How international students of colour become Black: a story of whiteness in English higher education

ABSTRACT

This article highlights how international students of colour are racialised in English higher education. Key performance indicators of racial inequality in the sector like achievement outcomes currently discount experiences of international students of colour. This is problematic as international students, as found in this study, identify themselves under the sector racial category of Black and minority ethnic (BME). They experience racism and discrimination in and outside the Academy just like ‘home’ BME students. The work presented here foregrounds the racialised experiences of international students of colour in English higher education. It is a counter-story in the tradition of critical race theory which reveal how whiteness unifies and divides. It unifies in creating a shared experience amongst those who experience the heat of the ‘white gaze’ in academia. It divides, categorising and classifying ‘us’ to the extent that ‘we’, both students and academic staff, may unwittingly perpetuate whiteness.

KEYWORDS:

• Black and minority ethnic (BME)
• international students
• England
• higher education
• whiteness

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the encouraging support of Dr Joan O’Mahony and her leadership at the Higher Education Academy (now AdvanceHE) when we began this work examining racial inequalities in the UK higher education sector. Also, we would like to offer our thanks to the two anonymous reviewers who offered encouragement and critical suggestions in earlier drafts of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Although crude, the category of Black and minority ethnic (BME) will be used in this paper throughout as respondents to this study identified themselves as BME.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Higher Education Academy.