We’ve got your number! Academics hit out at plans to ‘decolonise’ maths at universities and say degrees are being ‘politicised’
- Quality Assurance Agency has issued advice on ‘decolonising’ maths curriculum
- Says students should be made aware of ‘problematic issues’ in history of maths
- Twelve leading mathematicians wrote a letter protesting against the guidance
- It said: ‘The concept of decolonisation is irrelevant to university mathematics’
Maths degrees are being ‘politicised’ because of demands to decolonise the curriculum, top academics have warned.
They accuse the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), an independent charity that checks on standards in the university sector, of engaging in ‘tokenistic anti-racism efforts’.
The watchdog has published proposed guidance which states that ‘the curriculum should present a multicultural and decolonised view’ of mathematics.
The subject benchmark statement, which has been put out for consultation, adds that students ‘should be made aware of problematic issues’ in the history of mathematics.
It means mathematicians at risk of being ‘decolonised’ include British statistics pioneer Karl Pearson, who founded the first statistics department at UCL in 1911, but also believed in the existence of ‘inferior races’. Sir Isaac Newton was a shareholder in South Sea Company that traded in slaves.
In their letter of protest, shared with Times Higher Education, 12 leading mathematicians said: ‘We struggle to imagine what it would mean to decolonise, for example, a course on the geometry of surfaces.
Mathematicians at risk of being ‘decolonised’ include British statistics pioneer Karl Pearson (left), who founded the first statistics department at UCL in 1911, but also believed in the existence of ‘inferior races’. Sir Isaac Newton (right) was a shareholder in South Sea Company that traded in slaves.
‘For the most part, the concept of decolonisation is irrelevant to university mathematics, and our students know this.
‘If we engage in obviously tokenistic anti-racism efforts, we will simply be sending a signal that we do not take racism seriously.’
Signatory John Armstrong, a lecturer at King’s College London, said that although many of the subject requirements ‘might be very reasonable’, it was facile to insist ‘absolutely every single maths course to cover these same things’.
Dr Armstrong said he felt the guidance should be concerned only with what the basics of a mathematical curriculum might be, adding that a centralised description of content ‘reduces the academic freedom of mathematicians to deliver the courses they wish to deliver’.
In their letter of protest, shared with Times Higher Education, 12 leading mathematicians said: ‘We struggle to imagine what it would mean to decolonise, for example, a course on the geometry of surfaces.’ (Stock image)
Eight Royal Society Fellows have signed the letter, including Sir John Ball, professor of mathematics at Heriot-Watt University, Philip Dawid, emeritus professor of statistics of the University of Cambridge, and Mary Rees, emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of Liverpool.
The Daily Mail has previously highlighted how universities have been ‘decolonising’ their business, chemistry and even thermodynamics courses to mollify woke activists.
A QAA spokesman said: ‘Subject benchmark statements don’t prescribe or mandate set approaches to teaching, learning or assessment.
‘They are created by the subject community for the subject community, to be used as a tool for reflection when designing new courses or updating existing courses.’
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