Science and Technology Committee: MPs to explore diversity and inclusion in STEM education

Evidence Session: Diversity and inclusion in STEM

Wednesday 16 March at 9.30am, Committee Room 8: WATCH LIVE on parliamentlive.tv

MPs to explore diversity and inclusion in STEM education

The Science and Technology Committee will explore the underrepresentation of women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people throughout the STEM education pathway, in a session taking place during British Science Week.

In the first panel, MPs will explore the perceived barriers to certain groups pursing STEM subjects, the implications of underrepresentation as well as the possible solutions that could be implemented across schools, hearing the current experiences of teachers.

In the second panel, the Committee will discuss the picture in academia, including inequality seen in research funding decisions and processes. UKRI data show that ethnic minority researchers are awarded grants at a lower rate and the value of the grants that are awarded are on average 20% lower. Following the first evidence session of the inquiry last month, the inquiry was renamed Diversity and Inclusion in STEM.

Witness schedule:

Panel one (at 9.30am):

• Sam Freedman, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government and Senior Adviser, Ark;    
• Russell Hobby, CEO, Teach First; and
• Claudenia Williams, Assistant Principal, Kingsley Academy Hounslow.

Panel two (at approx. 10.30am):

• Professor Rachel Oliver FREng, Director, Centre for Gallium Nitride, University of Cambridge and representative of The Inclusion Group for Equity in Research and STEMM; and
• Professor Narender Ramnani, Professor of Neuroscience, Royal Holloway University of London.