Degree courses need a lesson in diversity, argue NUS

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Too many university and college courses ignore diversity topics and are exclude many students, argues a report from the National Union of Students.

The NUS suggests science and maths courses should discuss gender, sexuality and other diversity issues to encourage more participation from students from backgrounds that are less traditional.

The report claims changing the curriculum would benefit all students, not just those from minority backgrounds.

“Enabling students to reflect on issues of liberation, equality, and diversity, an inclusive curriculum better prepares all students for life in a diverse society,” says the report Liberation, Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum.

The report follows in the wake of separate earlier NUS surveys that revealed many students attained lesser degrees and felt exclude or isolated from teaching at higher learning establishments.

The suggestion is architecture, chemistry, electrical engineering, physics and geosciences should include diversity issues.

For example, says the NUS, those teaching architecture could explore how cultural constructions of gender had influenced the design of buildings.

Usman Ali, vice-president of the NUS, said: “Diversity can be incorporated in many subjects. I hated biology at school but if I was taught that it was Ibn Al-Haytham that invented many foundations of science, including the mechanics of vision and perception, my interest would definitely have been there.”

The report urges universities and colleges should undertake a curriculum “diversity audit” to let tutors “evaluate case histories or other course content for representation of different types of people and content.”

“It is important to frame diversity audits as a chance for enhancing the curriculum rather than an intrusion into academic freedom.”

Estelle Hart, NUS national women’s officer, said: “In the classroom women are often invisible, curricula are dominated by the writing and ideas of men, with women’s issues and thoughts seen as an optional add-on if they are mentioned at all.”

This article  is filed under: Discrimination, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Role models