C-CIDE Model Goes International with UK Adoption

One focus of the successful California Consortium for Inclusive Doctoral Education (C-CIDE) pilot has been equipping faculty with resources to manage political, motivational, and time costs associated with changing admissions. The project organizes change-ready faculty into a community of practice; provides research, training, and tools in equity-minded holistic review; and facilitates structured discussions that can be delicate for departments to have on their own.

The thoughtful design and positive impacts of the Consortium in California universities caught the attention of scholars of inequality in British doctoral education. One analysis of degree attainment in the UK shows that out of almost 20,000 PhD’s awarded over three years, Black students received only 245, including 30 from Black Caribbean backgrounds. 

As a result, Professors Paul Wakeling and Kathryn Arnold from the University of York mobilized six universities to similarly propose and obtain major grant funding for the Yorkshire Consortium for Equitable Doctoral Education (YCEDE). These universities will translate C-CIDE’s workshop curriculum so it is relevant for the British context. The YCEDE team will work closely with the Pullias Center’s Julie Posselt, who also advised the Yorkshire PI team in developing their proposal. Moving forward, she will provide feedback as they implement professional development with faculty, serve on the project’s advisory board, and conduct research with Professor Wakeling.

There are significant differences between the US and UK, including how national histories of racism affect higher education today. But many issues are aligned. Implicit racial and gender biases, the prominent role of college pedigree, and the intersections of race with gender and class dynamics are just a few.

At the heart of both the C-CIDE and the YCEDE projects is recognition that standard operating procedures for selecting and serving doctoral students have been at odds with the goals of equity. “Racism takes many forms,” Posselt notes. “Institutionalized racism occurs when, even among professionals who think of themselves as anti-racist, standard practice discriminates racially or has disparate impact.” 

Institutionalized racism is stubborn because it falls outside the scope of current anti-discrimination law (which covers individual intent) and because moving to more inclusive practice can be costly. Reducing the costs of change is therefore crucial – as is recognizing that we can do much more in tackling these challenges together than any of us, or any one project, can do alone.