Decolonisation of universities needed to address a ‘silent crisis’
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has published a new report which shows that decolonising higher education is vital to tackling discrimination, hostility and unconscious bias in UK universities.
Miseducation: decolonising curricula, culture and pedagogy in UK universities by Mia Liyanage is based on over 20 hours of interviews with leading figures in academia, student activism and higher education policy. The report’s recommendations include:
- Ensuring a better understanding of decolonisation and ending its conflation with equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
- Prioritising decolonisation in order to expand the curriculum and improve both teaching and course content.
- Increasing Government and university funding for BAME research and BAME-only scholarships.
- Tackling discrimination, hostility and unconscious bias against those working on decolonisation.
- Creating departmental roles to work specifically on issues relating to anti-racism and the decolonising of their department.
- Establishing channels for collaboration on these issues between students and faculty.
Sixteen contributors were interviewed for the report. These include: lecturers; a Vice Chancellor; officers at students’ unions, including the NUS; undergraduate activists; and policy advisers to universities. The contributors are listed in full at the start of the report.
Anti-racism demands more from us than diversity
Mia Liyanage, author of the report and Master’s student at the University of Oxford, said:
"This report is a vital resource for universities amid current calls for anti-racist reform. Miseducation contains powerful testimony from experts, and from staff and students of colour, who describe a silent crisis in our universities.
Anti-racism demands more from us than diversity – decolonisation is the crucial next step for our institutions. Meaningful change requires commitment, for which this report provides a clear roadmap."
In the Foreword to the report, Professor Iyiola Solanke, Professor of EU Law and Social Justice at University of Leeds and founder of the Black Female Professors Forum, said:
'As set out in this important report, adoption of the decolonisation agenda must embrace all aspects of higher education – including pedagogy – so that key social and political institutions, such as the police, can in all aspects be reflective of the population that they serve.
An outdated euro-centrism, that no longer reflects the world in which graduates will live and work, must not be allowed to dominate in our classrooms or in the country.'
Decolonisation begins with protecting BAME jobs, union warns
However, the University and College Union (UCU) said that universities must protect BAME staff if they are serious about decolonising higher education. The report showed staff working in decolonisation were worried about the security of their job. One academic said “it always will be women of colour, typically black women, who are going to be demonised the most”.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "Universities need to do more than pay lip service to tackling the structural inequality that stretches across our education system. This report demonstrates that there is much work to do to decolonise our institutions, and that this needs to be a responsibility shared by staff at all levels.
‘UCU is ready to work with universities to progress this agenda, but it must start by ensuring BAME staff in academia are able to progress in their careers. We know these staff are currently more likely to be on the casual contracts most at risk of being cut as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. Universities also need to do more to challenge the hostile environment and welcome scholars from the global south, including by paying visa fees and other immigration charges."
About The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) was established in 2002 to shape the higher education policy debate through evidence. It is the United Kingdom’s only independent think tank devoted to higher education. HEPI is a non-partisan charity funded in part by organisations and universities that wish to see a vibrant higher education debate.
For further information visit https://www.hepi.ac.uk/
HEPI has previously published research on racial equality, including The white elephant in the room: ideas for reducing racial inequalities in higher education.
