Birmingham university's first black vice-chancellor looks to use role as a platform

The first black vice-chancellor at Birmingham City University said he wanted to use his platform to improve opportunities for others.

Prof David Mba said the role had been "impossible to resist".

He said he wanted to help students from "the most deprived areas of the West Midlands" find employment and act as a role model for students belonging to ethnic minorities.

Prof Mba also said he wanted to improve representation among his staff.

He said he was only the second black university vice-chancellor in the UK.

"The more we can improve representation across the sector, the more role models we have for our students and the more ambitious our students can become," Prof Mba added.

Previously, he served as deputy vice-chancellor at the University of the Arts London and started his new role on 2 October.

He said received a warm welcome from staff and students and felt "honoured and privileged" to have been given the job.

Speaking about his aims, he said he was "very much about social equity and social mobility" and saw an opportunity to help students at the university who were from low-income backgrounds and mainly from the West Midlands.

Prof Mba left university with a first class engineering degree but ended up washing cars for a year because he struggled to get a job.

He said with hindsight he felt he had lacked guidance into the world of work and added: "Since I've got into leadership roles I've tried to make students more employable."

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