QUALIFIED BLACK graduates are being “shut out” of academic careers in science and technology, according to a report by the Royal Society.

White students were twice as likely as black students to graduate from degrees in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) with a first-class honours between 2018-19. Whilst black students were three times more likely to leave university with a third. They also had a higher drop-out rate of 4.7% in comparison to their white counterparts at 2.7%

These figures only contribute to underrepresentation in academic careers with just 1.7% of academic staff identifying as black, compared with 13.2% as Asian and 81.3% as white.

Just 3.5% of black academic staff are professors, compared with 11.9% of white staff, according to Higher Education Statistics Agency data.

Sir Adrian Smith, the president of the Royal Society said: “Talented black people are not finding science careers in UK academia and that is unacceptable. Our reports show that black people are more likely to drop out of science at all points of their career path. It is time that the whole science community comes together to find out why and put it right.”

The Royal Society found that of the 5,070 eligible UK nationals for its early career fellowship grants, just 12% are from any minority ethnic background, and only 1% are black. Over the past three years, one fellowship scheme has received no applications from black British researchers.

To combat this issue, the Royal Society is planning a programme of networking events and mentorship schemes for early career researchers from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Research commissioned by the Department for Education revealed that black students had the lowest returns from attending university out of any ethnic group.

Their lifetime gains averaged at £50,000 compared with £100,000 for white graduates and £200,000 for South Asian men, with more of them studying financially lucrative subjects such as business, pharmacology and law.

Jack Britton, associate director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which produced the report, said: “Among students from the poorest families, few get rich as a result of getting a degree. However, going to university is still an especially good financial decision for these students. One reason – regrettably – is that earnings prospects for this group are otherwise quite low.”