A Discussion of the Experiences and Navigations of Students of Colour Within Higher Education Institutions

My proposed research focuses upon the experiences and navigations of students within Higher Education who identify as people of colour (PoC). Whilst the influences of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policies has become more prevalent in the last 3-5 years, the effectiveness of these policies is often brought into question. Current literature commonly attempts to demonstrate the existence of aforementioned policies, but its lack of inclusion of the narratives of those affected by these policies is regularly missing. Building on my undergraduate and postgraduate research, I show how PoC navigate sites that, historically, have been occupied predominantly by white bodies and where they are stigmatised, ridiculed, and cast as not belonging. I will examine how the production and strengthening of racial stigma implicates University settings and how this intersects with the policies supposedly put in place to prevent discrimination, stigma, and exclusion. For this study, I will conduct a combination of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and ethnographic observations - which I will discuss in due course - to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the experiences of students of colour in University settings?
2. How do EDI policies impact upon their everyday lives at the University, and how does this feed into the practices of the institution (e.g. moves to 'decolonise' the curriculum; module design; EDI committees)?
3. How is EDI policy perceived and utilised to provide a supportive, representative, and diverse campus experience for students?
I believe that this research will also make valuable contributions surrounding the topics of 'legitimacy' in majority white spaces (Anderson, 2015), as well as important discussions surrounding the colonised nature of our Higher Education curriculum.