We have been blown away by the enthusiasm and passion that we have seen from many of you over the past few weeks. We have seen students from every college and every level of study, take the time to think about how they can learn from others and make changes for the better.
At the Guild, we have been doing some learning of our own, listening and learning from our students, and putting together plans that elevate the voices of those who are too often ignored.
Black Voices
In early 2020 we launched our Black Voices campaign, which aims to elevate the voices of Black Students. This campaign particularly focuses on the 15% attainment gap between Black and White students, and the 10% ‘student satisfaction gap’, that we see in the National Student Survey.
While COVID-19 prevented us from holding many of the events we had intended to, the launch event and research we have completed so far has led to the development of a Black Voices Manifesto that you can read here.
Our next priority will be campaigning for this manifesto to be implemented and for the voices of Black Students to be heard, understood and acted on across the University.
Decolonise the Curriculum
Many of the online discussions we have seen have been focused on diversifying or ‘Decolonising’ the Curriculum – a process of critically analyzing whether a course adequately engages with questions of race, representation and inequality, among other things. You can learn more about Decolonising the Curriculum here.
Final year student, Orla Taylor-Davies actually held an online discussion about this, to identify modules that already cover these sorts of themes. She has kindly allowed us to use the outcomes of that discussion to form a document on Decolonising the Curriculum that we have already circulated and discussed with our Student Voice Reps.
We plan to create more opportunities for our Student Voice Reps and the wider student body to learn about and get involved with this important work.
It continues to be our upmost priority to ensure that the student voice is heard, and steps are taken to close the attainment gap. This is just some of the work we’ve been doing and we’ll continue to keep you informed of upcoming Black Voices Events and Campaign updates.