Unpacking Edward Boyle
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Unpacking Edward Boyle
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Words By: Luc Hinson
Illustration: Gabriella Mussurakis
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An in depth unpacking of the legacy of Edward Boyle. Namesake of one of the University of Leeds libraries and Conservative MP, and Minister of Education. The legacy he's left behind, has institutionally impacted upon the University. This article shines a light on his legacy, and the disparity in admission rates at the University. full piece follows below.
If you’ve spent time at the University of Leeds then for you, this place has been home at one point or another. Whether deliberate or not, through choice or coerced by an impending deadline, I’m sure alumni of the University of Leeds will be familiar with the words Edward Boyle. What those who frequent its bookcases and cloisters may be a little less aware of, are the hateful views and beliefs of its’ namesake. In recent years we’ve seen previously lauded icons and heroes, stripped of their honours as we learn the not so savoury, not so commendable aspects of their histories. Whether it be their personal views, affiliations or overt actions. Here in the UK, in January of 2016, the hashtag #Rhodesmustfall emerged on Twitter as students at the University of Oxford called for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel college. They cited a desire to improve the representation of non-white’s on campus, and to decolonise education, reforming the current institutionally racist system of education. Rhodes was afterall one of the architects of the apartheid in South Africa. We’ve seen a similar uproar in southern states in the US over confederate monuments, but It seems, that here in Leeds, one of our University’s namesakes has survived this movement, relatively unscathed.
Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth. Conservative party member, MP for Birmingham Handsworth, minister of Education, and Racist. This man’s name is plastered across one of the bastions of learning at the University of Leeds. This library plays host to discussions, essays, tears, laughter and simply put it’s a cornerstone of university life at Leeds. An edifice we choose to name after a man who happily applies quotas and percentages to human beings, who dehumanised and discriminated through his words and actions. Boyle in November of 1963, then minister of education, stood in the House of Commons and declared it “desirable”, on grounds of education that “no one school should have more than about 30 percent of immigrants” (Sivanandan, 1982: 14).
As circumstance would have it, this recommendation became law. His hateful thoughts and divisive ideology became practice, in June of 1965 Boyle’s law was enacted: “there should be no more than a third of immigrant children in any school; the surplus should be bussed out” (ibid.). Bussed out like catal. Surplus, like a good, a commodity to be disposed of as waste. At a base human level this is hard to fathom, the wording employed dehumanises school children. It politicised them, and reduced them to numbers, quotas to be met. This came from a man who soon after retiring from politics was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds, who’s name sits atop the University’s library, and who’s words and ideology have subsequently translated into practice, at the University of Leeds.
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His rhetoric and legacy of segregation and institutional racism in the field of education has endured. At undergraduate level, at the University of Leeds, 48% of applicants from BME backgrounds were offered places in 2016/17, whilst for their fellow white applicants their acceptance rate was 68% (a 20% difference). Let’s examine the same phenomena but at Postgraduate level: Of taught postgraduates at the University of Leeds, white applicants in the same year, had a 67% success rate. Whilst for those applicants of BME backgrounds the rate of acceptance was 49% (a difference of 18%). However, This discriminatory practice doesn’t limit itself to applicants from the UK: for those overseas applicants wishing to study at the University of Leeds in 2016/17, 53% of white applicants received an offer, compare that to BME applicants, and well there’s a difference of 19%. Only 34% of BME applicants received an offer. Now, i’m not one to throw out wild, unsubstantiated accusations but there clearly is a trend here. It seems far from a level playing field. Particularly when you review nationwide statistics.
A logical conclusion would be that surely based on this disparity in offers, you would expect there to also be a disparity in academic attainment. For example, when comparing the attainment of 3 A grades at A-level, you’d expect a marked difference between the success of white and BME students. I mean, as white students have a 20% higher chance of receiving an offer from the University of Leeds you’d expect them to also have a higher attainment rate. Well... Between 2010-2016, the percentage of white students that attained 3 A’s at A level was 11%. For those students of South Asian ethnicity 10%, for Chinese students 24%, Black students 5%, Mixed students 11%. So for those BME groups the average attainment of 3 A’s sits at 12.5%... higher than that of white students. Fundamentally there seems to be a lack of any level playing field, proportionally it appears BME students aren’t securing the offers they deserve.
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"Fundamentally there seems to be a lack of any level playing field, proportionally it appears BME students aren’t securing the offers they deserve."
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Whether you choose to paint the University of Leeds with the institutionally racist brush or not, (that’s a different conversation that needs far more evidence before such a far-reaching claim can be made).The fact is, teaching staff, chancellors and syllabuses all reflect the largest demographic of university students: they’re overarchingly white. Diversity is a conversation that is happening increasingly at the grassroots level, centred around modules and syllabuses - which is great, but... Teaching staff, and more specifically executive staff, board members and chancellors need to reflect all elements of society, in order to properly represent them. You wouldn't employ a plumber to recode your website. So why would you employ a 68 year old white man to increase the representation of minority groups in your University staff, syllabus and students.
The diversity conversation needs to happen at every level if it’s going to happen at all. What’s far easier to do though, is to do a little more research when we name buildings, a little more research into the views held by those individuals. Acknowledge the ramifications of these views and be open to change. To me anyway, the Edward Boyle library now seems even more oppressive than it did when I was trapped within its' walls.
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Words By: Luc Hinson, 1st March 2019
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