As part of Tackling Racism on Campus funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the new joint research project by Advance HE and the Quality Assurance Agency Scotland (QAAS) capitalises on the sector-wide commitment to tackle racism in Scottish further and higher education.
The Anti-Racist Curriculum (ARC) project will see Advance HE and QAAS working together with the tertiary sector to identify and curate existing resources, learn from current practice and recognise best practice both in Scotland and beyond.
The ARC project is an important addition to the new sector-wide Enhancement Theme, Resilient Learning Communities (2020-23), which focuses on meeting the changing needs and values of an increasingly diverse student community and a rapidly changing external environment.
Twenty-four higher education staff and students from Scottish universities, colleges and agencies will help to inform and input into the project research for the anti-racist curriculum through a range of lived experience, teaching and curriculum design expertise and sector knowledge. The project will culminate in new guidance published in July 2021 on how to get started with implementing an anti-racist curriculum.
Khadija Mohammed, Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland and Chair of the project, said, “This joint research project is an opportunity to develop and embed race equality in the curricula of Scottish institutions at both a strategic and operational level. The combination of lived experience and teaching expertise within the group really makes the project stand out and make a much needed and worthwhile contribution to developing an anti-racist curriculum.”
A small Executive Group will steer the project, chaired by Khadija Mohammed and co-chaired by Professor Ruth Taylor, Vice-Principal Education at the University of Aberdeen and Claire Peddie, Proctor at the University of St Andrews. The larger Working Group comprising the 24 HE staff and students will hold its first meeting today (12 January).
Find out more about the Anti-Racist Curriculum (ARC) project