The primary aim of the Black Advisory Hub is to support Black students at Cambridge in successfully navigating Cambridge and accessing the academic and welfare services available to them.
The Black Advisory Hub also aims to support staff development so that staff members, departments and Colleges are better equipped to support Black students. This may involve engagement with curriculum, learning and teaching reviews or initiatives, and the provision of guidance, inclusive frameworks and other resources.
The Black Advisory Hub aims to be a sustainable and collaborative initiative, working to constructively enhance the wider culture of the University. To ensure the Black Advisory Hub is clear in its aim and ways of working, we have set out this value framework for its activities.
The Black Advisory Hub will:
- Support and advise students and staff on projects they would like to lead
The Black Advisory Hub will not:
- Run projects on behalf of student societies, departments and Colleges
The Black Advisory Hub will:
- Share relevant opportunities with students and staff in our network
- Encourage and support meaningful facilitation and collaboration
The Black Advisory Hub will not:
- Advocate for events we see to be tokenistic or tick-box exercises
The Black Advisory Hub will:
- Work with staff and students to address both explicit and implicit racism
- Recompense Black students for their time and efforts on projects and events
The Black Advisory Hub will not:
- Place the burden on Black students and staff to single-handedly address these inequalities
The Black Advisory Hub will:
- Work with existing support services, student groups, the Cambridge Students' Union and relevant campaigns on initiatives to support Black students at Cambridge
- Celebrate and share good practice across the collegiate University and the sector through an annual report and through contributing to wider discussions about the awarding gap and the experience of Black students
- Work with the Cambridge Centre for Teaching & Learning to proactively address the teaching, learning, assessment and curriculum practices that may contribute to awarding gaps for Black students
- Work with EDI to educate staff on race and racialisation and how understandings of this can be embedded into practice
- Aim to work as a centrally-coordinated voice that supports the needs of Black students
- Through the above, aim to support a cultural transformation of the institution in terms of pedagogy and practice
The Black Advisory Hub will not:
- Unnecessarily replicate the work of existing groups