Latest news with #DugaldStewart
Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
A reckoning is coming for the higher education sector
What would the founders of our great universities think of the news that no fewer than 637,000 graduates are now claiming Universal Credit? Perhaps they would have agreed with the late Kingsley Amis, who in 1960 greeted the expansion of higher education with the words: 'More will mean worse.' We do not have to endorse such cultural pessimism to accept that the precipitous rise in the quantity of graduates has been accompanied by a dilution in the quality of degrees. The results can now be seen. Students are running up huge debts, expecting their studies to amply reward them. But instead they end up finding themselves on benefits. Britain's welfare system was not designed for a generation which has lost all inhibitions about what it no longer calls 'the dole'. But the bigger concern is the university system itself, now on the brink of bankruptcy. In yesterday's Telegraph James Kirkup argued that the vanishing of the 'graduate premium' in earnings, combined with the loss of many 'graduate jobs' to AI, is reducing the appeal of a degree. Squeezed by demographic decline, universities are now financially dependent on foreign students, who pay higher tuition fees. Driven by voters' anger over migration, however, governments have cut visas for overseas students. Some 40 per cent of universities are now running deficits. Add to this the folly of the likes of Edinburgh University, which is apologising for the views of its Enlightenment luminaries such as Dugald Stewart and David Hume. If the prospectus is mandatory self-flagellation and not-so-genteel poverty, it is time to consider university reform.
Telegraph
a day ago
- General
- Telegraph
What Edinburgh University's campaign of self-destruction says about modern Britain
Edinburgh University, that most genteel of institutions, is not all it seems: the ancient facades provided cover for white supremacism in the past and continue to harbour racism today. At least, that is, according to a new review of the institution's 'historic racial and colonial injustices'. Apparently, the prestigious university played an 'outsized' role in developing 'racist scientific theories' at the same time as profiting from the transatlantic slave trade. This devastating critique was not commissioned by Edinburgh's rivals but by the university itself. Led by academics, the investigation into the university's historic links to slavery and racism is being lauded as one of 'the most ambitious, wide-ranging and sustained consultations of its kind'. The result is 130 pages of self-flagellation. A light is shone on horrors such as buildings funded by donors who had links to the slave trade and the British empire; a room containing 300 skulls reportedly used in the study of phrenology; and student notebooks from the 1790s that suggest philosopher Dugald Stewart taught that white Europeans were superior to other races. At Edinburgh University, widely recognised the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment, the past itself is now on trial. Fingers are pointed at great scholars such as the aforementioned Stewart, Adam Ferguson, David Hume and Adam Smith. The legacy of these intellectual giants has been assessed by today's pygmies and found to be that most heinous of all things: 'damaging'. What's seemingly missed by the review's authors is that scholars of the past, just like today, reflect the attitudes and values of the era they inhabit. Phrenology, for example, has been so thoroughly debunked that few current students are likely to have ever encountered the word. Taking potshots at long dead scholars for going along with the prejudices of their time overlooks nuance and progress. The Edinburgh review, in its determination to uncover white supremacism, is forced to rapidly brush past the inconvenient fact that Stewart was also an abolitionist. The desperate search for racism ends up discrediting the entire Enlightenment project. Yet, in reality, the intellectual gains of this important period in time benefitted everyone, not just white men. And as a nation we should be proud of this legacy. For example, the work of philosophers such as John Locke was truly revolutionary in promoting the idea that all men (and later women) are created equal. The Enlightenment's scientific advances sowed the seeds of the industrial revolution which lifted people around the world out of poverty. And, ironically, the academic methods developed at this time made modern universities possible. Compared to the astonishing advances in thought made by the Enlightenment philosophers, the academics who compiled the Edinburgh race review are engaged in an anti-intellectual act of self-harm. Their report inevitably leads to calls for reparations in the present. The authors want formal apologies to be issued, buildings to be renamed and scholarships set aside specifically for black students. Scholarships are an important means of making higher education more accessible. Indeed, the money wasted on what's been heralded as 'the most extensive investigation of its kind carried out by any university in the UK' could have been better spent funding current students. But scholarships should be awarded on the basis of economic need or academic merit. Doling out money based on skin colour reintroduces racial categories into the university, turning back the progress the Enlightenment made possible. The Edinburgh review reveals that researching the legacy of slavery now has nothing to do with the past and everything to do with the concerns of today's cultural elite; especially in universities, but across other areas of culture and learning, from museums to galleries. Edinburgh University should celebrate its great philosophers and scientists. Academics cannot stand on the shoulders of giants they have kicked to the ground. This attitude is not only bad for universities, but for Britain as a whole.
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Edinburgh University apologises for historic links to racist theories
Edinburgh University has issued a 'deep' apology after admitting it was once a haven of white supremacism which profited from slavery. An academic investigation has found that scholars at the institution, which was one of the intellectual engine rooms of the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment, played an 'outsized' role in creating racist theories that persist to this day. The Race Review, commissioned by university leaders in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, found that one of Edinburgh's celebrated moral philosophers and mathematicians, Dugald Stewart, taught thousands of students that white Europeans were racially superior. There is still a building on campus named after Stewart, one of the founders of Scotland's national academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The review also found that the university had received the equivalent of £34 million in today's prices from former students and donors with links to the slave trade. Some of that money continues to benefit staff and students. Addressing contemporary issues, the review's authors recommended the institution should unadopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — aimed at protecting Jewish communities — because it stifles 'free conversation' about Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank. The definition reads 'Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews' but some academics say this is being used to silence criticism of Israeli government action. The report makes 47 recommendations for change, such as renaming buildings and repurposing some of its most famous events and prizes linked to former luminaries. The university, it said, should also sell off investments in companies that have significant links to the Israeli government. Some critics of the review said that a university facing real financial pressures should spend less time on 'revisionist, right-on views' and 'virtue signalling'. The authors of the review, commissioned by the principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, said their findings raised serious questions about the university's role as the seat of the Scottish Enlightenment, when it became famous for the works of philosophers such as David Hume. Its landmark David Hume Tower, on the city centre campus, was renamed 40 George Square in 2020 after an earlier investigation in which Hume was revealed to have held racist views. The inquiry — chaired by Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland first black professor, who died in June — found that the university still had bequests worth £9.4 million that came directly from donors linked to slavery and colonial conquests which fund lectures, medals and fellowships today. Mathieson, describing the review as the most extensive investigation of its kind carried out in the UK, extended the university's deepest apologies for its role not only in profiting materially from practices and systems that caused so much suffering but also in contributing to the production and perpetuation of racialised thought. Among the historical findings were that the university explicitly sought donations from graduates linked to slavery to help build two of its most famous buildings, Old College in the 1790s and the Old Medical school in the 1870s. The university had at least 15 endowments derived from African enslavement and 12 linked to British colonialism in India, Singapore and South Africa. Ten of those are still active today and the university was urged to redirect the money to hiring academics from black and minority backgrounds and on research and teaching about racism and colonialism, as well as more bursaries for minority students. Mathieson said Edinburgh, where staff and students have held protests accusing the university of complicity with Israeli actions in Gaza, was 'actively' reviewing its support for the antisemitism definition addressed in the report. 'The university adopted the definition in 2020 and we fully recognise this is a complex and sensitive topic,' he said. 'Jewish and non-Jewish people alike hold a range of views on definitions of antisemitism, including the IHRA, and we are currently considering our approaches on this in consultation with our university community.' Miles Briggs, the Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for education, said: 'At a time when Edinburgh University is dealing with SNP funding cuts and questions about its own financial management and job losses, it should have more urgent priorities than pandering to these kind of revisionist right-on views. It is vital that we understand our history but not try to erase it.' Nigel Biggar, the Scottish regius professor emeritus of moral theology at Oxford and author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, said: 'Everything we have inherited is a mixture of good and bad. If we aren't prepared to honour the achievements of flawed human beings, we'll honour no achievements at all. Self-righteous virtue signalling benefits no one.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Key people in Edinburgh University's slavery and colonialism inquiry
The legacies of some of Edinburgh's most celebrated professors and graduates have come under new scrutiny, after new evidence emerged about their roles in forming and perpetuating racist theories, or donating money gained from transatlantic slavery to the city's university. Edinburgh University will consider renaming buildings and repurposing some of its most famous events and prizes linked to these figures. The people named in the university's investigation into its own history and legacies of enslavement and colonialism include: A famous 18th-century moral philosopher and mathematician (1753-1828) who lectured Edinburgh students – including a future British prime minister – that black Africans were inferior to Europeans because they were 'savages'. He opposed slavery and said 'inferior' races could be perfected over time. Yet in common with predecessors such as Adam Ferguson at Edinburgh and the French philosophers Buffon and Montesquieu, he upheld the view that humans were ranked in six tiers, with white Europeans at the top. The university's slavery and decolonisation review said Stewart was the most popular lecturer of his day. Students, 'many of whom went on to elite careers in politics and imperial administration', crowded into his lectures. Some went on to build careers as race scientists. 'Through his pedagogy, he exerted great, if somewhat indirect, influence on the intellectual landscape of early 19th-century Britain,' the review found. The university's review has said renaming the Dugald Stewart building, a prominent modern block on its Edinburgh campus opened in 2008, would be a 'strong test case' for its new renaming policy. A former Edinburgh medical student, Dr Gunning (1818-1900) became extremely rich after settling in Brazil, where slavery was legal and endemic, to become a physician to the local elite, including Emperor Pedro II. He later served as a doctor and then commissioner for a major gold mining enterprise that exploited enslaved miners. Britain had outlawed slavery in 1833, making it illegal for Britons to enslave people, yet Gunning is widely believed to have held up to 40 enslaved people on his Palmeiras estate near Rio de Janeiro. He denied that, claiming they bought their freedom by working for him. Gunning invested in other colonial enterprises, including gold mines in India and shipping firms. He became a noted philanthropist, donating significant sums in Britain and Brazil, including funding numerous academic prizes, scholarships and academic posts at Edinburgh, particularly in theology and medicine, which are believed to have paid out millions in benefits to recipients. Those include three of Edinburgh's best-known current honours: the Gunning Victoria Jubilee prizes in medicine and in divinity and the Gunning lectures. The university's slavery and decolonisation review has found it holds £5.4m derived from his gifts. It has recommended that money be repurposed to fund anti-racist decolonisation projects and help pay for a new centre for the study of racisms, colonialism and anti-black violence. One of the most prominent advocates globally of the racist science of phrenology, which wrongly linked skull shape with intelligence, George Combe (1788-1858) co-founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society with his brother. It gathered a skull collection absorbed by the university and still held by it. He also backed other phrenologists, including in the US, and wrote one influential text that heavily outsold Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The Combe brothers studied medicine at Edinburgh. The Combe Trust was set up from the assets of George's estate (wealth partly derived from his writing and lecture tours advocating phrenology) and endowed the university's first professorship in psychology in 1906, known as the Combe professorship. The Combe Trust now funds a visiting fellowship in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities lasting two to three months. The fellow must deliver a lecture 'emerging from the interests of George Combe', on areas such as religion and religious education, physiology and health. The 'most distinguished' students in logic and metaphysics at Edinburgh each year are given prizes set up by Margaret Stuart Tyndall Bruce (1788-1869), an heiress whose mother was Indian and her father a Scots lieutenant in the Bengal artillery who had substantial estates in India, England and Scotland. Her brother John Bruce was Edinburgh's professor of logic and metaphysics, while her uncle John bought Falkland Palace, one of Scotland's best-known medieval houses, and its surrounding estate in Fife. She inherited her father's and uncle's wealth after they died, which was significantly derived from her father's Indian estates. In 1865, she left £10,000 to the university for scholarships named in memory of her uncle Prof Bruce. The school of philosophy, psychology and language sciences still awards 'Bruce of Grangehill prizes', which have a current accumulated value of £1.6m, funds which may be repurposed after the university review.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Key people in Edinburgh University's slavery and colonialism inquiry
The legacies of some of Edinburgh's most celebrated professors and graduates have come under new scrutiny, after new evidence emerged about their roles in forming and perpetuating racist theories, or donating money gained from transatlantic slavery to the city's university. Edinburgh University will consider renaming buildings and repurposing some of its most famous events and prizes linked to these figures. The people named in the university's investigation into its own history and legacies of enslavement and colonialism include: A famous 18th-century moral philosopher and mathematician (1753-1828) who lectured Edinburgh students – including a future British prime minister – that black Africans were inferior to Europeans because they were 'savages'. He opposed slavery and said 'inferior' races could be perfected over time. Yet in common with predecessors such as Adam Ferguson at Edinburgh and the French philosophers Buffon and Montesquieu, he upheld the view that humans were ranked in six tiers, with white Europeans at the top. The university's slavery and decolonisation review said Stewart was the most popular lecturer of his day. Students, 'many of whom went on to elite careers in politics and imperial administration', crowded into his lectures. Some went on to build careers as race scientists. 'Through his pedagogy, he exerted great, if somewhat indirect, influence on the intellectual landscape of early 19th-century Britain,' the review found. The university's review has said renaming the Dugald Stewart building, a prominent modern block on its Edinburgh campus opened in 2008, would be a 'strong test case' for its new renaming policy. A former Edinburgh medical student, Dr Gunning (1818-1900) became extremely rich after settling in Brazil, where slavery was legal and endemic, to become a physician to the local elite, including Emperor Pedro II. He later served as a doctor and then commissioner for a major gold mining enterprise that exploited enslaved miners. Britain had outlawed slavery in 1833, making it illegal for Britons to enslave people, yet Gunning is widely believed to have held up to 40 enslaved people on his Palmeiras estate near Rio de Janeiro. He denied that, claiming they bought their freedom by working for him. Gunning invested in other colonial enterprises, including gold mines in India and shipping firms. He became a noted philanthropist, donating significant sums in Britain and Brazil, including funding numerous academic prizes, scholarships and academic posts at Edinburgh, particularly in theology and medicine, which are believed to have paid out millions in benefits to recipients. Those include three of Edinburgh's best-known current honours: the Gunning Victoria Jubilee prizes in medicine and in divinity and the Gunning lectures. The university's slavery and decolonisation review has found it holds £5.4m derived from his gifts. It has recommended that money be repurposed to fund anti-racist decolonisation projects and help pay for a new centre for the study of racisms, colonialism and anti-black violence. One of the most prominent advocates globally of the racist science of phrenology, which wrongly linked skull shape with intelligence, George Combe (1788-1858) co-founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society with his brother. It gathered a skull collection absorbed by the university and still held by it. He also backed other phrenologists, including in the US, and wrote one influential text that heavily outsold Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The Combe brothers studied medicine at Edinburgh. The Combe Trust was set up from the assets of George's estate (wealth partly derived from his writing and lecture tours advocating phrenology) and endowed the university's first professorship in psychology in 1906, known as the Combe professorship. The Combe Trust now funds a visiting fellowship in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities lasting two to three months. The fellow must deliver a lecture 'emerging from the interests of George Combe', on areas such as religion and religious education, physiology and health. The 'most distinguished' students in logic and metaphysics at Edinburgh each year are given prizes set up by Margaret Stuart Tyndall Bruce (1788-1869), an heiress whose mother was Indian and her father a Scots lieutenant in the Bengal artillery who had substantial estates in India, England and Scotland. Her brother John Bruce was Edinburgh's professor of logic and metaphysics, while her uncle John bought Falkland Palace, one of Scotland's best-known medieval houses, and its surrounding estate in Fife. She inherited her father's and uncle's wealth after they died, which was significantly derived from her father's Indian estates. In 1865, she left £10,000 to the university for scholarships named in memory of her uncle Prof Bruce. The school of philosophy, psychology and language sciences still awards 'Bruce of Grangehill prizes', which have a current accumulated value of £1.6m, funds which may be repurposed after the university review.
