“Understand why people like me question, ‘am I too BAME for a PhD?’”
By a University of Leeds PhD student
“When I was applying for PhD positions I noticed the small statement at the bottom of advertisements stating we particularly encourage applications from UK BME candidates; I would get excited thinking “Yes, that’s me! I’ve already got my foot in the door for an offer!” But then I’d really think about it and realise how angry that statement actually makes me. Why is this the case? Why should this be how I’ll get an offer? How will I know if I am being offered this PhD on genuine merit?
Now I walk around my department and don’t see anybody who looks like me. During my studies I haven’t seen many BAME academics who I can identify with and I certainly don’t have PhD peers who can relate to me either. It’s so disappointing. I’ve been a part of research groups where I am the only BAME PhD student, and although I know there’s nothing personal to it, I’ve always felt like there’s something unspoken that constantly reminds me that I just don’t fit in here. Doing a PhD is tough and isolating enough, but it’s even worse when you don’t feel like you have a community to which you can comfortably belong.
The lack of BAME academics has often made me question whether academia is a career for me, but it’s equally fuelled my passion to defy the stereotype and set the example. But that’s hard to do when you don’t have the right support or role models to guide you through that — a pathway which has already been created. Where are our role models?
Perhaps this might be understandable — Universities change slowly. But there are so many other barriers that we have to overcome to even be here. We know that BAME students and researchers at any level of study are more likely to come from lower-household incomes. If I didn’t receive funding for my PhD, there’s no chance I’d be doing one right now and even now I work a part-time job to supplement my funding and to make sure I can help out at home.
Many BAME students also face other, more cultural barriers to PhD study. I am a woman and a second-generation immigrant from the south-Asian community. I was discouraged from doing a PhD because I’ve done enough studying now and should be thinking about settling. Breaking the cultural norm is tough, especially when you feel like the first person to challenge them at home and at University. I will certainly be the first in my entire family to receive a doctoral degree but to them that doesn’t seem significant.
Combine the lack of institutional support, the lack of role models, the stereotype attached to PhD students, the poor financial picture, and the cultural barriers and you start to understand why people like me question, am I too BAME for a PhD?”
We want to create a network for BAME PhD students here on campus in a safe space. This starts with Too BAME for a PhD? With this symposium we hope to initiate important and provocative discussions around barriers to BAME PhD study, raise awareness of the issues faced by our demographics, embed such a community within LUU and force the University to change. To make its approach to inclusion more than a sentence on an advert.
