After a major shake up in curriculum, History students at Oxford University will have to take an exam paper on non-British and non-European topics. The University will make it compulsory for history students to sit one of a number of papers on topics such as the influence of Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi, The Guardian reported.
The move has been welcomed by campaigners who say that universities focus their syllabuses too much on white British history. Though it is widely believed that the change has come after recent student-led campaigns such as the “Rhodes must fall” movement or the UCL-founded “Why is my curriculum white?” campaign, but Oxford has insisted that it was not the result of external pressure.
While Marie Rodet, senior lecturer in the history of Africa at SOAS University of London, suggested that it was overdue, Vinita Damodaran, professor of south Asian history at the University of Sussex, reportedly said the move would force students outside their comfort zone and that other universities should follow suit. Damodaran reportedly added that schools should also broaden their curricula, while she stressed that it was important for universities to be proactive in hiring non-white academics and introduce black writing and women’s writing to curricula.
Oxford and other universities have come under attack for the small number of black undergraduates that they enrol. In fact former prime minister David Cameron had also criticised it for taking only 27 black students in 2014.
