English Universities Told to ‘Decolonise’ Courses: ‘Woke Imperialism on a Breathtaking and Monumental Scale’

A student on graduation day at Coventry University in Coventry, United Kingdom, in an undated file photo. Alamy/PA

The UK’s independent quality body for higher education has drafted recommendations so graduates will now be expected to acknowledge racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, and patriarchy through their degrees.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which is entrusted with monitoring and advising on standards and quality in UK higher education, is urging British universities to teach a “decolonised view” in a multitude of courses.

QAA claims that these ideas are only for consideration, but academics told The Epoch Times that universities will be under “considerable pressure to comply.”

QAA facilitates “Subject Benchmark Statements,” which describe the nature of the study and the academic standards expected of graduates in specific subject areas. These are written by subject specialists and QAA facilitates this process.

For example, in the Subject Benchmark Statements for Classics and Ancient History, released in March (pdf), what must be acknowledged for undergraduates are the “colonial and imperial geographies, and their contemporary legacies of systemic disadvantage, for example, racism, classism, ablism, homophobia and patriarchy.”

“Geographical concepts and techniques contributed to the overseas expansion of British and European empires, which was justified using narratives of white, able and heteronormative superiority,” it added.

‘Homogeneous White’

In September, draft benchmarks were released on subjects as varied as biosciences, economics, mathematics, and psychology. The final statements will be published in spring 2023.

The benchmark for psychology (pdf) states that courses are “historically based on research and theory from homogeneous white, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic countries and do not represent diverse voices and contributions to the discipline.”

“As a consequence, curricula often privilege a narrow range of voices (for example, white, cisgender, non-disabled, male voices) and exclude or marginalise others,” it added.

Economics undergraduates (pdf) should be taught that “a key challenge is that it is still predominantly a white, male and Western field,” while for maths (pdf), a “strong focus of curricula on the historical work of white Western males” must be acknowledged.

University students in the United Kingdom in an undated file photo. Chris Radburn/PA

‘Tidal Wave of Wokism’

QAA said in a statement that it “does not ’tell' the sector what to include or exclude from their curriculum.”

“Subject Benchmark Statements collate the thoughts of academic practitioners about what new ideas may wish to be considered within the subject curriculum. They don’t advocate for either inclusion or exclusion - they simply present ideas for consideration,” it added.

Christopher McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education told The Epoch Times by email that the “QAA is being disingenuous.”

“It knows full well that its guidance will be regarded as ‘best practice,’ even ‘holy writ.’ University departments will feel under considerable pressure to comply with the direction of travel,” he said.

He added, “What we are witnessing is woke imperialism on a breathtaking and monumental scale.”

“The colonialism that academics and students need to be concerned about is today’s empire-building, not yesterday’s. A tidal wave of wokism is flooding our university campuses and drowning free speech and liberty of expression. The lights are going out on campus and we are unlikely to see them lit again in the lifetime of the current generation of academics and woke commissars who preside over our institutions of learning,” he said.

“The lesson that universities should be teaching is that race does not determine character nor the capacity to do good or evil. The slow-learning curve of woke zealots is making this a lesson that is difficult to teach,” added McGovern.

Rejection of Truth

Professor Dennis Hayes of Academics for Academic Freedom told The Epoch Times by email that too “many academics will take up these ideas.”

“Whether it is a subject-based organisation or a professional body it is often the case that there is a drive to ‘decolonise’ which is simply the adoption of fashionable political fads. But it is a dangerous rejection of anything universal that is of value to all. It weakens and fragments disciplines,” he said.

Hayes added that “leaving the adoption of these ideas to individuals and faculties seems liberal but it is a meaningless gesture.”

He said that too many academics will take up these ideas because they have “given up on the defence and pursuit of knowledge,” and that “relativism, the rejection of truth, is rife in the academy.”

“It has been replaced by the postmodern idea that there are many truths and many valid viewpoints, into a relativistic academic culture any fad and fashion can easily be taken up,” he said, adding that “feeling that you are promoting something that is right-on and trendy is easier than the pursuit of new knowledge.”

Hayes and Academics for Academic Freedom maintain The Banned List, which is a list of academics and others who have faced attempts to censor them or ban them from campus.

“What we need is not more fads and fashions but a real debate about the role of universities. There is a clue and a starting point in the etymology of the word ‘university.’ It refers to all, the whole and not to disconnected fragments,” he said.

“The only basis for including a work to be studied is its quality not the colour of the epidermis of the author,” added Hayes.