Equivocal tales about identity, racism and the curriculum

This paper is based on a small-scale study of the minority ethnic student experience at a small mainly 'white' university in the south of England. Students described their experience as broadly positive but suggested clashes of values in some areas of campus social life. Where the curriculum explored notions of culture, students valued the space to reflect on and nurture their identity, but most described the curriculum as patchily diverse. Students were ambiguous about racism, giving anecdotal evidence of its existence whilst downplaying its significance. The findings suggest that the Higher Education (HE) curriculum is a powerful but under-utilised tool in developing a more inclusive experience for all students. They further suggest that legal and institutional procedures are not a strong enough framework to combat racism, and that campuses with few minority ethnic students need to take a much more intentional approach to transforming the institutional culture.