Dr Deborah Husbands and Professor Dibyesh Anand, co-chairs of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) network at the University of Westminster, wrote an article for Wonkhe about overcoming racism in UK Universities.
The article discusses Dr Husbands and Professor Anand’s personal experiences of working towards an anti-racist university as co-chairs of the BME network. They talk about allyship and different ways of overcoming racism in higher education.
In the article, Dr Husbands and Professor Anand questioned diversity in universities. They wrote: “How many Black women academics are there in our departments? If we start our conversations around this simple, easy to answer question, we’d immediately recognise that UK universities have a race problem.”
Talking about the BME network, they wrote: “Yet, in a move seen as historic by many Black, Asian and other non-white colleagues, the BME network at our University of Westminster used its collective voice (comprising over 180 BAME* and white ally colleagues) to present a statement of demands to senior managers and work with the students’ union and others to secure a series of commitments from the University to turn it into an anti-racist institution.”
Read the full article on Wonkhe’s website.
