Black Lives Matter: Institutionalized Inequalities in Higher Education
Written by Imogen Stevens
“When we talk about access, when we talk about participation, the fact that universities are refusing to even consider that racism might exist in their own practices is an outrage.”
— Professor Elizabeth Hill
For many students, particularly younger traditional students, their lives revolve around the university. Students not only take classes offered by the university but also live in university accommodation, attend university events, access their resources in times of need, and even party on campus. University means more than studying, and is wide reaching, influencing multiple aspects of thousands of peoples’ lives.
Simultaneously, the University of Leeds is hampered by the institutionalized inequalities that occur here, demonstrated in both its staff and student populations. The drop-out rates for all minority students, including Black students, are higher than for their peers. Among students in 2018, Black students were four times less likely to earn a first class degree than their white counterparts, and this awarding gap persists. Yet the university describes the gap as “unexplained”. This is despite being aware of the significant BAME pay gap for staff at the university, a dire lack of Black professors, and, as of yet, any true efforts to decolonize the curriculum do not seem to have materialized in the everyday studies of students.
For too long empty words have been the norm, and action is long overdue. Two recent initiatives have called on the University to take that action. LUU Libcos have drawn up a list of pledges and an initiative ‘Defund to Decolonise’ also has a list of demands. Many of the demands are similar, including; calling on the University to provide competent support and counselling for Black students, no more police presence on campus and a commitment to decolonize the curriculum and close the awarding gap. The links to both initiatives along with their full demands can be found below.
Signing these calls to action and pushing the University to do better is crucial for several reasons. It goes beyond just updating reading lists, and helps make Black and other students of colour feel more welcome, supported and heard on campus. It diversifies our curriculum and ensures that students are critical of mechanisms of power and are prepared for our current world. And importantly, it recognizes that there is a problem, which opens the door for actually doing something about it.
How You Can Get Involved
LUU Liberation Coordinators have written an open letter to the university with a number of pledges. You can sign it here.
Leeds alumni Melz Owusu has started a fund to set up the Free Black University, to “re-distribute knowledge and act as a space of incubation for the creation of transformative knowledge in the Black community.”
