals (18%) and planners/urban designers (18%). Again, people representing a range of the core built environment professions were consulted, as illustrated by figure AN3 below.


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Figure AN3: Profession of sample (CABE categories73)

The 20% of the sample who fell into the ‘engineer’ category included civil, highways, design, building services, electrical, mechanical, structural and site engineers. Similarly, different types of surveyor also emerged from the more detailed job description, as did more ‘contemporary’ professions, such as environmental consultancy. Table AN7: Profession of sample (detailed categories) Detailed professional categories

Frequency Percent (%)

Architect 12 24 Planner 7 14 Building surveyor 4 8 Landscape architect 4 8 Quantity surveyor 4 8 Civil engineer 3 6 Construction manager 2 4 Highways engineer 3 6 Design engineer 2 4 Urban designer 2 4 Building services engineer 1 2 Electrical engineer 1 2 Environmental consultant 1 2 Mechanical engineer 1 2 Structural engineer 1 2 Housing professional 1 2 Trainee site engineer 1 2 Total 50 100%

73 As defined in the original project brief issued by CABE.

Main Professional Categories

Architect12 (24%)

Planner/Urban Designer9 (18%)

Engineer10 (20%)

Surveyor6 (12%)

Construction professional

9 (18%)

Landscape architect/ designer

4 (8%)


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Sector and geographical location Table AN8 shows that the majority of the professional sample worked in the private sector (68%) and was fairly evenly spread among the various built environment professions. The largest concentrations in the private sector were architects (18%) and construction professionals (18%), whereas in the public sector there were more planners/urban designers (14%). Table AN8: Sector by profession (CABE categories)

Professions Public Private Total Architect 3 (6%) 9 (18%) 12 (24%) Engineer 3 (6%) 7 (14%) 10 (20%) Construction professional - 9 (18%) 9 (18%) Planner/Urban designer 7 (14%) 2 (4%) 9 (18%) Surveyor 3 (6%) 3 (6%) 6 (12%) Landscape architect/designer

- 4 (2%) 4 (2%)

Total 16 (32%) 34 (68%) 50 (100%) The maps of England on in figures 1 and 2 of this report show where the student and profession sample were located. Table AN9 below highlights that, similar to the student sample, the majority of the professionals were located in London (54%), followed by the Midlands (20%) and the North of England (16%). A closer look at the sample’s professions correlated with their location in England shows a fairly even distribution of planners/urban designers and surveyors across England, but a concentration of architects and construction professionals in London. Table AN9: Geographical location by profession (CABE categories)

Profession North Midlands London South Total Architect 1 2 8 1 12 Engineer 2 1 5 2 10 Construction professional - 2 6 1 9 Planner/Urban designer 3 3 3 - 9 Surveyor 2 1 3 - 6 Landscape architect/designer

- 1 2 1 4

Total 8 (16%) 10 (20%) 27 (54%) 5 (10%) 50 (100%) 5.3 Employer organisations 12 employer organisations agreed to be interviewed for the study. In addition, a small number of the professionals interviewed ran their own companies. The organisations covered the following: building and construction; construction management; construction services; city council (planning); design, management and construction; engineering consultancy; quantity surveying; architecture; construction consultant and project management. Although several operate internationally, between them they also operate across the whole of England and therefore provide a good insight into recruitment and staff management in different locations across England, which was the geographical focus of this study.


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LIST OF TABLES IN APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 Page No. Table A1: UK applicants and accepted applicants for architecture and built environment university courses by ethnicity, 2003 103 Table A2: UK domiciled students at English institutions by

ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03: first degree 105

Table A3: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/99: first degree 106

Table A4: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03: other undergraduate 107

Table A5: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/99: other undergraduate 108

Table A6: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03: postgraduate 109

Table A7: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/99: postgraduate 110

Table A8: UK domiciled qualifiers at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03 111

Table A9: UK domiciled qualifiers at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/1999 112

Table A10: First destination of UK domiciled students whose ethnicity is known from English institutions, 2001/02 113

Table A11: First year CITB trainees by ethnicity and region, 2002/03 114

APPENDIX 3 For 2002/03 Page 122

Table A12a H200 Civil engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A12b H200 Civil engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A13a H210 Structural engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A13b H210 Structural engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin Table A14a H220 Environmental engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and

gender Page 123 Table A14b H220 Environmental engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin Table A15 H230 Transport engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A16a H240 Surveying science: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A16b H240 Surveying science: all first degree by ethnic origin Table A17a H300 Mechanical engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A17b H300 Mechanical engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender


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Table A18a H600 Electronic and electrical engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender

Page 124 Table A18b H600 Electronic and electrical engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin

and gender Table A19a K100 Broadly-based programmes within architecture, building & planning:

all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A19b K100 Broadly-based programmes within architecture, building & planning:

all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A20 K130 Architectural technology: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A21a K200 Building: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A21b K200 Building: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Page 125 Table A22 K210 Building technology: all first degree by ethnic origin Table A23a K210 Construction management: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A23b K210 Construction management: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A24a K230 Building surveying: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A24b K230 Building surveying: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A25a K240 Quantity surveying: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A25b K240 Quantity surveying: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Page 126 Table A26 K250 Conservation of buildings: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A27a K300 Landscape design: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A27b K300 Landscape design: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A28a K310 Landscape architecture: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A28b K310 Landscape architecture: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A29a K400 Planning (urban, rural and regional): all postgraduates by ethnic origin

and gender Page 127 Table A29b K400 Planning (urban, rural and regional): all first degree by ethnic origin

and gender Table A30a K420 Urban and rural planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin Table A30b K420 Urban and rural planning: all first degree by ethnic origin Table A31a K421 Urban planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender


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Table A31b K421 Urban planning: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A32 K430 Planning studies: all first degree by ethnic origin Table A33a K440 Urban studies: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Page 128 Table A33b K440 Urban studies: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A34a K450 Housing: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Table A34b K450 Housing: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Table A35 K460 Transport planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


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APPENDIX 1

Table A1: UK applicants and accepted applicants for architecture and built environment university courses by ethnicity, 200374

Subject Asian Black Mixed Other Unknown White TOTAL

TOTAL KNOWN ETHNICITY

BME* as a % of known ethnicity

H1 - General Engineering Sum of Applicants 259 90 37 16 338 1528 2268 1930 20%

Sum of Degree Accepts 280 79 48 12 328 1309 2056 1728 23.6%

Sum of HND Accepts 8 3 2 1 37 49 100 63 20.6%

Sum of All Accepts 288 82 50 13 365 1358 2156 1791 23.5%

H2 - Civil Engineering Sum of Applicants 206 76 39 20 499 1723 2563 2064 15.6%




H3 - Mechanical Engineering Sum of Applicants 329 100 78 23 603 3271 4404 3801 13.3%



Sum of All Accepts 244 73 53 22 512 2454 3358 2846 13%

H6 - Electronic and Electrical Engineering Sum of Applicants 2047 815 194 120 1201 5913 10290 9089 33.6%




[Continued over…]

74 The number of degree acceptances is sometimes higher than the number of applicants, as additional students apply through ‘clearing’ and these are not recorded in the ‘sum of applicants’ figure.


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Table A1, continued: UK applicants and accepted applicants for architecture and built environment university courses by ethnicity, 2003

Subject Asian Black Mixed Other Unknown White TOTAL

TOTAL KNOWN ETHNICITY

BME* as a % of known ethnicity

K1 - Architecture Sum of Applicants 311 140 77 29 440 2409 3406 2966 17.8%



Sum of All Accepts 235 101 68 22 368 1695 2489 2121 19% K2 - Building Sum of Applicants 139 80 19 8 374 1837 2457 2083 11.4%



Sum of All Accepts 165 80 15 3 454 1559 2276 1822 14.3% K3 - Landscape Design Sum of Applicants 3 0 3 0 54 216 276 222 2.7%


Sum of HND Accepts 0 0 0 0 7 19 26 19 0%


K4 - Planning (Urban, Rural and Regional) Sum of Applicants 55 54 15 1 110 1128 1363 1253 9.9%



Sum of All Accepts 42 31 12 2 110 598 795 685 12.4% K9 - Others in Architecture, Building & Planning Sum of Applicants 4 1 0 0 6 19 30 24 20.8%

Sum of Degree Accepts 0 0 0 0 14 9 23 9 0%


Sum of All Accepts 0 0 1 0 15 10 26 11 9.1% Source: derived from UCAS student record, 2003 * BME includes ‘Asian’, ‘black’ and ‘mixed’ ethnic categories. It excludes ‘other’.


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Table A2: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03: first degree75 Principal subject of study

Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total mixed

Total BME

BME women as a % of total BME

Total other incl.

mixed other

Total white

Total unknown

% BME of known

ethnicity

TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 3.5% 11% 2% 1.1% 17.6% 18.6% 1.5% 76.7% 4.2%

18.3% 6340

Civil engineering 3.8% 6.4% 3.3% 0.7% 14.3% 16.5% 1.5% 78.9% 5.4%

15% 4910

Mechanical engineering 2.7% 6.5% 1.5% 0.6% 11.3% 9.1% 1.4% 82.9% 4.4%

11.8% 8775

Electronic & electrical engineering 7.5% 17% 2.4% 0.9% 27.8% 13% 2.5% 64.5% 5.2%

29.2% 14205 Architecture 4.1% 7.9% 3.5% 1.1% 16.6% 37.7% 1.9% 76.5% 5.1% 17.2% 5670 Building 4% 5% 0.8% 0.4% 10.2% 15.4% 1% 79.4% 9.5% 11.1% 7330

Quantity surveying 3.5% 2.7% 1 % - 7.3% 21% 0.8% 82.4% 9.5%

8.1% 1625

Landscape design 0.7% 2.6% 0.4% 0.3% 4.2% 49.5% 0.4% 91.7% 3.7%

4.2% 890

Planning (urban, rural & regional) 6.9% 3.9% 1% 0.6% 12.5% 58.1% 1.1% 81.2% 5.2%

12.9% 3120 Others in architecture, building & planning 4.2% 6.1% 0.6% 0% 10.9% 27.8% 0.6% 79.4% 9.1%

11.9% 165 TOTAL 4.8% 9.7% 2.1% 0.8% 17.3% 18.5% 1.7% 75.5% 5.5% 18.2% 51400 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students.

75 Includes enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees.


106

Table A3: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/99: first degree Principal subject of study

Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total BME

BME women as a % of total BME Total other

Total white

Total unknown

% BME of known

ethnicity

TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 3.3% 11.4% 1.5% 16.2% 19.3% 1.9% 76.6% 5.3%

17% 6760

Civil engineering 3.4% 6.4% 2.8% 12.6% 11.7% 1.7% 76.6% 9.1%

13.7% 5675

Mechanical engineering 2.7% 7.1% 1.7% 11.5% 8.4% 1.4% 76.9% 10.2%

12.7% 9950

Electrical and electronic engineering 7.9% 12.5% 1.7%

22.1%

8.9% 2.7%

66%

9.2%

27%

12920 Architecture 3.9% 6.5% 3.8% 14.2% 25.7% 2.7% 72.1% 10.9% 15.5% 4345 Building 3.2% 4% 0.8% 8% 16.3% 0.8% 84.6% 6.5% 8.5% 8920 Environmental technologies 0.4% 1.7% 0.5% 2.5% 47.6% 0.5% 90% 7%

2.6% 840

Town & country planning 6.5% 3.6% 0.6% 10.7% 51.1% 1.3% 81.7% 6.3%

11.2% 3940 Other architectural studies 3.6% 3.6% 3.6% 10.9% 0% 0% 87.3% 1.8%

10.9% 55 Balanced combinations within architecture, building & planning .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

.. ..

TOTAL 4.5% 8% 1.7% 14.2% 15.1% 1.8% 75.7% 8.3%

15.3% 53415



107

Table A4: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03: other undergraduate76

Principal subject of study

Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total mixed

Total BME

BME women

as a % of total BME

Total other incl.

mixed other

Total white

Total unknown

% BME of known ethnicity

TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 2.9% 6.6% 0.2% 0.4% 10.1% 15.2% 0.8% 80.4% 8.7%

11% 2880

Civil engineering 4.1% 3% 0.7% 0.5% 8.3% 7.3% 0.9% 74.6% 16.1% 9.7% 1490 Mechanical engineering 1.5% 2.1% 0.3% 0.5% 4.4% 4.5% 0.7% 86.7% 8.3%

4.7% 1535

Electronic & electrical engineering 6.1% 7.2% 0.4% 0.7% 14.4% 10.2% 1.5% 71.2% 12.9%

16.4% 2255 Architecture 1.5% 2.6% 2.5% 0% 6.6% 34.7% 1.5% 60.5% 31.5% 8.4% 1100 Building 2.9% 2.2% 0.4% 0.4% 5.9% 11.3% 0.5% 83% 10.5% 6.5% 2690

Quantity surveying 1.7% 0% 0% - 1.7% 0.0% 1.7% 87.2% 9.4%

1.9% 115

Landscape design 0.2% 0% 0% 1% 1.1% 16.7% 0% 91.3% 7.5% 1.2% 525 Planning (urban, rural & regional) 12.7% 3.1% 0% 0.7% 16.5% 69% 1.2% 53.5% 28.7%

18.3% 1310

Others in architecture, building & planning 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0.7% 82.8% 16.4%

0% 135 TOTAL 4.1% 4.0% 0.5% 0.5% 9.1% 22.4% 0.9% 75.8% 14.2% 10.1% 13910


76 Includes qualification aims below degree level such as foundation degrees, HND, HNC, Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), foundation courses at HE level, NVQ/SVQ levels 4 and 5, post-degree diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level, professional qualifications at undergraduate level, other undergraduate diplomas and certificates including post registration health and social care courses, other formal HE qualifications of less than degree standard, institutional undergraduate credit and no formal undergraduate qualifications.


108

Table A5: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/99: other undergraduate


Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total BME

BME women

as a % of total BME

Total other

Total white

Total unknown


TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 2.3% 4.4% 0.7% 7.4% 12.9% 1.3% 77.3% 14%

8.5% 2935

Civil engineering 5.5% 4.4% 0.9% 10.8% 12.1% 1.4% 75.6% 12.2%

12.2% 1290

Mechanical engineering 3.6% 4.9% 0.5% 9% 4.8% 0.7% 76.5% 13.8%

10.3% 1410

Electrical and electronic engineering 10.6% 10% 0.4%

21%

10.2% 2.8%

64.9%

11.3%

24.2%

2250 Architecture 2.7% 4.7% 1.9% 9.3% 20.6% 0.9% 69.7% 20.2% 10.9% 680 Building 5.5% 5.7% 0.6% 11.8% 14.4% 1.2% 78.9% 8% 12.8% 2230

Environmental technologies 1.3% 5.3% 0.9% 7.5% 47.1% 0.4% 77% 15%

8.5% 225 Town & country planning 12.9% 4.1% 0.5% 17.5% 58.1% 0.5% 70.5% 11.4%

18.8% 980 Other architectural studies 0.7% 0% 0% 0.7% 0% 0% 58.6% 40.7%

0.8% 145 TOTAL 5.8% 5.7% 0.7% 12.1% 17.4% 1.4% 73.8% 12.7% 13.6% 12140



109

Table A6: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03: postgraduate77


Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total mixed

Total BME

BME women as

a % of total BME

Total other incl.

mixed other

Total white

Total

unknown


TOTAL

NUMBER

General engineering 2.8% 5% 1.6% 0.3% 9.6% 15.7% 1.4% 78.4% 10.5%

10.6% 2585

Civil engineering 3.1% 3.3% 1.5% 0.2% 8% 17.7% 2.3% 68% 21.7%

9.6% 2105

Mechanical engineering 2.7% 4.6% 2% 0.2% 9.5% 11.2% 2.5% 69% 19%

11.4% 1930

Electronic & electrical engineering 6.7% 12.4% 2.2% 0.3% 21.6% 16.6% 4.6% 51.5% 22.4%

26.9% 2880 Architecture 3.1% 6.4% 3.7% 0.4% 13.7% 27.6% 2.8% 65.7% 17.7% 15.7% 2595 Building 6.4% 3.1% 0.5% 0.4% 10.4% 21% 1.4% 67.6% 20.6% 12.3% 1790

Quantity surveying 9.2% 7.9% 0% - 17.1% 15.4% 1.3% 80.3% 1.3%

17.3% 75

Landscape design 1.6% 0.9% 0.3% 1.3% 4.1% 38.5% 1.6% 83.5% 10.8%

4.3% 315

Planning (urban, rural & regional) 5.3% 3.4% 0.7% 0.4% 9.7% 46.7% 0.8% 74.3% 15.2%

10.6% 2720 Others in architecture, building & planning 3.8% 1.3% 1.3% 0% 6.4% 20% 0% 79.5% 14.1%

7.1% 80 TOTAL 4.3% 5.7% 1.8% 0.3% 12% 22.4% 2.3% 67.8% 17.8% 14% 16995


77 Postgraduate programmes of study are those leading to higher degrees, diplomas and certificates – including Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) and professional qualifications – and usually require that entrants are already qualified to degree level (i.e. already qualified at level 3 of the National Qualifications Framework).


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Table A7: UK domiciled students at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/99: postgraduate


Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total BME

BME women

as a % of total BME

Total other

Total white

Total unknown


TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 1.2% 3.5% 1.1% 5.7% 15.1% 1.9% 77.3% 15%

6.6% 2780

Civil engineering 4.2% 4.1% 1.5% 9.8% 12.1% 2.6% 49.1% 38.5% 14.2% 1600 Mechanical engineering 1.4% 2.7% 1% 5.2% 8.1% 4.5% 51.9% 38.5%

7.5% 2620

Electrical and electronic engineering 6.9% 9.7% 1.5%

18.1%

12.3% 3.2%

41.3%

37.4%

27%

3105 Architecture 2.4% 2.7% 1.5% 6.5% 29.6% 1.9% 55.8% 35.9% 8.7% 3010 Building 4.3% 2.3% 1.2% 7.7% 19% 1.2% 69.9% 21.1% 9.4% 1290 Environmental technologies 0.7% 1.1% 0.2% 2% 45.5% 1.5% 84.2% 12.3%

2.2% 540

Town & country planning 6.2% 2.7% 0.4% 9.2% 49.3% 0.9% 67.4% 22.4%

10.5% 2490 Other architectural studies 0.8% 5.4% 0.4% 6.7% 12.5% 0% 77.8% 15.5%

7.4% 240

TOTAL 3.6% 4.1% 1.1% 8.9% 20.4% 2.4% 59.3% 29.5%

11.5% 17665 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 1998/99 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students.


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Table A8: UK domiciled qualifiers at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 2002/03


Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total BME

BME women as % of

total BME

Total white

Total other

Total unknown

% BME

of known

ethnicity

TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 2.3% 7.3% 1% 10.6%

20.4% 77.5%

1.1% 10.8%

11.9%

2310

Civil engineering 3.3% 4.5% 2.7% 10.5%

15.5% 76.4%

1.9% 11.2%

11.8%

1900

Mechanical engineering 2.1% 4.7% 1.5% 8.3%

9.8% 79.9%

1.3% 10.5%

9.3%

3045

Electronic & electrical engineering 5.8% 14.3% 2.2% 22.4%

15.6% 64.1%

2.7% 10.9%

25.1%

4790 Architecture 2.2% 5.3% 3.3% 10.8% 31% 70.9% 2.5% 15.8% 12.8% 2440 Building 3% 2.5% 0.7% 6.2% 16.6% 81.4% 1% 11.5% 7% 2680 Landscape design 0.8% 1.9% 0.2% 2.9%

52.4% 89%

0.4% 7.7%

3.1%

485

Planning (urban, rural & regional) 5.9% 3.9% 0.8% 10.6%

61.5% 73.7%

1.4% 14.3%

12.3%

2185 Others in architecture, building & planning 1.3% 1.3% 0% 2.6%

50% 66.7%

0% 30.8%

3.7%

80 TOTAL 3.6% 6.9% 1.7% 12.3% 21.8% 74.1% 1.8% 11.9% 13.9% 19900

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


112

Table A9: UK domiciled qualifiers at English institutions by ethnicity, gender and subject of study, 1998/9978


Total black

Total Asian

Total Chinese

Total BME

BME women as % of

total BME

Total white

Total other

Total

unknown

% BME

of known

ethnicity

TOTAL NUMBER

General engineering 2.6% 6.5% 1.5% 10.7%

20.9% 77.6%

1.3% 10.4%

11.9%

2815

Civil engineering 3.4% 5.3% 2.1% 10.8%

11.8% 69.6%

1.6% 18%

13.2%

2435

Mechanical engineering 2.5% 6.1% 1.9% 10.6%

8.2% 72.3%

1.5% 15.7%

12.5%

2990

Electronic & electrical engineering 6.9% 9.5% 1.6% 18.1%

8.3% 62.4%

2.5% 17.1%

21.8%

4480 Architecture 2.2% 4.8% 2.8% 9.8% 22.4% 67.1% 1.8% 21.4% 12.4% 2145 Building 2.8% 3.9% 0.8% 7.4% 16.5% 84.3% 0.8% 7.6% 8% 3110 Environmental Technologies 0.7% 2% 0.3% 3%

38.9% 85.0%

0.7% 11.3%

3.4%

595

Town & Country Planning 6.4% 3.5% 0.8% 10.7%

52.5% 80%

0.9% 8.4%

11.6%

2270 Others architectural studies 0% 1.2% 0% 1.2%

0% 78.3%

0% 20.5%

1.5%

85 TOTAL 3.9% 5.9% 1.6% 11.4% 17% 73% 1.5% 14% 13.3% 20920

Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record July 1999 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. NOTE: HESA calculations are based on a headcount of full-time and part-time students.

78 As with the enrolment data, the 1998/99 qualifiers data is derived from the 1991 Census categories, and so is not directly comparable with the 2002/03 data.


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Table A10: First destination of UK domiciled students whose ethnicity is known from English institutions, 2001/02

Engineering* students Architecture, building and planning** students First destination by

Standard Industrial Classification

% of white students

% of BME*** students

% of white students

% of BME*** students

[A] Agriculture and Forestry

0.4% 0% 0.7% 0%

[C] Mining and Quarrying 0.7% 0.3% 0% 0% [D] Manufacturing 15.9% 5.3% 1.6% 0.9% [E] Electricity, Gas and Water Supply

1.5%

0.9%

0.4%

0.4%

[F] Construction 6.3% 3.5% 13% 5.3% [G] Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles, Motorcycles and Personal and Household Goods

5%

7.7%

2.5%

4.9%

[H] Hotels and Restaurants

1.4% 1.4% 1.1% 1.8%

[I] Transport, Storage and Communication

4.3%

5.3%

1.5%

0.9%

[J] Financial Activities 2.3% 3.2% 1.6% 3.1% [K] Property Development, Renting, Business and Research Activities

19.5%

14.1%

38.5%

30.2%

[L] Public Administration and Defence; Social Security

5.9% 3.2% 9% 3.6%

[M] Education 3.3% 2.3% 1.1% 0.4% [N] Health and Social Work

1.1% 1.1% 1.3% 2.7%

[O] Other Community, Social and Personal Service Activities

3.8% 1.4% 1.5% 1.8%

[P] Private Households with Employed Persons

0% 0% 0.1% 0%

[Q] International Organisations and Bodies

0.1% 0% 0% 0%

[R; S] Not Known 28.6% 50.5% 26.2% 44% Total (known ethnicity) 5035 925 2340 225 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA First Destination Supplement 2001/02 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties. * Includes: General Engineering; Civil Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Electrical and Electronic Engineering. ** Includes: Architecture; Building; Environmental Technologies; Town and Country Planning; Other Architectural Studies. *** Includes all Asian, black and Chinese ethnic groups.


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Table A11: First year trade trainees by ethnicity and region, 2002/03

Region

Number of ethnic

minorities

Total no. of trainees Ethnic minorities as % of total trainees

London 1077 3336 32.3% West Midlands 275 5320 5.2% East Midlands 139 4678 3% Yorkshire & Humberside 115 4367 2.6% South 141 5632 2.5% East 92 5061 1.8% North West 91 6093 1.5% South West 52 3731 1.4% North East 28 2984 0.9% Wales 24 2567 0.9% Scotland 34 4975 0.7% TOTAL 2068 48744 4.2% Source: author’s calculations, derived from data supplied by CITB-ConstructionSkills research department, 2004


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APPENDIX 2

HESA detailed course classification (course code and title) within broad subject headings of ‘Engineering’ and ‘Architecture, Building and Planning’

Group H: Engineering

• H100 General Engineering The study of design, construction, maintenance and development of any device which uses the resources of nature to turn energy into productive and useful work.

H110 Integrated Engineering The study of different branches of engineering and how they may interrelate.

H120 Safety Engineering The study of engineering structures and the development and use of materials with particular emphasis on preventing injury or sickness.

H121 Fire Safety Engineering The study of engineering structures and the development and use of materials with particular emphasis on preventing injury or damage through fire.

H122 Water Quality Control The study of engineering structures and fluid mechanics with particular emphasis on improving and maintaining water supplies and the disposal of waste water. May include considerations of health, hygiene and recreational use.

H123 Public Health Engineering The study of engineering principles, design and construction, with particular emphasis on public health and safety. H130 Computer-Aided Engineering The study and development of the use of computers with particular application to engineering problems. Includes aspects of software design and programming skills.

H131 Automated Engineering Design The study and development of the use of computers with particular application to engineering development and design. Includes aspects of software design and programming skills.

H140 Mechanics The study of the equilibrium of bodies or their motion within a particular frame of reference. May also be called Stress Analysis.

H141 Fluid Mechanics The study of the mechanical and flow properties of fluids. May also be called Fluid Dynamics, Hydraulics or Hydrodynamics. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H142 Solid Mechanics The study of the mechanical and static properties of solids. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.


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H143 Structural Mechanics The study of the equilibrium and motion of structures either of themselves or influenced by forces outside them. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H150 Engineering Design The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the development of electronic or manufacturing engineering tools.

H190 General Engineering not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into other General Engineering categories. To be used sparingly.

• H200 Civil Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the designing and construction of public works, e.g. buildings, bridges, pipelines etc. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H210 Structural Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the design and construction of physical shapes and forms. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H220 Environmental Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the sympathetic use of natural resources.

H221 Energy Resources The study and principles of engineering as they apply to the development and exploitation of various forms of energy e.g. wind, water, solar etc. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H222 Coastal Decay The study and principles of engineering as they apply to coastal and off-shore structures and the prevention of damage, decay and erosion to the natural environment. Includes the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H223 Environmental Impact Assessment The study and principles of engineering as they apply to the assessment and repair of insensitive environmental exploitation or natural upheaval.

H230 Transport Engineering The study and principles of engineering as they apply to the planning, development and construction of the routes for any form of terrestrial transport.

H231 Permanent Way Engineering The study and principles of engineering as they apply to the planning, development and construction of the routes for rail transport.

H232 Pavement Engineering The study and principles of engineering as they apply to the planning, development and construction of the routes for road transport.


117

H240 Surveying Science The study and practice of measuring altitudes, angles and distances on the land surface so that they can be accurately plotted on a map. May include the use of satellite information. Includes the setting out on the ground the positions of proposed structures. H241 General Practice Surveying The study and practice of measuring altitudes, angles and distances on the land surface in order to discover the land contours and plot constructions accordingly.

H242 Engineering Surveying The study and practice of measuring altitudes, angles and distances on the land surface in order to plan sites and constructions. Includes specialist underwater surveying techniques.

H250 Geotechnical Engineering The study and practice of discovering the formation, arrangement and structure of the rocks of the earth's crust by means of sonic investigation. Includes the design of earth structures, e.g. dams and foundations of build structures.

H290 Civil Engineering not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into other Civil Engineering categories. To be used sparingly.

• H300 Mechanical Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the design, development manufacture and operation of machinery.

H310 Dynamics The study of the forces that change or produce the motion of bodies. May include the study of kinetics. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H311 Thermodynamics The study of the interrelationship and interconversion of different forms of energy. Includes the study of the effects of pressure, temperature etc. May also be called Heat Exchange Technology. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H320 Mechanisms and Machines The study of the assembly and structure of moving parts arranged to transmit or modify force in order to perform some function.

H321 Turbine Technology The study of the conversion of the kinetic energy of a moving fluid via a rotating blade into mechanical energy. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H330 Automotive Engineering The study of mechanical self propulsion in vehicles.

H331 Road Vehicle Engineering The study of mechanical self propulsion in road vehicles.

H332 Rail Vehicle Engineering The study of mechanical self propulsion in rail vehicles.


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H333 Ship Propulsion Engineering The study of mechanical self propulsion in floating vessels.

H340 Acoustics and Vibration The study of oscillation and resonance.

H341 Acoustics The study of sound and sound waves.

H342 Vibration The study of periodic motion about an equilibrium position.

H350 Offshore Engineering The study and principles of engineering as they apply to the construction of structures sited in the sea and their interaction with wind and waves. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H360 Electromechanical Engineering The study of electrically-operated mechanical devices.

H390 Mechanical Engineering not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous group for related subjects which do not fit into other Mechanical Engineering categories. To be used sparingly.

• H600 Electronic and Electrical Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the practical uses of electricity. Involves the study of charged particles.

H610 Electronic Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to devices whereby electrons are conducted through a semi-conductor, free space or gas. Closely linked with electrical engineering.

H611 Microelectronic Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to microcircuits.

H612 Integrated Circuit Design The study of the most efficient processing of semiconductor material to form integrated circuits.

H620 Electrical Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the practical uses of electrical systems. Involves the study of charged particles. Closely linked with electronic engineering.

H630 Electrical Power The study of the rates at which electrical energy is fed into or taken from a device or system. Involves the study and application of specialist mathematics.

H631 Electrical Power Generation The study and development of techniques for producing electricity.

H632 Electrical Power Distribution The study and development of electromotive forces and techniques for distributing electricity.

H640 Communications Engineering


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The study and principles of engineering as they apply to electronic engineering.

H641 Telecommunications Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the telephonic or telegraphic communication of audio, video or other information (e.g. data) by means of radio waves, optical or electrical signals.

H642 Broadcast Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the equipment required to transmit audio or video information for radio and/or television programmes.

H643 Satellite Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to man-made devices orbiting the earth for communication purposes.

H644 Microwave Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to electromagnetic radiation or very short length radio waves used for transmitting and collecting information. H650 Systems Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to an assembly of electrical, electronic and mechanical components with interdependent functions.

H651 Digital Circuit Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to discrete values of input and output voltage levels.

H652 Analogue Circuit Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to voltages or currents used to measure or represent quantities.

H660 Control Systems The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to electrical and electronic methods of measurement, regulation and operation.

H661 Instrumentation Control The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the electronic manipulation of tools.

H662 Control by light systems The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the manipulation of tools by visible electromagnetic radiation.

H670 Robotics and Cybernetics The study of the relationship between biological systems and man-made systems designed and created to mimic them.

H671 Robotics The study of designing, building and use of robots.

H672 Cybernetics The study of control systems in electronic and mechanical devices and the extent to which


120

comparisons can be made between man-made and biological systems.

H673 Bioengineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to the design and manufacture of aids, such as artificial limbs, to rectify defective body functions.

H674 Virtual Reality Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to computer-generated environments.

H680 Optoelectronic Engineering The study of the principles of engineering as they apply to devices in which an optical input produces and electrical output or in which electrical stimulation produces visible, ultraviolet or infrared output.

H690 Electronic and Electrical Engineering not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into other Electronic and Electrical Engineering categories. To be used sparingly.

Group K: Architecture, Building and Planning

• K100 Architecture The study of the design, construction and erection of structures. Combines design creativity with technical competence. K110 Architectural Design Theory Design of buildings for human activity, taking into account both internal and external environmental factors.

K120 Interior Architecture The study of enclosed spaces; design, implementation and materials.

K130 Architectural Technology The theory and practice of advanced techniques and new materials in architectural design and construction.

K190 Architecture not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into the other Architecture categories. To be used sparingly.

• K200 Building The study of building materials and techniques. Includes building and environment law and economics, architectural engineering and quantity surveying.

K210 Building Technology The understanding of building design and its relationship with production.

K220 Construction Management The implementation of construction projects to the client's specification from inception to completion.

K230 Building Surveying The analysis of a building's performance from design and construction, through to maintenance and


121

repair.

K240 Quantity Surveying The financial management of project design and construction, whether for client or contractor.

K250 Conservation of Buildings The repair and restoration of old or damaged buildings.

K290 Building not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into the other Building categories.

• K300 Landscape Design The study of the design, construction and management of land-based scenery. Includes buildings within landscape and the habitat surrounding them.

K310 Landscape Architecture The scenic design of the natural environment and the layout of gardens and open spaces.

K320 Landscape studies The planning and management of the built and natural environment as landscape.

K390 Landscape Design not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into the other Landscape Design categories.

• K400 Planning (Urban, Rural and Regional) The study of the interaction between town and country land use. Includes the use of land for building. K410 Regional Planning The preparation of strategic plans for the development of a region.

K420 Urban and Rural Planning The planning of the infrastructure and development of settlements, including new towns and the management of change.

K421 Urban Planning The planning of the infrastructure, development and management of settlement in towns.

K422 Rural Planning The planning of the infrastructure, development and management of settlement in the country.

K430 Planning studies Reconciliation of the dynamics of the economic, environmental and social effects in the planning context.

K440 Urban studies The interaction of the planning process and management policies on the built environment. K450 Housing The development and management of housing projects in the private and social sectors and in land use planning.


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K460 Transport Planning The development and management of transportation systems.

K490 Planning (Urban, Rural and Regional) not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into the other Planning (Urban, Rural and Regional) categories. To be used sparingly.

• K900 Others in Architecture, Building and Planning Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into the other Architecture, Building and Planning categories. To be used sparingly.

K990 Architecture, Building and Planning not elsewhere classified Miscellaneous grouping for related subjects which do not fit into the other Others in Architecture, Building and Planning categories. To be used sparingly. Source: HESA website – http://www.hesa.ac.uk/jacs/completeclassification.htm [2004]


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APPENDIX 3 HESA detailed course statistics: UK domiciled students at English institutions, 2002/03 The following tables show data for selected individual postgraduate and first degree courses (UK domiciled students at English institutions) within the broad HESA course headings (‘Other undergraduate’ data were not used because numbers enrolled are often small, which means that, in line with HESA rounding methodology, the data must be suppressed). In addition, in line with data protection requirements, the gender split is not provided for those courses where the number of men or women is below 50. Note that ‘BME’ in all tables includes Asian, black and Chinese ethnicities only.

• H200 Civil engineering, 2002/03 Table A12a: H200 Civil engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender

% black % Asian %

Chinese % total BME % other % white

% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 1.6% 2.4% 3.1% 7.1% 1.6% 65.7% 25.6% 340 Male 3.3% 3.9% 1.5% 8.7% 2.7% 65.7% 22.9% 1185

TOTAL 2.9% 3.5% 1.9% 8.3% 2.5% 65.7% 23.5% 1525 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A12b: H200 Civil engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender

% black % Asian %


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 3.9% 5.4% 5.1% 14.4% 3.1% 78.3% 4.3% 635 Male 3.6% 7% 3% 13.5% 2.1% 78.7% 5.7% 3660

TOTAL 3.6% 6.8% 3.3% 13.7% 2.3% 78.6% 5.5% 4295 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• H210 Structural engineering, 2002/03 Table A13a: H210 Structural engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin

% black % Asian % Chinese % total BME % other % white

% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

4.0% 10.7% 1.3% 16.1% 5.4% 43% 35.6% 75 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A13b: H210 Structural engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

0.7% 6.7% 9.7% 17.1% 0.0% 80.3% 2.7% 50 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• H220 Environmental engineering, 2002/03 Table A14a: H220 Environmental engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 2% 1% 0% 3% 3% 76.6% 17.3% 100 Male 2% 1% 0% 3% 3.5% 83.1% 10.4% 200

TOTAL 2% 1% 0% 3% 3.3% 81% 12.7% 300 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


124

Table A14b: H220 Environmental engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

4.8% 2.1% 4% 10.9% 1.7% 81.8% 5.6% 325 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• H230 Transport engineering, 2002/03 Table A15: H230 Transport engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

10.9% 5% 1.7% 17.6% 0% 50.4% 31.9% 60 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• H240 Surveying science, 2002/03 Table A16a: H240 Surveying science: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

3.6% 1.8% 0% 5.5% 0% 89.1% 5.5% 55 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A16b: H240 Surveying science: all first degree by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

9.6% 5.8% 0.6% 16% 1.9% 78.2% 3.8% 155 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• H300 Mechanical engineering, 2002/03 Table A17a: H300 Mechanical engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 2.4% 6.5% 3.2% 12.1% 1.8% 61.8% 24.4% 170 Male 3.3% 4.7% 2.2% 10.2% 2.6% 66.3% 20.9% 1215

TOTAL 3.2% 4.9% 2.3% 10.4% 2.5% 65.7% 21.4% 1385 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A17b: H300 Mechanical engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 4.1% 6.3% 2.7% 13% 2.5% 81.3% 3.2% 620 Male 2.6% 6.7% 1.4% 10.7% 2% 82.5% 4.8% 6885

TOTAL 2.7% 6.7% 1.5% 10.9% 2% 82.4% 4.7% 7505 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• H600 Electronic and electrical engineering, 2002/03

Table A18a: H600 Electronic and electrical engineering: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 8% 15.1% 4.5% 27.6% 6.9% 52.3% 13.2% 290 Male 7.9% 13.8% 1.6% 23.2% 5% 52.4% 19.4% 1735

TOTAL 7.9% 14% 2% 23.9% 5.3% 52.3% 18.5% 2025 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


125

Table A18b: H600 Electronic and electrical engineering: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 12% 21.4% 3.6% 37.1% 5.6% 52.9% 4.5% 980 Male 7.9% 16.7% 2.1% 26.8% 3.2% 64.8% 5.2% 9240


• K100 Broadly-based programmes within architecture, building & planning, 2002/03 Table A19a: K100 Broadly-based programmes within architecture, building & planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 3.5% 5.3% 4.4% 13.1% 4.8% 64.8% 17.3% 725 Male 3% 6.8% 3.5% 13.3% 2.5% 66.4% 17.9% 1855

TOTAL 3.1% 6.4% 3.7% 13.2% 3.1% 65.9% 17.7% 2580 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A19b: K100 Broadly-based programmes within architecture, building & planning: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 4.6% 10% 4.5% 19.1% 3.6% 72.5% 4.8% 1635 Male 3.7% 6.6% 3.3% 13.5% 2.8% 78.6% 5.1% 3600

TOTAL 4% 7.6% 3.7% 15.3% 3% 76.7% 5% 5235 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K130 Architectural technology, 2002/03 Table A20: K130 Architectural technology: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 7.4% 13% 1.9% 22.2% 7.4% 66.7% 3.7% 55 Male 6.3% 10% 0.7% 17% 1.7% 75.3% 6% 300

TOTAL 6.5% 10.5% 0.8% 17.8% 2.5% 74% 5.6% 355 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K200 Building, 2002/03

Table A21a: K200 Building: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 6.8% 0.7% 1.1% 8.6% 1.8% 59.9% 29.7% 280 Male 6.1% 3.1% 0.4% 9.6% 1.5% 64.4% 24.5% 1005

TOTAL 6.3% 2.6% 0.5% 9.4% 1.6% 63.4% 25.7% 1285 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A21b: K200 Building: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 6.4% 6.3% 1.4% 14.1% 2.6% 66.6% 16.7% 385 Male 4.4% 6% 0.7% 11.1% 1.5% 76.7% 10.7% 2920

TOTAL 4.6% 6% 0.8% 11.5% 1.6% 75.5% 11.4% 3305 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


126

• K210 Building technology, 2002/03 Table A22: K210 Building technology: all first degree by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

3.2% 3.9% 1.6% 8.7% 0% 85.0% 6.3% 65 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K220 Construction management, 2002/03 Table A23a: K220 Construction management: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

8.8% 6.9% 1.3% 17% 2.5% 73% 7.5% 160 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A23b: K220 Construction management: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 10.7% 7.7% 3.1% 21.4% 3.1% 70.9% 4.6% 65 Male 3.2% 5.7% 1% 9.9% 0.9% 83.4% 5.7% 785


• K230 Building surveying, 2002/03 Table A24a: K230 Building surveying: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

8.1% 2.4% 0% 10.5% 4% 71.8% 13.7% 125 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A24b: K230 Building surveying: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 6.1% 1.7% 0.6% 8.4% 2.8% 84.9% 3.9% 180 Male 2.8% 5.1% 0.3% 8.1% 1.4% 82.3% 8.2% 1305


• K240 Quantity surveying, 2002/03 Table A25a: K240 Quantity surveying: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

9.2% 7.9% 0% 17.1% 1.3% 80.3% 1.3% 75 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A25b: K240 Quantity surveying: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 8.6% 1.6% 2.6% 12.8% 1% 78.4% 7.8% 195 Male 2.8% 2.9% 0.8% 6.6% 0.7% 83% 9.7% 1430

TOTAL 3.5% 2.7% 1% 7.3% 0.8% 82.4% 9.5% 1625 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


127

• K250 Conservation of buildings, 2002/03 Table A26: K250 Conservation of buildings: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

0.0% 1.4% 0% 1.4% 1.4% 89.2% 8.1% 75 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K300 Landscape design, 2002/03 Table A27a: K300 Landscape design: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender

Gender % black % Asian

% Chinese

% total BME % other % white

% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 0.9% 0.9% 0% 1.8% 1.8% 83.2% 13.3% 115 Male 1.5% 2.9% 0% 4.4% 5.9% 66.2% 23.5% 70 TOTAL 1.1% 1.7% 0% 2.8% 3.3% 76.8% 17.1% 180 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K300 Landscape design, 2002/03 Table A27b: K300 Landscape design: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender

Gender % black % Asian

% Chinese

% total BME % other % white

% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 1.2% 3.6% 0% 4.8% 0.5% 90.5% 4.3% 215 Male 0.4% 2.6% 0.4% 3.4% 1.2% 91.6% 3.9% 255 TOTAL 0.8% 3.0% 0.2% 4.0% 0.8% 91.1% 4.1% 475 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K310 Landscape architecture, 2002/03 Table A28a: K310 Landscape architecture: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender

% black % Asian %


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 1.6% 0% 1.6% 3.1% 0% 93.8% 3.1% 65 Male 2.9% 0% 0% 2.9% 4.3% 91.3% 1.4% 70 TOTAL 2.3% 0% 0.8% 3% 2.3% 92.5% 2.3% 135 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A28b: K310 Landscape architecture: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender

% black % Asian %


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 0.9% 4.4% 0% 5.3% 0.9% 91.2% 2.7% 115 Male 0.5% 1.5% 1.5% 3.6% 0.5% 92.3% 3.6% 195 TOTAL 0.7% 2.6% 1% 4.2% 0.7% 91.9% 3.3% 310 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K400 Planning (urban, rural and regional), 2002/03 Table A29a: K400 Planning (urban, rural and regional): all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 3.9% 1.5% 1.3% 6.7% 1.1% 70.3% 21.9% 700 Male 4.1% 2.7% 0.7% 7.4% 1.2% 69.3% 22% 735

TOTAL 4% 2.1% 1% 7.1% 1.2% 69.8% 22% 1430 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


128

Table A29b: K400 Planning (urban, rural and regional): all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 5% 4.8% 1.2% 11% 2% 81.7% 5.3% 655 Male 1.3% 2.5% 1.1% 4.9% 1.5% 88.7% 4.9% 1345

TOTAL 2.5% 3.2% 1.1% 6.9% 1.7% 86.4% 5% 2000 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K420 Urban and rural planning, 2002/03 Table A30a: K420 Urban and rural planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

5.8% 5.8% 0% 11.5% 0% 80.8% 7.7% 50 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A30b: K420 Urban and rural planning: all first degree by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

7.4% 5.6% 5.6% 18.5% 0% 81.5% 0% 55 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K421 Urban planning, 2002/03 Table A31a: K421 Urban planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 0.7% 2% 0% 2.6% 0% 94.8% 2.6% 155 Male 1.3% 2.6% 0.6% 4.5% 1.9% 87.1% 6.5% 155

TOTAL 1% 2.3% 0.3% 3.6% 1% 90.9% 4.5% 305 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A31b: K421 Urban planning: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 2.0% 4.9% 3.9% 10.8% 0% 77.5% 11.8% 50 Male 1.5% 3.8% 2.3% 7.6% 1.5% 87.9% 3% 130

TOTAL 1.6% 4.1% 2.7% 8.5% 1.1% 85% 5.5% 185 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K430 Planning studies, 2002/03 Table A32: K430 Planning studies: all first degree by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

1.2% 2% 0% 3.3% 0.4% 90% 6.3% 80 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K440 Urban studies, 2002/03 Table A33a: K440 Urban studies: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 6.2% 0% 0% 6.2% 0.8% 87.9% 5.1% 120 Male 1.4% 4.4% 0% 5.8% 2% 77.4% 14.8% 165

TOTAL 3.4% 2.6% 0% 6% 1.5% 81.7% 10.8% 285 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.


129

Table A33b: K440 Urban studies: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 0% 1.3% 1.3% 2.6% 2.6% 94.7% 0% 75 Male 0.8% 0.8% 0% 1.6% 1.6% 96.1% 0.8% 130

TOTAL 0.5% 1% 0.5% 2% 2% 95.6% 0.5% 205 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K450 Housing, 2002/03 Table A34a: K450 Housing: all postgraduates by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 10.3% 7.1% 0.6% 17.9% 2.6% 73.1% 6.4% 310 Male 18.2% 10.6% 0.3% 29.1% 0.5% 64.6% 5.8% 200

TOTAL 13.3% 8.4% 0.5% 22.3% 1.8% 69.8% 6.2% 510 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Table A34b: K450 Housing: all first degree by ethnic origin and gender Gender


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

Female 32.5% 7.1% 0% 39.6% 2.4% 53% 5% 340 Male 19.2% 7.5% 0% 26.8% 2.9% 59% 11.3% 240

TOTAL 27.0% 7.3% 0% 34.3% 2.6% 55.5% 7.6% 575 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03

• K460 Transport planning, 2002/03

Table: A35K460 Transport planning: all postgraduates by ethnic origin


% unknown

TOTAL NUMBER

1.6% 1.1% 1.1% 3.8% 0% 82.6% 13.6% 90 Source: Author’s own calculations, derived from HESA Student Record 2002/03 Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2004. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.

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