Anti-racism in UK universities: what are we learning?
- Minto Felix, University of Oxford
- Kaushika Patel, De Montfort University (DMU)
- Amatey Doku, Nous Group
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The Black Lives Matter movement, Rhodes Must Fall and related campaigns, and efforts to decolonise the curriculum have only grown in prominence in UK higher education over the past few years. Students and staff alike are mobilising to advance racial equality in universities, while university leaders have committed themselves to acting on charters, plans and review recommendations. But what have been the collective impact of these actions locally, nationally, and internationally? And what are the tensions that remain?
This session will draw together the practitioner experience of individuals at the forefront of driving change on these issues with theory to trace some of the key developments in UK higher education. We will detail the successes and consider the challenges faced by institutions and explore the progress of racial equality in relation to teaching and learning, the experiences of students and staff, the nature of research collaborations and internationalisation, and the overall financial model of universities. Importantly, the session will think through the initiatives that could make a positive difference to achieving further racial equality within UK universities and which may have resonance to other system of higher education globally.
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Minto Felix is a doctoral student originally from Melbourne who is investigating research culture in Indian higher education at the University of Oxford Department of Education. He is a graduate of the Department’s MSc (Higher Education) program. Outside of Oxford, Minto is a strategy and public policy consultant with the Nous Group, who work with higher education institutions in the UK and globally.
Kaushika is the Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and the Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at De Montfort University (DMU), and has been in academia since 2007. Kaushika has lead on a number of equalities-related projects at DMU. She is the project director of DMU’s attainment gap project, is deputy chair of the university Race Equality Charter Committee, deputy chair of the University EDI committee, as well as the chair for her own Faculty EDI committee. As an academic Kaushika is keen to support BME staff to have a voice within their university – and the wider HE sector – and to have the opportunity to present their thoughts, ideas and solutions to effect change to make HE a more welcoming and inclusive environment to work in, where your identity is welcomed, valued and supported.
Amatey is a consultant at Nous Group and an experienced communicator with a passion for public policy. He has worked with senior leaders across higher education at a government, sector and university level. He champions the need for qualitative experiences to be at the heart of an evidenced-based approach to solutions. Outside of Nous, Amatey has a strong interest in tackling structural inequalities as well as a keen advocate for music and the arts. Amatey led a joint project – alongside Universities UK, the representative body for UK universities – to address the black-and-minority ethnic (BME) attainment gap, resulting in the groundbreaking #ClosingTheGap report, with clear recommendations for the higher education sector.
