Past event

Beyond intelligence and elitism: nurturing wisdom and ethical reflexivity Kaleidoscope Alumni Network Launch

Kaleidoscope Alumni Network (KAN) is an alumni network that celebrates the ethnic and cultural diversity of St Andrews alumni around the world. We are successful thought leaders, changemakers, and global citizens and our diversity allows us to perceive situations from a multitude of perspectives.

Join us in person or online to learn about and help us to celebrate the ethnic and cultural diversity of St Andrews graduates around the world and the significant contribution made to our society by under-represented diverse ethnic communities.

Higher Education (HE) the world over has been the site for revolutionary change over the past 30 years. There is a growing belief that there should be no limits to accessing higher education, once the prerogative of a small, white, male-privileged elite. Indeed, in a matter of 40 years in the UK we have gone from participation rates of less than five per cent to more than 60 per cent.

In spite of these changes, the HE sector, and the ‘elite' institutions in particular, continue to struggle to break down barriers, both in terms of participation and success, with ‘non-traditional students' consistently reporting higher levels of non-belonging and discrimination. Though conscious and unconscious bias is an important factor contributing to perpetuating inequities, in this presentation Dr Gurnam Singh of the University of the Arts London, University of Warwick, and University of Chester will argue that the problem has much deeper cultural and structural roots.

The other events in the Kaleidoscope Network Launch are:

We need new words: the power and pitfalls of language in discussing diversity (10am to 11am)

An audience with Claudia/Chemical – Artist/Academic (11.15am to 12 noon)

The Advocate: the string that ties everything together (5pm to 6pm)

See the full programme for the day and register now for in-person and/or online participation.