Introduction

This chapter focuses on all undergraduate students and the issues of racism faced by this student group in their university journey. In the chapter, we highlight Black and ethnic minority undergraduate students’ experiences of racism and racialisation in UK HEIs. The chapter is based on the premise that daily aggressions, racial and discriminatory challenges that are encountered by Black and minority ethnic students are often unacknowledged and not effectively addressed (for example, Haynes-Baratz et al, 2021 and Bunce et al, 2019). This has led to a student campaign for universities to decolonise the curriculum, calling out practices and processes that perpetuate cognitive imperialism – ‘Why is my curriculum White?’ (NUS, 2016) – and improved racial representation – ‘Why isn’t my professor Black?’ (Black, 2014). Most universities’ response to these demands has been pledging action with no tangible, visible commitment to eradicating racism properly (Denovan & Macaskill, 2013; Reay, 2018). This highlights the failure of institutions to meet the learning needs of these students as they cater to the privileged White students (Le Roux & Moller, 2002). These consciously and unconsciously textured practices and processes perpetuate the status quo. This is further reproduced by a Eurocentric curriculum that silences and erases Black and minority ethnic students’ cultural capital, histories and experiences as it perpetuates the reproduction of subjectivities of Whiteness (Arday, 2018).

Despite an increase in the number of students entering HE with similar requisite qualifications, and socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, Black students report lower levels of satisfaction compared with other racial groups and are also more likely to ‘drop out’ and have lower attainment and/or awarding levels than their White peers (Joseph-Salisbury, 2018). The dominant view on the degree-awarding gap is dismissive of race and racism as a contributory factor to this persistent inequity (Madriaga, 2017). The impact of racism on Black and minority ethnic students is pervasive and has far-reaching physiological and psychological consequences such as race-based stress, trauma and ‘racial battle fatigue’ (Franklin, 2019).

According to NUS (2010), even when Black and ethnic minority students enter HE on a level playing field with similar entry requirements, they are likely to achieve worse degrees than their White peers.