muslim decides school polices

• Students at Magdalen College voted to make sessions mandatory for all freshers
• This is to make undergraduates more sensitive to the needs of ethnic minorities
• Topics will include dishes like Chinese chicken and oriental beef stew  

An Oxford college has introduced a compulsory race awareness course for all new students which will cover issues such as ‘cultural appropriation’.

Students at Magdalen College voted to make the sessions mandatory for all freshers in a bid to make undergraduates more sensitive to the needs of ethnic minorities.

The course will cover cultural appropriation – the practice of adopting the customs or dress of a minority culture, for example, at a fancy dress party.

Campaigners say it is offensive to do so for entertainment value, although some have struggled to explain the exact reasons why and where the boundaries should lie.

Students at Magdalen College voted to make the sessions mandatory for all freshers in a bid to make undergraduates more sensitive to the needs of ethnic minorities

In February, Pembroke College Cambridge received complaints that its canteen was serving ‘cultural misrepresentations’ of exotic meals.

Students said dishes including Jamaican stew, Chinese chicken, oriental beef stew, Indian fish pie and African stew with sweet potato were ‘microaggressions’ because the recipes were not accurate representations of foods that are found in those countries. 

Other topics in the Magdalen course will include ‘definitions of racism’ and ‘institutional racism at Oxford’.

It will also cover ‘implicit bias’ and advice on how to fight racism for both ethnic minorities and non-ethnic minorities.

Farheen Ahmed, the student union’s vice-president for equal opportunities, told student newspaper Cherwell: ‘The university is becoming increasingly aware of the need to prioritise student voices on issues of race, as seen in the establishment of various groups to handle such concerns.’