100 Black Women Professors NOW

A message from Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Marcia Wilson.

The 100 Black Women Professors NOW is a unique 12-month accelerator and change programme for UK Higher Education institutions and delivered by the Women’s Higher Education Network (WHEN).

This programme is important because of the underrepresentation of Black women in senior positions in the academia. There are more than 26,000 professors in the UK and there are around 100 who are Black women.

In 2018, there were just 25 Black women professors out of 12,500 in the UK, and although the number has steadily increased over the last eight years, less than 0.1% of the professors are Black women in the UK.

This programme aims to increase the number of Black women at every stage of the academic pipeline and to accelerate their career progression. Since it launched in 2021, the number of Black women professors today has more than doubled.

BCU is currently supporting a 2026 cohort through the programme and has signed up to run the programme in partnership with WHEN for three years.

While progress has been made towards gender equality in Higher Education, we know barriers still exist for many Black women pursuing academic careers.

We are proud to support our 2026 cohort, providing opportunities for development, mentoring, sponsorship and networking. By investing in talented colleagues, we can help create a more diverse and inclusive academic community that reflects the students and communities we serve.

Find out more about the programme.