The University of Leicester has been facing the heat from academics, students and external examiners over its proposal of considering cutting subjects such as English after a "drop in demand", and in an attempt of “decolonising the curriculum”.
Instead, the University, appears determined to focus on ethnicity, sexuality and diversity, an idea rejected by a number of academics and students. Some like Professor Isobel Armstrong, a fellow of the British Academy, has also reportedly returned her honorary doctorate from the university in protest. The Leicester branch of the University and College Union (UCU) said Prof Armstrong made her decision "in protest at the egregious attack on the integrity of English at Leicester and the attempt to eradicate 1,000+ years of language and literature from the curriculum".
In her article for the Times Higher Education, Dr Shazia Jagot, who studied at the University of Leicester, said the proposed changes could actually directly impact on the education of BAME students.
She wrote, “The idea of culling whole periods of literature is absolutely antithetical to the twin goals of diversifying and decolonising English as a discipline. What happens when you remove the opportunity for students, particularly black and ethnic minority students, to read Beowulf, Chaucer and Milton?”
Under the restructuring, the English department will not teach medieval literature due to "a drop in demand from undergraduate and postgraduate students in recent years". If adopted, the changes would also mean the university discontinuing BA English with English language, and MA English Language and Linguistics. The university said it would instead offer "a range of modules which are excitingly innovative", such as modules on race, ethnicity, sexuality and diversity and provide a "decolonised curriculum".
