The importance of naming the problem: racism in Higher Education and beyond

ARE’s new Policy and Research officer, Qasim Alli, reflects on his experience working at Oxford and Cambridge, and the barriers stopping real change from happening across the university system.

I have spent most of the last decade working to confront racism in universities.

This is how I know that racism pervades almost every aspect of higher education; from racial disproportionality of who gets to study at UK universities, to the unfairness and discrimination experienced by those few students and staff who do manage to get in, the unrepresentative and inadequate curricula and modes of teaching, and the unequal outcomes for Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage young people who finish their degree, and attempt to enter into suitable graduate employment.

For many in higher education, conversations about racism revolve around increasing the numbers of applications to elite universities from ethnic minority (and otherwise disadvantaged) groups – and there has been some modest success in this area.

Organisations like Target Oxbridge have contributed to noticeable changes, especially in the number of Black undergraduates admitted to the university. [1]

But, what working in higher education has taught me is that racial justice cannot be limited to the question of how many Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage students beat the odds to attend elitist universities. The problem is much worse than many will admit.

The overwhelming evidence that racism is institutionally embedded across universities in the UK is matched only by the refusal of universities to take racism seriously.

Universities are spaces where racist abuse is hurled at those calling for greater diversity in their curricula, and where where, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission,?thousands of racist incidents on campus go unaddressed.

They are spaces that are incapable of even naming racism as a problem, let alone ending it.

The Myth of Meritocracy

Racism, of course, is not restricted to elitist universities, or even the university system as a whole – it is structural, systemic, and widespread throughout UK society. But universities are yet to play their part in countering it. Instead, they too often default to a myth of meritocracy: by claiming that they admit ‘the best’ students, regardless of race or background, they ignore the biases inherent in how ‘the best’ are selected.

The idea that the UK education system, or any other aspect of society, is meritocratic has been rightly dismantled many times (for example, in Faiza Shaheen’s new book ‘Know Your Place’).?

Access and outreach work tells a particular story about justice.

Exceptional individuals who experience disadvantage are found - so the story goes - by university ‘widening participation’ programmes. They are then provided with resources to make successful university applications in the face of adversity.

What this story neglects to point out is that the adversity that these students face does not pertain to them as individuals - it is systemic, and the universities themselves play a role in it, with their admissions processes often rewarding already advantaged students (this case has most often been made with respect to personal statements). Justice should not mean, as this story suggests, fixing the deficit in the student, but reforming the university in pursuit of justice.??

Justice should not mean, as this story suggests, fixing the deficit in the student, but reforming the university in pursuit of justice.

Unequal access, unfair outcomes, inappropriate curricula, and inaccessible environments are all linked by the fact that universities are institutions that took their current shape under empire and were built to serve the interests of an empowered few.

Working at Oxford and Cambridge taught me that racism needs to be understood and named as a colonial system with a long history – and this underpins how I approach racial justice work more generally.

Naming the Problem and Becoming the Problem

The work of Action for Race Equality (ARE) uses a systems-level approach that takes racism seriously and recognises it as institutional. Racism has a history in this understanding – it can be named and understood. ARE provided me with an opportunity to connect my advocacy for young Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage people in higher education with established work in sectors like employment and criminal justice.

But there was another reason working for an organisation like ARE appealed to me. In higher education, I had not only named the problem but, in the words of Sara Ahmed, become the problem.

The problem of higher education’s racism clung to me, and as I sat in nearly exclusively white rooms, I began to realise that my colleagues saw not just my advocacy but my presence as a problem in itself. As Ahmed explains, ‘these observations are often treated as the problem with how you are perceiving things’.

Perhaps colleagues believed that the racism I was observing would go away if I stopped mentioning it. It was isolating and helped me understand that higher education’s hostility to anti-racism work was also hostility to me.

ARE by contrast goes further even than naming the problem – it actively sets out a commitment to confront it. At ARE I will not be doing my work alone, I will be supported by an organisation that is Black and Brown-led, and where I can learn from those who combine a structural (and historical and theoretical) understanding of racism with an understanding, born from lived experience, of why this work is both challenging and important.???

The changes required in Higher Education are large-scale, structural, and complex. They include a radical overhaul of admissions processes, assessment methods, fee structure and financing, and curricula.

But making each of these changes effectively will require universities to name the problem as the first step in working towards a more just education system for all. My new role offers me the opportunity not only to name the problem, but to move on to playing a part in its solution.

Author: Qasim Alli, Policy & Research Officer

Written for Action for Race Equality on #AREvoices

[1] As of 2021, the figure for UK-domiciled Black students accepted to Oxbridge had risen to 4% from 1% in 2011, with almost a quarter (24%) of the black students accepted to the two universities being alumni of the programme. (The Independent)