Black academics suffer when life stories eclipse scholarship

Jason Arday’s resignation from the University of Cambridge should not mark the end of the conversation. Whatever the outcome of the allegations surrounding the sociology professor, this episode has exposed something much bigger than the career of one academic. It highlights a looming shift in British higher education, where personal stories share the stage with scholarship as a measure of academic value. The shift carries serious, unintended consequences for black academics.

This did not happen overnight. It is the inevitable consequence of a systemic sea change. Over the past three decades, British universities have gradually become market-driven. The expansion of higher education, the introduction of tuition fees, the 2012 fee reforms and the rise of league tables have reshaped universities into institutions competing for students, research income and public attention. Universities still produce knowledge but they also have to sell themselves. Education has become something to market, and students are often treated as consumers choosing between competing brands.

This commercial pressure has changed how universities present their staff. Research still matters, of course. But academics are also expected to have stories that capture attention. University websites, media profiles and press releases often lead with biographies before discussing research. Stories of hardship, resilience and unlikely success have become part of  higher education branding. The academic is no longer just a scholar but an integral part of the university’s public image.

The transformation has had an indelible impact on black and other minority academics. The growth of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategies, the Race Equality Charter and renewed focus on race after the Black Lives Matter protests encouraged universities to demonstrate visible progress on representation.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating diverse backgrounds. Many of these stories are inspiring, and they matter. I know that from my own experience. Before academia, I represented Nigeria in international athletics and spent years pursuing Olympic ambitions before injury forced me on to a different path.

Experiences like these can inspire students who have never imagined themselves belonging in a university. They are a reminder that intellectual talent emerges from every social background, and that academic life should remain open to unconventional journeys.

But biography should never eclipse scholarship. Universities exist to produce knowledge, not inspirational branding. The primary concern of academics should be whether their research advances knowledge, withstands scrutiny and makes an original contribution to their field. 

As a black academic who has worked in colonial history and race equity research, I find the prioritisation of stories uncomfortable because it changes how black scholars are seen. Too often, our public identity becomes tied to adversity rather than intellectual contribution. We become known for what we have overcome before people know what we have written. But will de-prioritisation of stories close opportunities for black scholars?

There is an important difference between widening opportunity and lowering expectations. During my time at Sheffield Hallam University, I helped develop the Aspire mentorship programme in its foundation stage. The programme aimed to address the under-representation of black and black heritage research students, and provide opportunities that had previously been unattainable.

I saw how effective structured mentoring, professional networks and practical guidance could be. Those kinds of interventions help talented researchers navigate institutions that are often difficult to understand. They open doors without changing what counts as academic excellence.

That distinction matters. Excellence and inclusion are not mutually exclusive; they should reinforce one another. Diversity initiatives are at their strongest when they remove barriers rather than redefine excellence. Black scholars should not be handed diminished expectations or symbolic recognition. We need fair recruitment, effective mentoring and equal access to opportunity.

When universities become overly invested in symbolic representation, however well intentioned, they risk infantilising the very scholars they seek to support. Black academics become examples of institutional virtue rather than independent scholars with agency, whose work deserves serious intellectual engagement.

The unintended consequence is that stories and biographies begin to overshadow scholarship, and our legitimacy appears to rest as much on the obstacles we have overcome as on the ideas we have produced. That is a burden our white colleagues are rarely asked to carry.

There are signs that Britain is moving beyond this kind of symbolic representation in other professions. The increasing number of ethnic minority politicians holding senior positions across different political parties illustrates that representation alone is no longer treated as the main achievement. Kemi Badenoch, David Lammy, Shabana Mahmood and Priti Patel disagree on many fundamental political questions. Their ethnicity tells us almost nothing about their ideas. The important question has become what they do in office, not simply the fact that they are there. Universities should mature in the same direction.

Black academics should not be expected to embody particular politics, or serve as evidence that diversity initiatives work. We should simply be expected to produce excellent scholarship. We deserve the ordinary standards applied to every serious scholar: rigorous scrutiny, intellectual independence and recognition earned through the quality of our work. Equality is not achieved when black academics become institutional symbols. It is achieved when our scholarship speaks louder than our stories.

Femi Owolade is an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society.