Exams Favour White Students Says Birmingham University’s Business School

Adding to the countless disadvantages heaped on non-white people, it now seems having to pass exams is another big swizz, due to “white privilege”. So says a report issued by Birmingham University about “decolonising” its business school, in a story covered by the Mail: 

Birmingham University says the traditional methods of assessment are measures of “smartness based on white privilege”, adding that it is harder for students from ethnic minorities to do well.

The report concluded that assessment practices, such as in-person, timed exams or graded essays, should go because they are potentially “tools of exclusion”.

It said these “marginalise knowledge” and devalue skills from “non-Western traditions”.

The report, which your correspondent has consulted, features an introduction by Sally Everett, Professor of Business Education, Kings Business School. In her view (and note that by “assessments” she means examinations): 

It was Mountford-Zimdars et al. (2015) who find traditional assessments uphold colonial legacies and directly hinder the development of more equitable and inclusive educational systems, characterising historical and contemporary contours of the “unearned advantages” of being white. Such provocations echo Sternberg and Grigorenko (2004) who noted assessments function as a form of cultural capital, and Leonardo and Broderick (2011) suggest the measures of “smartness” we use are often linked with the privileges of “whiteness” and (often) opaque assessment criteria.

In short, if you’re white, the examination process is loaded in your favour because the system is “deficit-focused”. She goes on: 

…many business schools continue to use traditional assessment methods that perpetuate systemic inequalities, often focusing on students’ deficits such as penalising students for language skills and expression in essays or the skills of writing under pressure in exams, rather than engaging with processes that foster deep critical reflection, co-creation and creativity. If we continue to operate deficit-focused assessment practices, we will continue to perpetuate inequalities and increase the attainment gaps that characterise our award and progression data.

Professor Everett recommends getting rid of exams and introducing what she calls “a reimagined assessment portfolio”. Here’s some more of her advice:

Educators may also wish to consider the production of artistic and visual outputs such as digital storytelling and videos, running community initiatives and events… Decolonising assessment is also a call to re-evaluate the use of “marks”, grades and didactic feedback methods. Such a radical reimagining may include processes of “non-assessment” or “ungrading” where students participate in collaborative, developmental assessment models (Nieminen, 2022)1 – removing traditional grading structures to facilitate a more supportive, low-stakes assessment experience.

“Low-stakes” says it all. In short, no risk, and no requirement to have any of the necessary skills, aptitude or graft. Could it possibly be that the outcome would be to ensure no-one goes home without a top qualification, thereby encouraging ever more students to sign up for everyone’s-a-winner courses? As ever, follow the money.

Elsewhere in the report, there are some gem pieces of advice for tutors, such as:

…colleagues could also foster particular practices for decolonising the curriculum, for example, looking at students’ assessment, or exploring how to decolonise specific subjects such as economics or accounting.

How exactly you “decolonise” accounting is not explained. But it’s a pressing concern because apparently business schools are hotbeds of racism, says the report:

Some scholars have drawn attention to the invidious position of business schools in relation to decolonisation, arguing that they are an engine that disseminates and reproduces colonised systems of knowledge and practice (Banerjee, 2021; Abdallah, 2024). More directly, an article entitled “The business school is racist: Act up!” by scholars in the UK and Australia (Dar et al., 2021) calls for more reflexivity and accountability to address racism and associated neo-colonial practices that support the promotion and (re)reproduction of white supremacist ideology and racist power structures in business schools.

Who knew?

Not everyone in the education world is onboard. Back to the Mail:

Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said he was “saddened to see academic integrity being brought into disrepute in this way”. 

‘“Traditional forms of written assessment discriminate on the basis of intelligence, not on the basis of race,” he insisted.

‘“Students from the Global South are being patronised, infantilised and demeaned by treating them as intellectually inferior and incapable. We need a decolonisation of the woke, empire not a dismantling of the foundation stones of the Western world,” he said.

The action by Birmingham is part of a bigger push to get rid of exams across higher education because they are deemed to be biased against certain groups.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: As a coda to this story, numerous British universities are asking undergraduates to produce “zines” – hand-made mini magazines, generally A5 in size or smaller, combining text, images and illustrations – as an alternative to writing essays. The Telegraph has more.