Valuing diversity in universities: institutional value statements and the reality of student intakes

ABSTRACT

Many of the universities in England publicise statements of their values, separately from other mission statements, aims or goals. This paper compares universities whose value statements contain direct references to diversity, inclusion or equality, with those that do not and seeks to explore whether such values are reflected in these institutions’ student intakes. Although a relatively broad-brush approach, by focusing on the characteristics of student bodies (in terms of ethnicity, disability, and prior background in terms of school type attended and local area) the paper shows that in general there are minimal differences according to whether a university publically claims to value diversity according to available quantitative data.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• values
• equality
• ethnicity
• disability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.