2. Decolonising DMU and the PGR Experience
Richard Hall and Lucy Ansley

3. Aim: to situate work on decolonising the
PGR experience, inside an institutional
programme of work (DDMU) that has not
previously prioritised research.

4. DMU PGR Context
81%
69%
8%
15%
4%
9%
4%
3%
HE Sector, 2%
DMU, 3%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
HE Sector
DMU
DMU PGR Population - by ethnic group (UK)
White Asian Black Mixed Other

5. DMU Context
69%
8%
4%
3%
7%
2%
DMU PGR Population - ethnicity categories (UK)
White Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi Asian or Asian British - Indian
Asian or Asian British - Pakistani Other Asian background Black or Black British - African
Black or Black British - Caribbean Other Black background Mixed - White and Black African
Mixed - White and Black Caribbean Other mixed background Arab
Other ethnic background

6. DMU Context
24%
30% 30%
3%
14%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
White Asian Black Mixed Other
DMU PGR Population - by ethnic group (Non-UK)

7. Freedom
to
Achieve
Value
Added
Metrics
Inclusive
Curriculum
Framework/UDL
Good Practice
Case Studies
Co-Creation
Workshops
Review
University
Infrastructure
Evaluation
Freedom to Achieve

8. Learning and
Teaching
Development
Relationships
Community and
Environment
Co-creation

9. Relationships
• role models
• improved communications
• student integration
Teaching and learning
• Cultural examples in lectures
• Learning resources culturally diverse
Community
• Importance of belonging
• Cultural inclusivity
• Campus development
• Student societies
Development
• Culturally relevant support
• Inclusive spaces
• Academic skills
Employability
• Practical experience
• Specialised career advice
• Placements
Exclusion
• Sense of not belonging due to...
• Perception of inherent white culture
Co-creation

10. BAME
Awarding Gap
OfS funded
project:
Freedom to
Achieve
Evaluation &
Impact/Staff &
Students
Broader than
the
Curriculum
Decolonising
DMU: a whole
institution
approach
Decolonising DMU: Towards the
anti-racist university

11. A working position
DDMU at the intersection of plural, material histories
• Defining decolonising: dignity of difference
• Diversify the syllabus, canon, curriculum, infrastructure and
staff
• Decentre knowledge and knowledge production away from the
global North
• Devalue hierarchies and revalue relationality
• Diminish some voices and opinions that have predominated,
and magnify those that have been unheard
The Working position is available here.

12. Renewing DDMU
Towards 4 commitments:
• equality of education and research;
• progression, talent and representation;
• governance and accountability; and
• understanding culture and behaviour.
A focus on mapping to Access and Participation Plan,
Race Equality Charter, and the awarding gap.

13. Decolonising DMU and
the Research Environment for PGR

14. Priorities
•To evaluate the impact of DDMU activity on the lived
experience of the University community.
•To generate a deeper understanding of DMU’s journey to
become an anti-racist University.
•To analyse the institutional research environment, including
research institute outputs and impact.
•To create a research community at DMU, that upholds anti-
racist research principles.
•To explore understanding, perceptions and learning: a research
project into what DDMU means.

15. Phase One and the Research Environment
• Data: projects, impact and PGR (monitoring and equality/EDI, with Research
Services).
• Engaging the FRHS in BAL on PGR admissions and transitions (and well-being), and
setting-up a dedicated working group on these issues.
• Discussing research training with the Doctoral College.
• Engaging the HLS FREC, in terms of decolonising and the ethics process (including
issues of community engagement, risk and methodological development).
• Discussions with 10 research institutes and centres:
• a decolonising research network;
• a self-audit tool for decolonising research; discussion around
• UKRI priorities;
• linking decolonising and decarbonising; and,
• analyses and sharing of decolonising methodologies and theories.

16. Some headlines from this work
• Decolonising in relation to home-based practices and
international activities, including work with international PhD
and Master’s students. This includes issues of language (racio-
linguistics).
• There is scope for evaluating the relationship between
decolonising and research-engaged teaching.
• Research tends to represent communities made marginal
(intergenerationally, intercommunally, intersectionally), but
tends to be short-term/conservative.
• Using data to support work on the lived experience is messy,
across data owners, with no overarching focus for collection.

17. Impact of perceptions of decolonising
• 299 surveys/14 interviews/19 diary entries (2021).
• Largely short-term, personal and conservative responses.
• Use of language and positioning.
• Seen in relation to EDI.
• Limited relation to emancipation and reimagining.
• Impossibility of decolonising neo-colonial spaces.
• Problematic for some BEM students and staff (tokenistic/trust).
• Problematic for some white students/staff (denial, refusal,
whataboutery).
Are we equipped to talk effectively about race?

18. Decolonising and PGR

19. Supporting Diversity in PGR
The main purpose of this group (after Leading Routes) is:
• to review and revise current approaches to the recruitment of postgraduate
researchers (PhD and DBA) in the Faculty of Business and Law, focusing on
possible barriers to inclusivity and ensuring we support diversity for
candidates and research approaches (methods, case studies etc.);
• to focus on key criteria used when reviewing and assessing PGR
applications and in applicant interviews, focusing on unpacking and
specifying the specific meaning of language used in assessments
(excellence, originality) and any areas of implicit/unconscious bias; and
• to draft a set of core principles on postgraduate researcher recruitment for
dissemination and consultation amongst BAL PGR supervisors, focused on
balancing quality and equality/equity.

20. Supervisor workshops: 1
Applications.
• Are principles and criteria applied equally, and is the process
transparent for all, or is some information implied/hidden?
• Do we expect certain applications/applicants to conform to a
hegemonic view of academic excellence/distinctiveness within
expected theoretical and methodological positions?
• How do we articulate what we are looking for in interviews?
How do we understand that these are developmental proposals
being pitched by novice researchers?
NB the emotional labour of a transition to PGR work (cultural code-
switching).

21. Supervisor workshops: 2
The impact of a competitive environment.
• Discussion of money as a block/barrier for international students
(for instance, alumni unable to access scholarships for home/EU
students).
• Recruitment and selection processes should take into
consideration the challenges a lot of PGRs (particularly
international PGRs) face in trying to complete their research.
• If we want our PhDs to produce 'excellent' work in a sustainable
manner, appropriate mentoring and involving PhDs more actively
in publications/development of environment once they are in the
programme.

22. Supervisor workshops: 3
PGR transitions/support
• Specific examples of research groups with a strong PGR support
base in a cluster. PGRs responsible for roles within the group.
• Small group tutoring to accelerate belonging and confidence of
PhDs (isolation is an issue).
• How to support internal transition into PhD work (mentoring,
MRes, supporting PGT into PGR, unconscious bias training, in-
country partnership).
• Process-related pressure of the first year, e.g. Probation Review
and ethics (c.f. explore methodological innovations/possibilities).
• Issues of well-being in relation to supervisory relationships.

23. Supervisor workshops: 4
Supervisory team considerations.
• Supervisory styles/capability and skills within a team, and how to
broaden this.
• How to support appropriately the circumstances and abilities of a
student, through a flexible combination of supervisory
approaches?
• Is there an implied or perceived deficit with international/black
and ethnically-minoritised PGRs? If there is a perceived,
additional cultural load, will this affect recruitment?

24. PGR views
• Building horizontal relations so that the PhD path is less individualised.
• Reading groups where that are shaped to share power (chairing and picking
papers both academic and non-academic).
• Deliberate focus on reading and analysis to understand each other's values
more.
• PhD students are immersed in a positive learning environment. This was
described as supportive, not hierarchal, an exchange of knowledge, not
competitive, and more than supervision.
• Methodology/theory: not extractive relationships; not using hegemonic
theory and methods; grassroots community learning; participatory
ethnography; horizontal and intersectional approaches.
NB some supervisors feel ethics blocks innovation.
• Some students are not working in relation to a decolonising lens.
• Post-Brexit concerns around visas require institutional solidarity.

25. Institute/Centre self-audit and PGR
• Does your Centre/Institute monitor registrations, completions, terminations and
withdrawals, based upon ethnicity, and intersections? Are there differences for
home/international students?
• How does your Centre/Institute engage with the diversity of PGR student voices?
• Have you bid for/developed ring-fenced scholarships/bursaries for BEM students?
• Do you deliver workshops/events, or enable spaces that support BEM students in
considering applications for PGR study?
• Have students been supported in finding mentors outside of their supervision
team?
• Do you provide any doctoral training on the topic of decolonising research
methodologies or theories?
• Does your Centre/Institute consider the ethnicity of first and second supervisors in
supervisory teams, and its impact upon the student experience (including welfare
and mental health)?
• In terms of examinations, does your Centre/Institute consider the ethnicity of
examiners, and its impact upon the student experience?

27. Decolonising DMU
decolonisingdmu@dmu.ac.uk
www.dmu.ac.uk/decolonising
@DecolonisingDMU
DDMU Resources/Publications
DDMU Podcast

28. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License.