Dr
Tony Sewell CBE, Jatin Haria, and Sandra Kerr CBE have been appointed as
independent expert advisors to Universities UK (UUK) as the higher education
sector seeks to redouble efforts to prevent and respond to racial harassment
and hate crime.
UUK
has established a taskforce looking at racial harassment experienced by both
staff and students, which will develop new guidance for the sector and make
recommendations for addressing the challenges in this area.
Professor
Julia Buckingham, the President of UUK and Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University
London, announced in the autumn that independent external advisors would be
sought to strengthen the work of the group, and today confirmed the three
appointments.
Delivering
the keynote address at today’s conference ‘Tackling violence, harassment and
hate incidents’ in London, Professor Buckingham welcomed:
Dr Tony Sewell, Fellow of UCL,
Senior Research Fellow for Demography, Immigration, and Integration at
Policy Exchange and the CEO of the charity Generating Genius.
Jatin Haria,
Executive Director at the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights in
Scotland, who also worked on the Scottish Government’s Race Equality
Framework.
Sandra Kerr, the Race Equality
Director of Business in the Community, who was instrumental in developing
the Race at Work Charter.
Within
her speech, Professor Buckingham also called upon university leaders to
redouble their efforts to tackle harassment and hate crime more widely,
emphasising that strategic ownership for this agenda should sit at the most
senior level within institutions.
Professor
Buckingham
said:
“If
we are to tackle these issues effectively then senior leaders –myself, and the
other 136 members of Universities UK – must embed, expand and effect the
further change that is necessary.
“That
means an ongoing commitment to taking a strategic and joined-up approach, to
culture change and to scrutiny and accountability.”
In
a measure of the collective importance being placed on the issue of tackling
harassment, three other university vice-chancellors also addressed the event,
which brings together higher education staff, stakeholders and student
representatives annually.
ENDS
Notes
Professor Buckingham’s full
speech is available here 
Julia Buckingham Advance HE Value Speech.pdf
Universities
UK is the collective voice of 137 universities in England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland. Its mission is to create the conditions for UK
universities to be the best in the world; maximising their positive impact
locally, nationally and globally. Universities UK acts on behalf of
universities, represented by their heads of institution. Visit: www.universitiesuk.ac.uk
Tony
Sewell CBE is a Fellow of UCL, a Senior Research Fellow for Demography,
Immigration, and Integration at Policy Exchange and is the CEO of the
charity Generating Genius, which among its many achievements has
progressed significant work on raising black boys’ attainment.
Sandra
Kerr CBE is the Race Equality Director of Business in the Community and
was instrumental in developing the Race at Work Charter.
Jatin
Haria is Executive Director at the Coalition for Racial Equality and
Rights in Scotland. Jatin worked on the Scottish Government’s Race
Equality Framework and has previously served on the Commission for Racial
Equality Scotland Advisory Board and the Scottish Executive's Race
Equality Advisory Forum.
