Celebrate Black History Month by signing up for anti-racism training

Staff and students are being invited to celebrate Black History Month by signing up for Santander Union Black: Britain's Black cultures and steps to anti-racism, an in-depth training course designed to tackle racism on the UK's university campuses.

The online course is open to all until May 2024. It was developed by Santander in partnership with The Open University and learning platform FutureLearn in response to Universities UK's "Tackling racial harassment in higher education" report. It is designed to help drive cultural change across the higher education sector.

Universities UK's report illuminated stark racial inequalities across the sector and called on universities to improve racial literacy among senior leaders, staff and students. It also issued a set of recommendations for institutions to implement including "training developed from an anti-racist perspective".

Santander Union Black: Britain's Black cultures and steps to anti-racism explores Black cultures in Britain and helps learners understand the origins and experience of Black British history and dispel myths to inform, challenge and contribute to the anti-racism agenda.

The programme has been developed by leading academics including Professor Marcia Wilson, Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at The Open University, and includes contributions from BAFTA-award-winning film-maker David Olusoga, David Lammy MP, human rights activist Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, artistic director of The Young Vic Kwame Kwei-Armah, and former England goalkeeper David James MBE.

The course has been guided by a steering committee including Baroness Valerie Amos and Karen Blackett OBE, and is presented by TV host and former Blue Peter presenter Ayo Akinwolere.

Tuleen Boutaleb, Chair of the Tackling Racism at GCU group, said: "The University is calling on all staff and students to eradicate racism. Examining our own behaviour and beliefs is fundamental to helping build a racially just campus and wider world and Santander Union Black: Britain's Black cultures and steps to anti-racism is a brilliant guide to raising our awareness, questioning our biases and working as a community to challenge racist behaviour and change racist structures."

The eight-hour course - as well as a one-hour taster version - is hosted on FutureLearn and delivered through a mixture of online learning content, discussion forums, reading materials and interactive activities.

In addition to the full Union Black programme, staff and students can try the one-hour version, Introducing Union Black, which is designed to introduce learners to some of the concepts and learning experiences tackled in the full programme and help build confidence as a change agent for equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.

You can watch a short introduction to the course by following this link.

You can access the programmes by following this link to the Santander Scholarship Platform.

Before beginning the training, please register and read the step-by-step guide on accessing the course by following this link.

Staff and students who complete the course will receive a certificate of performance

Union Black is part of a raft of training being rolled out at GCU as part of the University's campaign Call it Racism. The Tackling Racism at GCU SharePoint site offers staff access to courses and resources covering areas including unconscious bias, diversity, tackling racism and structural racism.

To find out more about Black History Month events across Glasgow, follow this link.