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1336758

	registered interest
	date	15/06/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of UK universities that teach courses based on critical race theory.
	tabling member constituency	Romford
	tabling member printed	Andrew Rosindell
	uin	16046
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/06/2021 answer text <p>The department does not keep a central record of individual courses offered by higher education providers, or their effect on the mental health of students.</p><p>Higher education providers are independent and autonomous institutions and are free to make their own internal decisions, including regarding curricula. In higher education, it is the freedom to think independently, and challenge opinions, which makes our universities truly world-renowned, and it is this freedom that will be protected in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, introduced on 12 May.</p><p>Higher education providers, and their academic members of staff, are fully entitled to adopt any philosophy they wish in their teaching or research, and to speak out freely about their beliefs without suffering detriment. However, providers should not interfere with academic freedom by imposing, or seeking to impose, a political or ideological viewpoint upon the teaching, research, or other activities of individual academics, either across the whole university or at departmental, faculty, or other level.</p><p>Student mental health is a key priority for this government. We continue to work closely with the higher education sector to promote good practice.</p><p>The government strongly supports the University Mental Health Charter, which aims to drive up standards in promoting student and staff mental health and wellbeing. The government continues to work closely with Universities UK on embedding the ‘Step Change: Mentally Healthy Universities’ framework, calling on higher education leaders to adopt mental health as a strategic priority.</p> answering member constituency Chippenham answering member printed Michelle Donelan grouped question UIN 16045 question first answered 23/06/2021 11:52:43 answering member 4530 label Biography information for Michelle Donelan
	tabling member	1447 label Biography information for Andrew Rosindell

1328165

	registered interest
	date	26/05/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to take steps in response to the reported planned introduction by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University of arrangements (a) defining racism as an exclusively white phenomenon, (b) encouraging the anonymous reporting of perceived microaggressions by named individuals and (c) other related measures; and what steps the Government plans to take through forthcoming legislative proposals to tackle such arrangements in UK universities.
	tabling member constituency	New Forest East
	tabling member printed	Dr Julian Lewis
	uin	7724
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2021 answer text <p>I understand that the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge has issued a statement setting out that the website referred to has been temporarily taken down while some material is removed, and I welcome this decision.</p> answering member constituency Chippenham answering member printed Michelle Donelan question first answered 07/06/2021 11:35:50 answering member 4530 label Biography information for Michelle Donelan
	tabling member	54 label Biography information for Sir Julian Lewis

1151822

	registered interest
	date	23/10/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that universities investigate all complaints made by students and staff about racism at universities.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	4262
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/10/2019 answer text <p>Racial harassment is unacceptable and we cannot tolerate staff and students being victims of it at our world-leading universities. There is no place in our society - including within higher education (HE) – for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism. Universities have clear responsibilities in this regard.</p><p> </p><p>HE providers in England are independent and autonomous. They are responsible for addressing student complaints and for meeting their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. The government expects providers to discharge their responsibilities fully and have robust policies and procedures in place to handle student complaints, comply with the law and to investigate and swiftly address incidents reported to them.</p><p> </p><p>Where a student complaint cannot be resolved through the institution’s complaint processes, the student can ask for their complaint to be reviewed by the Office for the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for HE in England. As a result of the government‘s recent HE reforms, all HE providers on the HE Regulator’s register, the Office for Students (OfS), are required to join the OIA.</p><p>The government will continue to work closely with partners, including Universities UK and the OfS, to drive progress on matters of racial harassment in HE.</p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 28/10/2019 13:57:49 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1151938

	registered interest
	date	23/10/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to protect university staff from racial abuse.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	4255
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2019 answer text <p>Racial harassment is unacceptable, and we cannot tolerate staff and students being victims of it at our world-leading universities. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism. Universities have clear responsibilities in this regard.</p><p>Higher education providers are independent and autonomous organisations. Like all employers, higher education providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) in relation to their staff. We expect them discharge their responsibilities fully and have robust policies and procedures in place to comply with the law, and to investigate and swiftly address all hate crime.</p><p>We encourage providers to make use of tools such as the Race Equality Charter and the Race at Work Charter to identify and address institutional and cultural barriers that affect minority ethnic staff and students.</p><p> </p><p>The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers recognises the need to create and develop positive environments and cultures in which all researchers can flourish and achieve their full potential. This includes having effective policies and practice for tackling discrimination, bullying and harassment and providing appropriate support for those reporting issues.</p><p>By improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff within higher education we can ensure that everyone who has the potential to thrive at university, both as a student and as a member of staff, does so.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 29/10/2019 17:47:08 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138393

	registered interest
	date	11/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the article in the Guardian entitled A demeaning environment: stories of racism in UK universities, published 5 July 2019, if he will hold discussions with the Office for Students on their assessment of the scale and nature of racism in UK universities.
	tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
	tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
	uin	276161
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>There is no place in our society, including within higher education (HE) for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely with the Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in HE, including implementation of UUK’s Sexual Violence and Harassment Taskforce’s recommendations.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers and officials in the department meet regularly with the OfS, stakeholders and representative bodies about a range of student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment in HE. This includes specific quarterly meetings with the OfS to discuss how to tackle harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector.</p><p> </p><p>In its ministerial guidance, the government has asked the OfS to support this work and to make campuses places of tolerance for all students, and over £2 million has been invested in projects addressing hatred and harassment in HE.</p><p>The government will continue to work closely with the OfS to prioritise tackling of all forms of harassment and hate crime in higher education.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 16/07/2019 10:19:29 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138215

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of reports of racism against students and staff in UK universities in the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
	tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
	uin	275679
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The government takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or for any form of harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely with Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in higher education, including the implementation of UUK’s Taskforce recommendations. The government has also tasked the OfS to support this work, and over £2 million has been invested in projects tackling hatred and harassment.</p><p> </p><p>The department regularly meets stakeholders and representative bodies about student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment. Officials hold quarterly meetings with the OfS and UUK to discuss how to make progress on harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector. In addition, I have recently held meetings with the Union of Jewish Students and Jewish student representatives about antisemitism on campus.</p><p> </p><p>The government expects providers to keep records of incidents disclosed to them and to act swiftly to investigate and address them. It is important to recognise that under-reporting is common. Higher education providers should look at how they can continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite of the potential for it to lead to spikes in disclosures, and to make sure that students and staff feel safe and able to disclose racist incidents.</p><p> </p><p>Evaluation to date has shown that progress has been made but that there is still more to do. On 7 January 2019; I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to welcome their Inquiry into Racial Harassment in Higher Education Institutions. I look forward to the new evidence that this inquiry will bring and will review its findings carefully.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore grouped question UIN 275680 question first answered 15/07/2019 12:42:13 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138218

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have had with representatives from (i) Universities UK, (ii) other education sector bodies, (iii) trades unions representing staff, (iv) student unions and (v) NUS on the effect of incidences of racism directed at their members in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
	tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
	uin	275680
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The government takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or for any form of harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely with Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in higher education, including the implementation of UUK’s Taskforce recommendations. The government has also tasked the OfS to support this work, and over £2 million has been invested in projects tackling hatred and harassment.</p><p> </p><p>The department regularly meets stakeholders and representative bodies about student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment. Officials hold quarterly meetings with the OfS and UUK to discuss how to make progress on harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector. In addition, I have recently held meetings with the Union of Jewish Students and Jewish student representatives about antisemitism on campus.</p><p> </p><p>The government expects providers to keep records of incidents disclosed to them and to act swiftly to investigate and address them. It is important to recognise that under-reporting is common. Higher education providers should look at how they can continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite of the potential for it to lead to spikes in disclosures, and to make sure that students and staff feel safe and able to disclose racist incidents.</p><p> </p><p>Evaluation to date has shown that progress has been made but that there is still more to do. On 7 January 2019; I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to welcome their Inquiry into Racial Harassment in Higher Education Institutions. I look forward to the new evidence that this inquiry will bring and will review its findings carefully.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore grouped question UIN 275679 question first answered 15/07/2019 12:42:13 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden