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The main aim of #BlackInCardio is to bring together and highlight all the amazing Black professionals and researchers in the field of cardiovascular science.
In the UK, CVD is a leading cause of death but research done within the field rarely represents the minority groups. When looking at statistics on cardiovascular disease, it is easy to think they are representative, but unfortunately this is often not the case.
Why is this?
Why is this?
The Black population in the UK is approximately 3.3%, of that researchers don’t even make up a significant enough number to be represented. Worse, looking for Black cardiovascular researchers in senior positions is like looking for a needle in a haystack!
When you break this down even further, 4,140 out of 217,065 academic staff identify as Black. As of 2020, there are ONLY 140 Black professors out of 21000 in the UK.... Imagine how small this is within the cardiovascular field.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02681-y
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/27/fewer-than-1-of-uk-university-professors-are-black-figures-show
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02681-y
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/27/fewer-than-1-of-uk-university-professors-are-black-figures-show
Well from personal experience, undergraduate biological science courses tend to be pretty diverse despite differences in how different ethnicities make up the overall UK population. However, the further up the academic ladder you go, the less diverse postgraduate courses get.
Again, UK HESA reported in terms of undergraduate degree attainment between Black and white students that there was indeed a gap in the percentage of students who achieve either 1st class or 2.1 degree in 2018-19 (shown in the next tweet)
1st
29.7% (white) 14.1% (Black)
2:1
47% (white) 42.9% (Black)
2:2
14.7% (white) 30.7% (Black)
3rd
2.84% (white) 9.1% (Black)
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/outcomes
29.7% (white) 14.1% (Black)
2:1
47% (white) 42.9% (Black)
2:2
14.7% (white) 30.7% (Black)
3rd
2.84% (white) 9.1% (Black)
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/outcomes
One of the great things about #BlackInCardio and all of the other amazing #BlackinX movements is the fact that, realistically speaking, we may just be the generation to overturn these somewhat bleak statistics in terms of senior academic appointments in the UK.
