Dr Nick Cartwright presents to the Unite Students Commission on Living Black at University

The Unite Students Commission on Living Black at University launched in April 2022, in order to improve Black students’ experience in UK student accommodation.

School of Law’s new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead Dr Nick Cartwright was invited to present to the Commission on Living Black at University in July 2022 on the importance of data in identifying and responding to racial inequality. Dr Cartwright was also asked to present an outline EDI data maturity framework which was very well received and which he is now developing for the Commission. 

The Unite Students Commission on Living Black at University write up following the July meeting notes “Dr Cartwright shared that he had made Freedom of Information requests from 132 Higher Education institutions in the UK in 2021. Asking how many students have faced disciplinary action, and requesting results by ethnicity, he found that 83% were unable to identify if their institution was disciplining students in racially discriminatory ways. 

“4 in 10 of the institutions contacted did not capture data by ethnicity, while worryingly, a third did not respond at all. Even among those organisations that did respond, many organisations were holding poor quality demographic data, with students being categorised by a binary White / ‘BAME’ divide, rather than by specific ethnic group”. 

Dr Cartwright was recently awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for his work on inclusive education and using education as a mode of advancing social justice whilst teaching as a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Northampton and with the United Nations.