The UK’s first professor of black studies, Kehinde Andrews, made headlines last week by claiming that “universities produce racism”. He is heading up the UK’s first degree course in black studies at Birmingham City University, in a bid to use education for social change. But, writing for the Guardian, he argued there was “institutional racism embedded in universities”.
So we asked students and academics to share their views about race issues on campus – including a prospective university candidate who is planning to apply for Andrews’s black studies BA.
‘Universities should be more representative’
Reccarnei Phillipson
A-level student, applying to Birmingham City University’s new black studies course
“It’s bad that this is the first course of its kind – especially in Britain, where we pride ourselves on being a multicultural society. Universities need to bear in mind that a lot of people have some sort of non-British background, so I feel they should adapt their courses to try to reflect that. A lot of people aren’t fully British and may want to do a course that helps them to find out more about their own culture. That’s what university’s supposed to be about. It’s not just learning about a subject, but learning about yourself.
“I’m interested in social sciences and in the future I’d like to be some sort of activist for Black Lives Matter, or something along those lines. So a degree that has some focus on racial discrimination is the main factor in deciding what course I want to do. It’s been quite difficult to find courses, but I’ve found some.
“When I go to uni, I’ve told myself that I want to be in a place that has quite a big black population. I don’t think it’s realistic to live in a place that doesn’t have that. I’d like to go somewhere where there are things that I’m used to, like being able to go to the salon and have my hair done properly. Little things like that automatically make you feel a bit more comfortable.
“Universities should be more representative, because I feel that would make people more comfortable. But it shocks me more that we don’t have enough BME [black and minority ethnic] school teachers. Once you’ve got to the point where you’re university standard, you’ve already got your role models put in place. You’ve sorted yourself out enough not to really need a strong role model. But when you’re in primary school and high school, that’s when you need to have role models who are similar to you.”
‘White privilege dominates’
Dr Kalwant Bhopal
Professor of education and social justice at the University of Southampton
“Universities are white spaces, in which whiteness – and white privilege – dominates. Our research shows, for example, that black and minority ethnic staff are very scared to make complaints about racism. And when they do, it’s either dismissed as a ‘clash of personalities’, or it’s seen as taking something out of context. So what happens is the victim becomes the villain and white identity is protected at all costs.
“It’s interesting that universities pride themselves on being very international. They always wave this flag: “We’re very international; we’re very inclusive.” And that may well be the case (because the numbers of international students is very high), but the curriculum does not address that internationalisation. The curriculum that’s presented is very eurocentric. These are worrying times for universities: we say we live in a global society, but if you walk into any university and see who is on that senior management team, it’s predominantly white.
“This all impacts on black and minority ethnic students. In the research I’ve done, many people in their final year felt there was a lack of role models. There is some excellent good practice going on in universities, so things may well change in the future. But we’ve got a long way to go in terms of race, and that’s reflected in the statistics.”
‘If there’s ever a problem, it’s tackled pretty easily’
Nuzhat Fatima
Welfare and diversity executive officer, Loughborough Students’ Union
“At my institution, I feel that if there’s ever a problem, it’s tackled pretty easily. We have a very good relationship with our vice-chancellor, so if our students are unhappy and we want to make a change, we directly contact the university. They understand that in order for the university to thrive and move forward, they have to support students. But when I look at other universities I don’t really see their vice-chancellors interacting with the students that often. I think having that kind of relationship is key.
“Being of Muslim background, coming to a university like Loughborough has been very beneficial for my personal development. And to have this position which celebrates student diversity is very important to me.
“Institutional racism exists – just like institutional sexism and homophobia exist. And because it exists in society, it can’t just be eradicated overnight. But here at Loughborough, we obviously try to tackle every single thing we can, in terms of diversity and inclusion.”
‘Race does not exist by itself’
Dr Deborah Gabriel
Lecturer at Bournemouth University and founder of Black British Academics
“I don’t think we should only be talking about race. Race does not exist by itself; it works in conjunction with other factors like ethnicity, culture and gender. So I don’t see how you can possibly not adopt an intersectional approach to this.
“The latest figures from Hesa show there are 105 black professors. That’s obviously a dismal figure, but what’s more dismal is that only 30 of those are women. So we need to talk about race and gender, as well as other sites of intersection, like class. We should be concerned with how racial disparity impacts on all ethnic groups and not just present this dichotomy of white and black.
“There’s very little news coverage on the transformation that’s taking place across the sector. The public is given this picture that it’s absolutely dismal and racist in higher education, but that’s not quite the case. Racism is embedded in the education system, just as it is throughout society, but I wouldn’t single out higher education institutions as producing racism. I’m not suggesting at all that universities are beacons of race equality, but I think we should talk more about the transformation and where that’s coming from.
“A lot of the momentum is coming from the students, I’m very proud to say. There have been so many student-led events and reports where they are defining and documenting the issues very articulately and making their voices heard. Higher education institutions are very sensitive to student experience because that’s where the fees come from.”
‘It needs to start with governance and leadership’
Randall Whittaker
Professor and member of the executive at Leeds College of Art
“We’re not doing ourselves any favours by isolating race from gender, sexuality, disability and so forth. We’ve got a bigger issue here about how we deal with growing inequality throughout society in the UK. For me, it’s not only about race anymore – it’s about the whole environment.
“We keep on saying that we’ve got a problem. What are we doing about it? Progress remains slow, so we need to do something different. We don’t need more data to tell us that social mobility for these groups is poor. We know it. But we don’t seem to have a working strategy yet for encouraging and developing talent.
“However, I think we’ve got to be careful to say that universities, at a strategic level, aren’t doing anything about this. I would be surprised if the executive groups in universities aren’t talking about this all the time. But it becomes very hard to see how that actually translates in the curriculum. A framework already exists for promoting equality, diversity and inclusion within the curriculum. I would encourage universities to really examine their processes to ensure that these issues are confronted at the curriculum design stage.
“It’s not easy, but I think the time for finger-pointing and blaming is over. In the interest of our students we need to be seen to do something proactive about it and be more transparent about what we’re doing. And my view is that we need to start at the top.”
‘People are really reluctant to change’
Barbara Ntumy
Student activist and sabbatical officer at London Metropolitan University
“I studied politics and I remember so many times when people would say things that weren’t challenged. For example, when we talked about terrorism, people would make generalisations about Muslims. We think of universities as a place where your ideas and views get challenged, but that’s a utopian version of university. My general experience isn’t that.
“The curriculum is white. If people are coming in with a wealth of knowledge and experience that they’ve accumulated culturally in their communities, and that’s not reflected in the curriculum or the things we’re able to do, then we’re not going to get people engaging very much. I’ve challenged this several times when I’ve spoken to lecturers, but they say: “Oh, we’ve already written the module.” People are really reluctant to change. I think a lot of this is connected to the way lecturers and academics have been treated in the last five to 10 years. There’s been more casualisation – my university has lots of casual staff – and academics have been saddled with a lot of work. So they don’t have a lot of paid opportunity and time to rework these things that students say to them.
“The way universities are set up now, there’s no accountability. They can take your money and do whatever they want. They’re not accountable to you, to give you the best-quality, diverse, great education that you deserve.”
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