This anti-racism guide provides a base of key evidence and voices and translates these into intersectional areas for inquiry and change that can be integrated from strategy through to implementation in your HEI. We started this book considering the key terms and language associated with the realm and school of anti-racist thought, learning and action. There was a consideration of the current issues concerning racial identities, histories, structures, institutions and systems that all shape the experience of racism and perpetuate it in different forms and modes. The guide has outlined the core areas of the HE system relating to the staff experience, student experience, research systems, teaching systems, pedagogy and governance, strategy and operations. Each chapter and its respective sub-section has been authored by experts through professional and/or lived experiences of striving to tackle racial inequalities in what has been commonly referred to as the ivory tower, or as a university.

When exploring staff experiences, authors explored the disparities within and between academic and non-academic functions within HEIs. Each staff group have different experiences of the same system in which they may be recruited to, enabling their retention and supporting their success. Line management and supervisory capacities vary across these job functions and highlight the dissonance between a more traditional academy in furthering knowledge and scholarship, to universities that require significant business and professional staff to navigate a complex HE national and international market.

As the book progresses through to student experiences, authors talk openly and frankly about the disparities across student experience and outcomes for those in HE. One author spoke candidly about racial abuse they received while on campus and how their reporting was devalued and disempowered. Students are vital to the HE setting, and with learners coming to HE to liberate themselves and increase their success in society, our HE systems need to ensure that these students are empowered and enabled with the tools to own their success. However, structural barriers are still faced by students, and racism on campus and in learning and social spaces are increasingly prevalent, which impact their experience, learning and degree outcomes.