At last, EDI is at the top or near the top of many university agendas.
While it’s welcome news – especially when the government is still trying to manufacture culture wars – confidence that visibility will translate into results is hard to come by.
That’s not only because EDI is largely conservative and does little to challenge the power structures which underpin institutional inequities. EDI has to be retired because in the eyes of the people it is supposed to serve – those excluded marginalised – it hasn’t delivered. Just look at the persistence of the Black awarding gap (28 per cent), the lived experience of disabled people, and the whiteness of senior leadership teams.
Most damningly, EDI is perceived as not being designed to deliver. It’s become a fig leaf for tokenism, performativity and the preservation of privilege.
