Title: Success as Pitfalls in Decolonising the University

Abstract: Students from the University of Kent, primarily from the Law School, launched a #DecoloniseUKC Manifesto (www.decoloniseUKC.org/manifesto) on 20 March. The manifesto was created using data collected from student of colour led focus groups aimed at discussing with other students their experiences of being racialized and minoritised subjects at University. The manifesto highlights their key concerns and recommendations going beyond ‘decolonising the reading list’ to discuss how to promote inclusion and counter exclusion as a direct response to the University’s education and student success project strategy on ‘race, identity and belonging’.

We reflect upon the extent to which the University is able to hear concerns around complex issues of inclusion. For example, how does/can a (neo)-liberal institution implement its Prevent duty and yet address Muslim students’ increasing sense of being isolated as the hostile environment infiltrates campuses in a myriad of subtle as well as explicit ways? What does ‘belonging’ mean in this context and how is it conceptualised in relation to corporate factors including attainment targets, falling student numbers and increasing marketization? How, and to what extent, can the ‘decolonising the curriculum’ project as a ‘first of its kind’ collaborative project between academics and students materialize ‘change’ in the face of racialized capitalist co-optation and exploitation? Following on from this we also explore the process of amplifying and empowering student voices to become change actors through collaboration and co-production with academics. We ask how can this collaboration exist, continue to thrive and sustain through material, alternate ways of building, developing and keeping the ‘trust’ between the students and the academic staff? Specifically, what are the responsibilities members have to each other including in relation to dynamics of power, gender and position? We draw on critical pedagogies and practices emanating from critical race and decolonial theories to explore the potential for this kind of ethical work to endure in unethical times.