Many Black, Asian, Mixed Heritage and Ethnic Minority students experience societal racism and this can have an impact on their university and placement experiences, degree outcome & graduate employability.
Examples of racism during placement are:
- Discussions about race, religion or black history where the student is targeted to provide the answers.
- Racist remarks from patients/clients and staff members. Patients refusing to be assessed by a student of colour.
- Unconscious bias (e.g. name bias; staff or patients reading names as ‘foreign’; making assumptions based on name or culture of the student)
- Asking students to change their name if you have difficulty pronouncing it.
Having to deal with racism whilst studying is distressing for students and creates a barrier to their studies. It is essential that educators are aware of racism and unconscious bias and support students if this is experienced by them. Racism is not acceptable so please do talk to the placement tutors if you need support to address this.
Students on a ‘Bridging the Gap to Leadership’ placement (in collaboration with Canterbury Christ Church University and funded by HEE) have been creating resources for educators which can be found in the sub-pages. Please take time to review these and share within your teams and departments.
This poster presents the QR codes that can be displayed in your departments: BGL Poster for QR links
