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- May 25, 2011
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Oxford University introduces a compulsory exam for history students featuring black and Asian affairs after protests over 'white' curriculum
For the first time, undergraduates will be required to study a subject outside of British or European history to get their degree.
The syllabus change comes as universities across the country faced protests as part of the ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ campaign.
Oxford University students will now have to take a paper on black or Asian history following complaints the curriculum was ‘too white’
The new requirement also comes a year after the university’s Oriel College refused to bend to protestors demanding the removal of a statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
Oxford insists the change has been in the pipeline for years and has nothing to do with protests including the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign.
However it means that from this autumn history students will be required to study topics which could include Martin Luther King and 1960s civil rights movement and Mahatma Gandhi and Indian independence.
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Students will still be required to take two compulsory papers on British history and two on European history.
Head of the faculty Dr Martin Conway said the change came after consultation with students, and said it would ‘bring in diversity in terms of the teaching of history’.
He told The Sunday Times ‘quite a few’ history undergraduates were active in the ‘Rhodes must Fall’ campaign but insisted the new requirement was not a response to it.
Oxford insists the change has been in the pipeline for years and has nothing to do with protests including the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign
David Cameron, when prime minister, criticised Oxford for taking on just 27 black students in 2014.
The university has also been criticised for offering a £75 prize for the best African history thesis – while rewarding £500 for the best history thesis overall.
Second-year history student Billy Nuttall, who campaigned for more prize money, said fewer than 10 students at Magdalen College were from black or ethnic minority backgrounds.
The student, who welcomed the change, said school pupils had told him they consider the university as ‘too rich’ and ‘too white’.
Other universities are also reviewing the way they teach history – and a module in black British history is being developed at Leeds.
However academics have warned vital subjects should not be forgotten in the quest to be more diverse.
Former Oxford professor Niall Ferguson, now at the Hoover Institution in America, said: ‘By comparison with America, some history courses (in Oxford) do look a bit old-fashioned.
‘I am not the kind of backwoodsman who thinks Oxford should only teach English history and general history, which is what it did when I was an undergraduate, but let us be careful not to stop teaching crucial subjects like the rise of the West or the world wars in the effort to make courses more diverse.’
The latest figures show 70 per cent of black applicants were offered a university place this year compared with 78 per cent of white applicants.
Head of the faculty Dr Martin Conway said the change came after consultation with students, and said it would ‘bring in diversity in terms of the teaching of history’
A spokesman for Oxford’s history faculty said the change came after a ‘number of years of discussion and consultation’.
He said: ‘We are pleased to be modernising and diversifying our curriculum in this way.’
An Oxford spokesman added: ‘We are always open to academically sound suggestions for augmenting our curriculum.’
He also said most history students were already choosing to study non-British and non-European history.
The changes to the university’s history syllabus also come as Lucy Worsley, the chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, called for more black experts presenting history on television.
- Oxford undergraduates will now have to take a paper on black or Asian history
- Syllabus change came in following complaints the curriculum was ‘too white’
- Oxford insists the change has nothing to do with ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign
For the first time, undergraduates will be required to study a subject outside of British or European history to get their degree.
The syllabus change comes as universities across the country faced protests as part of the ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ campaign.
Oxford University students will now have to take a paper on black or Asian history following complaints the curriculum was ‘too white’
The new requirement also comes a year after the university’s Oriel College refused to bend to protestors demanding the removal of a statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
Oxford insists the change has been in the pipeline for years and has nothing to do with protests including the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign.
However it means that from this autumn history students will be required to study topics which could include Martin Luther King and 1960s civil rights movement and Mahatma Gandhi and Indian independence.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Share
Students will still be required to take two compulsory papers on British history and two on European history.
Head of the faculty Dr Martin Conway said the change came after consultation with students, and said it would ‘bring in diversity in terms of the teaching of history’.
He told The Sunday Times ‘quite a few’ history undergraduates were active in the ‘Rhodes must Fall’ campaign but insisted the new requirement was not a response to it.
Oxford insists the change has been in the pipeline for years and has nothing to do with protests including the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign
David Cameron, when prime minister, criticised Oxford for taking on just 27 black students in 2014.
The university has also been criticised for offering a £75 prize for the best African history thesis – while rewarding £500 for the best history thesis overall.
Second-year history student Billy Nuttall, who campaigned for more prize money, said fewer than 10 students at Magdalen College were from black or ethnic minority backgrounds.
The student, who welcomed the change, said school pupils had told him they consider the university as ‘too rich’ and ‘too white’.
Other universities are also reviewing the way they teach history – and a module in black British history is being developed at Leeds.
However academics have warned vital subjects should not be forgotten in the quest to be more diverse.
Former Oxford professor Niall Ferguson, now at the Hoover Institution in America, said: ‘By comparison with America, some history courses (in Oxford) do look a bit old-fashioned.
‘I am not the kind of backwoodsman who thinks Oxford should only teach English history and general history, which is what it did when I was an undergraduate, but let us be careful not to stop teaching crucial subjects like the rise of the West or the world wars in the effort to make courses more diverse.’
The latest figures show 70 per cent of black applicants were offered a university place this year compared with 78 per cent of white applicants.
Head of the faculty Dr Martin Conway said the change came after consultation with students, and said it would ‘bring in diversity in terms of the teaching of history’
A spokesman for Oxford’s history faculty said the change came after a ‘number of years of discussion and consultation’.
He said: ‘We are pleased to be modernising and diversifying our curriculum in this way.’
An Oxford spokesman added: ‘We are always open to academically sound suggestions for augmenting our curriculum.’
He also said most history students were already choosing to study non-British and non-European history.
The changes to the university’s history syllabus also come as Lucy Worsley, the chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, called for more black experts presenting history on television.
