Specialists in ethnic issues and equal opportunities are being recruited by Bradford University.

The senior advisers will each work half the week, attracting a pro rata salary of between £25,000 and £30,000 a year.

And the university's Pro Vice Chancellor Grace Alderson said she hoped the appointments would continue positive work against discrimination and encourage minority groups and women into the university.

"The university is doing very well in terms of widening participation," she said.

"About 30 per cent of full-time undergraduates studying here came from local communities and of the university's home students, about one in five is from an ethnic minority.

"We want to look to make a difference to these people."

The equality adviser on ethnicity and cultural diversity is a new post, working alongside an adviser with responsibility for equal opportunity in a revamped post.

The jobs have grown out of the work of a task force set up in 1997 to look at equal opportunities work within the university, which has 8,000 students.

Last year, a brainstorming day on Combating Racism was held and work has continued on ethnicity issues as well as gender and disability.

Prof Alderson said everything on campus would be looked at in terms of whether it was appropriate and welcoming for all students, from food and drink in the refectory to publicity material for the university.

"Gender is an important issue. In terms of academic staff, we need more female professors and senior staff," she added.

Initiatives such as the junior university have proved successful in encouraging more people into the institution, she said.

A report by head of personnel, Janet Jones, said: "One of the current challenges for the university is to harness the expertise, energy and commitment to equality within the university in such a way as to effect real and measurable organisational change."

The new jobs could be done by one individual working full-time to combine the roles, or by two part-time employees.

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