Staff 'blindsided' as black studies MA course axed

University staff say they have been "blindsided" over a "callous" plan to drop a black studies master’s degree, eight months after it was first launched.

The move at Birmingham City University (BCU) has prompted more than 100 academics, writers and activists to sign an open letter condemning it.

"They sat us down and told us straight away... we've closed the masters... and all your jobs are at risk," said Prof Kehinde Andrews, who leads the university's black studies department.

The university, which made the decision in February, has blamed low student recruitment for the closure - eight students are currently on the MA course.

However, Andrews said it was the first time he had been made aware by university chiefs the degree was even under threat.

The decision to close it was taken despite the faculty continuing to plan high-profile campus events, including the booking this month of US civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw.

"We didn't know the masters was in danger - we were told if the MA goes, jobs would be safe," Andrews said.

"I have research bids in, we're planning events and it honestly feels like they've pulled the rug out from under us."

The move follows the closure of BCU's black studies undergraduate course in 2024.

Five black members of staff are at risk of redundancy, including Andrews.

"It's a shame there is no space for black studies in UK higher education because there is such a problem with black students not feeling connected or as though they belong, and the curriculum is hugely part of it," he said.

"They [BCU] have also admitted to not completing an equality impact assessment."

Nia, one of the last few students completing the defunct undergraduate degree, said she had hoped to continue her studies on the MA.

"Now that they've gotten rid of it, they've completely removed the only space that we had in academia to focus on our actual community," she said.

"The way that they handled the cancellation of this course was so diabolical, they've quite literally shown us the door."

Part-time student Charmaine will complete her MA next year and was told about its closure via email.

"It feels like an attack on black intellect, because they already withdrew the undergrad course and now withdrawing the masters," she said.

"The email that they sent out seemed cold and dismissive - they said the decision wouldn't impact any students, but it would impact me.

"Will I be the only one in my lessons now, will I have course mates to study with? They didn't take our mental wellbeing into consideration at all."

Prof Kalwant Bhopal, director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education at the University of Birmingham, warned the move signified black studies could be under threat across UK higher education.

"This creates a dangerous precedent and shows the threat that black academics and their scholarship is under," she said.

"We are in a dangerous fragile, insecure time in academia, with many universities making significant redundancies."

Bhopal said losing the course would reverse the "academic space to directly challenge structural, institutional and individual acts of racism”.

Prof Robert Beckford was formerly professor of climate and social justice at the University of Winchester before being made redundant and he taught at BCU on its black studies undergraduate course before it shuttered the degree.

He questioned BCU and the vice chancellors' commitment to championing black academia.

"What makes this especially troubling is the contradiction between the public declarations made after the murder of George Floyd and the institutional realities that followed," he said.

In 2021, BCU said: "We stand with our black students and our staff. We want to be part of the solution," as part of its Black Lives Matter Antiracist Commitment Plan.

Beckford said that since then, the sector had seen black studies programmes closed and centres dedicated to race and decolonial scholarship weakened or dismantled.

"Whether deliberate or unwitting, the outcome is the same: the erosion of black intellectual infrastructure at precisely the moment universities claimed renewed commitment to racial justice," he said.

"For me this represents not a financial constraint but a limited intellectual imagination."

Charmaine said despite the university's previous statement, the decision to discontinue the course left her and others feeling "undervalued, like black studies is not valued enough”.

"They prided themselves in being the first university to offer such a course, but now you have to ask, ‘was it performative’?"

UK universities are currently grappling with a financial crisis and many have implemented widespread cost-cutting measures.

A BCU spokesperson said that after a review of its postgraduate portfolio, a small number of courses - including the black studies MA - would be withdrawn from September because of low demand, though current students would be able to complete their studies.

"The university is exploring opportunities for alternative provision in each case. A consultation process is under way with affected staff to discuss the impact of the course closures and explore reasonable options to minimise roles at risk," they added.

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