Tuesday 26-01-2021 - 10:47

Twenty Twenty was an extraordinary year in more ways than one, as a member of the black community, the rise of the black lives matters protests that swept the news and social media was a pivotal moment for our fight for racial equality. It was a moment to reflect and appreciate the path we’ve walked and what stands ahead. In 2019 the BBC published a report on the Black Attainment Gap which highlighted a 13% gap between the chances of white and BAME students getting a first or upper second degree. There was a call to action to all universities to do more to reduce the gap, the report acknowledged that many universities have worked to reduce the attainment gap, however with 81% of white students getting a first or 2:1 in 2017-18 compared with 68% of BAME students, it was noted that much more must be done.

At GCU the Tackling Racism Working Group was established to guide the university on how to tackle this issue. The remit of the working group was to ensure that students, staff, Students’ Association, Trade Unions, and other stakeholders made an active contribution to the development of the recommendations informed by existing, well established evidence of racism and racial inequalities in society and the higher education sector. I joined the group as one of the student representatives. We had several meetings throughout the year, shared personal experiences of racial inequality and through discussions, research and stories shared by members of the group, we agreed on a set of recommendations for the university to use as a starting point to tackle this issue.

The set of the recommendations are:

1. Ensuring that each service and function across GCU makes a commitment to tackle racism and racial inequalities.
2. Target recruitment of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in light of GCU’s low proportion of BAME staff.
3. Commit to taking active steps, including supporting staff, to decolonise the curriculum.
4. Address student attainment gap data by focusing on the sources of structural exclusion rather than the students themselves.
5. Commit to providing race and racism focused training and development on a range of topics for all staff and leaders that is positioned as a compulsory and essential requirement for all to carry out their job and support GCU’s goals and Values.
6. Develop and communicate appropriate, rigorous, and safe mechanisms for the University to receive reports of racism in confidence.
7. Develop and communicate appropriate mechanisms to enable the University’s services and functions to receive feedback.
8. Support BAME businesses and social enterprises by ensuring that procurement procedures are inclusive and by providing opportunities for partnership working.
9. Ensure BAME student and staff data are part of regular, mainstream University reports.
10. Take active steps to communicate and make visible these recommendations and more broadly GCU’s commitment to tackle racism and racial inequalities.

These recommendations were presented to the University Court for action and to students during a Fresher’s Week and Black History Month collaborative event in October 2020. A call to action was given to all GCU students to join in the work, educate themselves, educate others and ensure that we uphold our common good values. I set one of my individual objectives to align with the recommendations and to ensure that the GCU community has a safe mechanism to report any racial incidences with confidence. Together as Full Time Officers, we set one of our team objectives to be an anti-racism campaign, Educate No Room for Hate Campaign. We continue to work in partnership with the University and work to ensure that GCU is a safe space for all members of our community.