Tricia Wombell, the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, spoke to an audience of academics and higher education professionals on Monday 23 February about supporting diversity aspirations in UK higher education.

Using her personal and professional perspective on the topic, she discussed the lack of diversity in UK higher education ('There are only 85 black professors in the UK, and of those only 17 are women' and 'In the UK only one in five vice-chancellors is female'), but expressed an optimistic outlook on the future by providing examples of ongoing efforts being made across the sector to close the gap on gender and racial inequalities.

She said: ‘Diversity remains one of the most persistent challenges in higher education. The journey to becoming more diverse and representative of the communities that universities and higher education colleges serve is continuous.’

You can listen to the full talk on our Soundcloud account (below), watch a five minute video on our Youtube channel (also below), and see more pictures from the event on our Flickr account.

This talk was part of the ACU Perspectives speaker series, a regular evening event held in London, UK, on the broad theme of ‘change and opportunity in higher education’. Past speakers have included: Professor Roger Makanjuola, former Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria; Professor Budd Hall, Director of the Office of Community Based Research at the University of Victoria; and Dr Joan Dassin, founding Executive Director of the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowship Program (IFP). Read more about the ACU Perspectives series at www.acu.ac.uk/perspectives