The Race Equality Charter has been through a lot recently. Advance HE’s Charter Mark focusing on improving the representation, progression and success of staff and students of colour in higher education was branded ‘egregious wokery’ in the Daily Telegraph by a ‘Government source’. The interim Chief Executive of the Office for Students (OfS), Susan Lapworth, slighted the Race Equality Charter (REC) and Athena Swan – its gender-focused counterpart – by warning, ‘I’d expect autonomous universities to be thinking carefully and independently about their free speech duty when signing up to these sorts of schemes.’
Finally, these and other rumblings seemed to culminate in a now-infamous letter written to all higher education providers by Michelle Donelan, the then Further and Higher Education Minister. Of the REC and Athena Swan, Donelan wrote, ‘given the importance of creating an HE environment in which free speech and academic freedom can flourish, I would like to ask you to reflect carefully as to whether your continued membership of such schemes is conducive to establishing such an environment.’
