Oxford University is to spend more than £3.3 million on ‘decolonising’ the curriculum and preventing so-called microaggressions.
Academic chiefs are aiming to close the attainment gaps between black and white students with the strategy.
Under the programme, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) officers will spearhead an £841,000 campaign to prevent racial harassment and bullying, and boost the reporting of microaggressions.
No definition of microaggressions is provided in the strategy, but race experts have used examples such as asking someone where they are originally from.
Some £379,000 will be spent paying black and ‘racially minoritised’ students and researchers to ‘design and conduct inquiries into their university experiences’.
And more than £500,000 will be handed to departments to ‘diversify curricula’ and develop ‘more inclusive teaching and assessment’.
But Professor Jeremy Black, historian and author of English Culture, said: ‘Indoctrination through curriculum manipulation is highly undesirable and a distortion of intellectual values. It is damaging for social cohesion and an abuse of public funds.’
Chris McGovern, chair of the Campaign for Real Education, said microaggressions ‘can be in the eye of the beholder or simple misunderstandings’ and that there is evidence that EDI training creates more alienation, exacerbating the problems being addressed.
Nearly 29 per cent of Oxford’s 2023 UK intake is black, Asian or another ethnic minority, up from 22 per cent in 2019. In the 2021 UK census, 18 per cent of the population was black, Asian, or from another ethnic background.
The latest plan follows a charter, published by the university two years ago, which pledged to increase the number of ethnic minority staff in senior roles, widen access and eliminate attainment gaps.
Proposals to score academics on EDI in hiring and promotions, and create a pool of ‘EDI observers’ were dropped after a backlash from dons.
Oxford Students’ Union has continually accused the university of being institutionally racist. Students point to the university’s refusal to remove the statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College. They also note cases where black students say they have been treated unfairly by porters.
Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘Diversity of curriculum and assessment and anti-racism is code for a tyrannical denial of freedom of speech and, even, freedom of thought. The university is pursuing a path of self-destruction.’
A spokesman for Oxford University said: ‘The university’s access and participation plan outlines the university’s ongoing commitments to support undergraduate candidates with the highest potential to make strong applications to Oxford, and to support all of our students once they are here.’