Leading academic offers a critique of education as part of Forward Thinkers lecture series

Award winning academic, Professor David Gillborn gave an inspirational talk on race and education at London Metropolitan University.

Date: 12 December 2014

The public lecture was the second of the School of Social Sciences’ Forward Thinkers lecture series.

Addressing a packed out audience of students and staff, Professor Gillborn summarised the findings of his research highlighting the inequalities of the UK education system that has had a negative impact on the education experiences black students.

Professor Gillborn is well known for his hard-hitting critique of UK education policy and is the Director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education (CRRE) at the University of Birmingham.

A round of questions and answers followed the public lecture, with many students speaking out on how their own experiences reflected Professor Gillborn’s research.

One recent First Class graduate in Social Policy and Youth Studies told of how as a black female she was always predicted ‘D’ grades for her ‘A’ levels despite showing greater achievement in her assessments.

At the end of session, Professor Gillborn praised the University for the work it did in widening participation and supporting students from BME backgrounds to succeed.

Forward Thinkers

The next speaker in Forward Thinkers lecture series is Guy Standing, a Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies and founder of the Basic Income Earth Network, who will be speaking on class on Thursday 22 January.

To register for a place at the event and further details go to the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities Eventbrite page.

Professor David Gillborn speaks on Race as part of London Met's Forward Thinkers lecture series.