Varsity Issue 853

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Dressing defensively Fashion 22 For me, love is a gulf of contradictions Features 13

How relativity changed the story Science 28

No. 853 Friday 26th October 2018 varsity.co.uk

Arts 26-27

Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947

Cambridge among UK’s ‘most liberal’ areas

91.9% Percentage of total Cambridge professors and readers who are white, of those who disclosed ethnicity

Amy Batley Senior News Correspondent

£11,947 Difference between the average annual salary of black and white academic and research staff

▲ Cambridge has few BME professors, a position which requires University approval through its General Board (ROSIE BRADBURY)

Stark pay gap for BME academics Jess Ma, Catherine Lally, and Rosie Bradbury Black academic and research staff at Cambridge make on average nearly £12,000 less a year than white staff, and academics from Chinese backgrounds

make almost £10,600 less, of Cambridge staff who disclosed their ethnicity. Data obtained by Varsity concerning the University’s basic pay for the year 2017-2018 showed that the average salary for white academic and research staff was £49,442, while the total average across all ethnicities was £48,451.

On average, academics from other ethnic backgrounds face lower average salaries than their white colleagues at the University. Academic and research staff from Black and Black British backgrounds have an average salary of £37,495 per annum. The average pay figures include only

those staff who have disclosed their ethnicity. In the University’s 2016-2017 ‘Equality and Diversity Draft Information Report’, 84.1% of staff had a known ethnicity. Academics from Arab backgrounds Continued on page 6 ▶

The Castle area of Cambridge, which includes more than a third of the University’s colleges, is “the most liberal area” of England, according to an investigation into national attitudes published last week. The study, entitled ‘Fear, hope and loss: Understanding the drivers of hope and hate’, was conducted by anti-extremist political action group Hope Not Hate. These findings come after a report by the Centre for Cities, released in February this year, described Cambridge as the least equal city in the UK in terms of wealth and income. The Hope Not Hate report argues that there has been an emergence of “two Englands”, split between areas characterised by Euroscepticism and hostility towards immigration and “liberal, outward-looking and cosmopolitan areas”. The study, which polled 43,000 people at several intervals between 2011-2018 and incorporated analysis of Change.org petitions in support of Tommy Robinson, highlighted stark geographic divisions in attitudes towards immigration and multiculturalism. The report distinguishes between six different cultural attitudes, or “tribes”, ranging from ‘Confident Multicultural’ to ‘Active Enmity’. The ‘Confident Multicultural’ category, the report argues, is characterised by a “celebratory” attitude Continued on page 9 ▶

Inside ● Behind Cambridge’s latest access effort Pg.10 ● Photographing the faiths of Cambridge Pg. 12