As a Black academic with the privilege of working in higher education, I want to be able to share positive, life-affirming stories that will inspire future generations to consider university and doctoral studies in particular. But after working with my co-editors on the collective experiences of black PhD students in Britain, I can no longer do that.
Listening to and then reading the lived experiences of some of the brightest, most talented individuals to emerge from our communities has been heartbreaking, inspiring, and has filled me with anger. These students have faced skepticism that they could get a PhD, they have faced outright discrimination during interviews and selection processes, they have experienced marginalization in laboratories and lecture halls. Faced with these enormous challenges, they have fought against all odds to survive in British academia.
Black students are being invited in increasing numbers to bring plurality to college. However, they do this on fundamentally unequal terms. They pay the same fee, but systematically receive a lower degree. They have fewer opportunities to access funded opportunities at postgraduate level, with the knock-on effect that they enter academia later, if at all, and almost never reach the upper echelons of university leadership. Structural racism is the root cause of the problem, but that’s it the broader participation story at undergraduate level and now, increasingly, at postgraduate level, which creates false expectations. This leads to more black suffering, isolation and disillusionment within the academy.
How is someone expected to thrive and flourish within a higher education system that devalues and marginalizes your culture? How is one expected to actively participate in a system where one’s spirituality cannot be expressed authentically? How can someone accustomed to community and collective support operate successfully in an environment where individualism is valued and isolated efforts are the norm?
Abandon the participation story
Our book, The Black PhD Experience: Stories of Strength, Courage and Wisdom in British Academiareveals that Black students strive to participate and succeed in this often hostile environment, but often at the expense of their mental and physical health. The stories told show examples of very good practice, where supportive supervisors, proactive mental health services and Black support networks enable students to thrive. However, the overall picture is that black students are succeeding despite college, not because of college.
To fix this state of affairs and empower Black students to thrive instead of just survive, we need a reset. We must leave the participation narrative behind and focus on empowerment. We can no longer be expected to be grateful for the opportunity to study for a PhD – we need power to shape and reimagine what fair and transparent PhD application and funded programs look like. We cannot settle for taking part in yet another special project with three years of funding to increase opportunities for the disadvantaged (underserved, BAME, black heritage, hard to reach) community.
Empower black academics
We need permanent centers for black interdisciplinary research in all regions of Britain. These must be led by Black scholars committed to compassionate, community-centered Black excellence. Black people must hold positions of power and make long-term decisions about Black futures in higher education.
We are well aware of what happens when we are asked to participate in yet another diversity initiative. We put all our energy into the bids, we get community buy-in, we appear in the brochures. The universities get the money because of our labor and hire some new black faces on short-term contracts. When the project ends, all black faces will be released as their and our participation is no longer required.
This piecemeal approach to Black students and staff does not allow for building a sustainable pipeline for Black academic success. In the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd in 2020, Black students and our allies rose up and demanded change. Universities responded with words, regulations and charters – and even more participation regulations!
As our work with PhD students shows, this approach is accumulating future pain for emerging black scientistswho are literally forced to participate within a scientific environment that does not value them and still insists that it is their way or the highway. In our book, we call for more transparency in the PhD application process, more mental health support for students, better and more consistent training for PhD supervisors, and funding and recognition for Black support groups. It is not a total solution, but we believe it could help enable a strong black PhD culture in UK higher education and end the endless cycle of temporary initiatives.
The accounts in detail The Black PhD Experience show that we are part of the academic landscape. The talent, tenacity and drive demonstrated by the contributors to this groundbreaking book clearly demonstrate this Black PhD students can be a tremendous asset to institutional success. We just need to be recognized, not patronized, and given the power to thrive, not just survive.
William Ackah is a reader in social sciences and African diaspora studies at Birkbeck, University of London.
The Black PhD Experience: Stories of Strength, Courage and Wisdom in British Academia is published by Policy Press and edited by William Ackah, Jacqueline Darkwa, Wayne A. Mitchell, De-Shaine Murray, and Madina Wane, with 27 contributions from Black PhD students past, present, and future.
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