Oxford University Race Task Force Proposes Woke Scores for Hiring Academics

A protestor gestures during a demonstration called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign callin
ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The University of Oxford is reportedly considering using woke scores when judging the qualifications of prospective academics in order to supposedly increase diversity at the school.

A series of proposals from Oxford’s race equality task force include calls for England’s oldest university to “embed” the principle of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into “all recruitment” of university staff and academics.

The recommendations — seen by The Telegraph — go on to demand that a candidate’s “good citizenship and/or commitment to EDI work” should be an “essential criteria” when assessing job applications, meaning that the school should hire based on whether candidates subscribe to the task force’s supposedly anti-racist ideology.

The race equality task force went on to call for additional funding for woke programmes, including for “inclusive teaching, curriculum diversification and decolonising activities” throughout all departments and faculties at Oxford.

Combatting so-called microaggressions was also a central theme of the proposals, which said that the school should be “encouraging individuals to educate themselves on the experiences of others and empowering everyone to become active bystanders when they witness harassment or abuse.”

Woke training sessions should be implemented as well, the task force claimed, arguing that it is necessary for students and academics alike to “continuously learn and better understand microaggressions and stereotypes.”

On top of leftist indoctrination sessions, the proposals went on to call for funding to hire equality, diversity, and inclusion “observes” to “provide support” during the recruitment process.

The leftist proposals have drawn some pushback within the senior ranks of the Oxford faculty, with one don telling the British broadsheet: “If we are supposed to pay attention to their EDI — their woke score — does this mean it doesn’t matter if they are useless at teaching and research? Or do you now have to get a minimum woke score to get a job?”

The don went on to reveal that one of the questions meant to “tease out” the ideology of prospective hirees was: “Can you give me examples on how you have called out these kinds of issues in your previous appointment?”

“So you are being interviewed for a job in alchemy, yet you have to go out your way to show you have tried to virtue signal — to an old codger like me it just seems crazy. Do you mark someone down because they haven’t jumped on the woke bandwagon?” he questioned.

Defending the race task force, a spokesman for Oxford University said: “The race equality task force was established to advance racial equity across the collegiate University.

“After reviewing staff and student responses we will agree [on] a detailed strategy by the end of the academic year.”

The latest proposals come amid a wider push throughout academia in Britain to “decolonise the curriculum” following the reemergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the country following the death of George Floyd last year in America, with Oxford itself previously running racial training bias training sessions after one student made a joke about the killing.

The leftist agenda push has seen attacks on British history, literature, and music, with Leicester University scrapping courses in Medieval English literature — removing canonical texts such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Beowulf from the curriculum — in order to focus on works surrounding sexuality, diversity, race, and ethnicity.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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