Mick Hartley

Good news and bad news from University College London. The good news:

Following a period of debate within our community and careful consideration of the issues, UCL has now taken the decision that we will not re-join Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme or make a submission to the Workplace Equality Index….

In weighing up all opinions in this debate, UCL’s senior leadership team has accepted Academic Board’s advice about the fundamental need to uphold academic freedom and freedom of speech in an academic context, recognising that a formal institutional commitment to Stonewall may have the effect of inhibiting academic work and discussion within UCL about sex and gender identity.

And the not-so-good:

Academics seeking promotion at one of the country’s leading universities have been told they should overhaul courses to limit the number of “dead white men”.

Researchers applying for any teaching roles at University College London (UCL) should “engage” with the institution’s Liberating the Curriculum initiative and be prepared to "demonstrate the impact" of this.

According to an internal university guidance document, titled UCL Academic Careers Framework, this is listed as a core requirement for those applying for lecturer roles.

It says that all academic, research and teaching staff are expected to demonstrate “at least some core activities” when applying for a promotion.

The document explains that an "indicator of impact" could be either introducing new or making “substantial” revisions to old modules in response to student feedback.

UCL describes its Liberating the Curriculum initiative as a policy aimed at “challenging traditional Eurocentric, male-dominated curricula and ensuring the work of marginalised scholars on race, sexuality, gender and disability are fairly represented in curricula”.

The initiative also encourages academics to “be the change” and “acknowledge the prejudices baked into a field” as well as “check their privilege”.

It claims that many academic disciplines are “deeply exclusive and unfair” in their current form as they are overly represented by “dead white (able-bodied European) men”.

One academic told The Telegraph they are deeply troubled about this initiative. “I think this whole woke avalanche is really concerning because it is like a religious fervour," he said. "Instead of looking at the evidence, it says some answers have got to be accepted and others cannot be accepted. That is poisonous – it is the wrong direction for a university to go in”.

A religious fervour indeed. Said academic, of course, was speaking anonymously. No one wants to be identified as a heretic and cast out into the darkness.

Perhaps Stonewall are no longer needed by UCL, since their core message has now clearly been internalised by the college authorities."Our work here is done."