UK Edition
Cambridge University 'decolonisation' row spreads to host of other courses
Students who campaigned for the English curriculum at Cambridge University to be “decolonised” are now turning their attention to other subjects including history, philosophy and history of art.
Activists behind the 'Decolonise Cambridge' movement said that they intend to set up groups that will press for changes to the curriculum in several other subjects.
Efforts to review the university’s degree courses and examine whether syllabuses are too dominated by white, Euro-centric traditions are also gathering pace among Cambridge's academic staff.
A group of sociology, politics and education lecturers have set up a “Decolonising the Curriculum Faculty Research Initiative”, which seeks to “generate and support efforts to centre decolonisation, race, and the politics of knowledge within the reform of the Cambridge curriculum”.
The initiative, run out of the University’s Centre for African Studies, hopes to “build a network of faculty members throughout Cambridge interested in advancing debates and efforts around the decolonisation of the curriculum and curriculum justice”.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph revealed that English Literature lecturers and tutors "could actively seek to ensure the presence” of BME writers on their course, under plans discussed by the Faculty’s Teaching Forum.
The move followed an open letter, penned by Lola Olufemi, Cambridge University Student Union’s women’s officer and signed by over 100 students, titled “Decolonising the English Faculty”.
Cambridge University said they support Ms Olufemi and condemn the harassment on social media of students in relation to their campaigning for decolonisation.
Other leading universities have refused to bow to pressure from decolonisation campaigns aimed at names of buildings and statues, as well as their curriculum. Oxford University refused to bow to pressure from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, which called for the statue of Cecil Rhodes to be taken down from Oriel College over his links to imperialism.
Meanwhile, Bristol University announced earlier this year that it will not rename the Wills Memorial Building despite campaigners claiming it is named after a slave trader.
The National Union of Students’ (NUS) campaign called Liberate My Curriculum was set up to “expose institutional racism” within higher education and bring together individual decolonisation campaigns at various universities.
Ilyas Nagdee, the NUS Black Students’ Officer, said that there are numerous examples of Britain’s imperial past being “celebrated without any context or challenge from the institutions which are meant to be Britain’s centres of critical thought.”
He said this includes a statue of Queen Victoria at Royal Holloway University, Churchill College at Cambridge, as well as the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford and the Wills Memorial Building at Bristol.
Mr Nagdee said that the NUS campaign is “predominantly borne out of the frustration of students of colour who have not seen their history reflected in their textbooks”.
He added: “The whitewashing of history is then exacerbated at university not only in the content of courses but within the spaces of learning.”
A spokesman for the University of Cambridge has said previously that academic discussions about the English course are at a "very early stage" and denied that changes will lead to "any one author being dropped in favour of others".
The spokesman added: "There is no set curriculum as tutors individually lead the studies of their group of students and recommend their reading lists – those reading lists can include any author.
“The Teaching Forum is a body which has no decision making powers and its decision points are questions to be discussed by the faculty.
"The Education Committee in the faculty will look at those points in a robust academic debate. Post-colonialism is taught at the moment in a non-compulsory paper – the faculty constantly looks at what papers will be compulsory."