Blog Post 2 – Faith, Religion and Belief

The secular foundations of the university can surface in ways which may deny a sense of belonging for people for whom religion plays a part in their lives^[1].

The Equalities Act 2010 recognises religion or belief as a protected characteristic and in accordance with the QAA Inclusive Education Framework, universities including UAL claim and seek to present themselves as being in support of such characteristics in their inclusivity statements and policies.

Some examples from my observations and experience of UAL’s attitudes to inclusivity in practice include: 

• Group sizes are large; cuts to budgets reduce student access to tutorials; spaces are not designed with the needs of neurodiverse students in mind; opportunities for cross-course interaction are limited; responsibility relating to the attainment gap and retention habitually falls to academic staff without acknowledging the need for structural adjustments and so on.

• Responding to the UK Supreme Court ruling on the terms “sex”, “man”, and “woman”, in April 2025 UAL removed its trans and non-binary inclusion policy, taking away its previous positive commitment to trans, non-binary, and intersex staff and students.

• Another example of the disparity between appearance and action relating to inclusivity is evident in the standardisation of Independent Support Agreements (ISAs), and the gap between the recommendations in these documents and the resources provided to course tutors to provide adjustments. 

• Similar limitations extend to the workplace adjustments available to neurodiverse staff, and the bureaucratic inaccessibility of the systems that must be navigated to access support at all.

As Jaclyn Rekis outlines in her research on epistemic injustice, attitudes towards religious subjects can have a silencing effect. She explores “how religious subjects relate to a secular environment” and “the possibility that religious subjects can be negatively impacted in their knowledge producing efforts because of that environment” (Rekis 2023).

Rekis discusses how “religious subjects can be harmed when their religion is racialized or when their gender and dress are mistakenly thought to be predictive of their beliefs and practices” and “individuals can be harmed in their capacity as knowers when their testimony is wrongly diminished according to inequalities in social power” (Rekis 2023). Following Kimberlé Crenshaw’s exploration of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991), these statements again highlight harms being amplified as marginalized identities intersect.

I’ve experienced conversations amongst colleagues where student projects relating to faith and religion are scrutinised in ways I’ve not heard extended to projects exploring other topics. 

Examples of bias against religious subjects were also recounted in our group sessions, particularly through a discussion around The Charismatic Lecturer (Macfarlane 2004) in which a tutor is described as involved in the Church of England, a factor which led this character to be interpreted by some participants as lacking the rational credentials required of a university lecturer.

As with the disabling factors which cause inequality for neurodiverse, deaf, or otherwise disabled students, a binary understanding around secularism vs religion^[2] at university can lead to religious students feeling excluded or diminished and simultaneously stifling a necessary debate^[3].

Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Ted talk Is Religion Good or Bad? (This is a trick question) (Appiah, 2014) is another reminder of how complex these topics are, and how misguided it is to generalise questions of faith, religion and belief. 

Alongside a layered description of what religion(s) may or may not be, Appiah draws attention to the Colonial distribution of Christian ideas from Europe since the Middle Ages, restating the legacies of intersectional injustices which underscore Krenshaw’s thesis of intersectionality.  

His talk helps me to acknowledge the ways in which my lived experience, the anecdotes I’ve heard, my positionality as a white British middle-class male, educated in part in a rural Church of England school shape my own sensitivities and biases. 

Arts Student Union research^[4] demonstrates that students across demographics benefit academically when they experience a sense of belonging at university. Which again brings us to the primacy of community as a fundamental factor of inclusivity.

At a time where increasingly polarised views relating to religion dominate the mainstream discourse, I welcome having light shone on this discussion. 

References:

Appiah, K.A. (2014) ‘Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). YouTube [Online] 16 June 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY. [Accessed 28^th June 2025]

Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, Jul., 1991, Vol. 43, No. 6 (Jul., 1991), pp. 1241-1299.https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

Dinham, A.; Francis, M eds. 2015. Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice. Bristol: Policy Press. 

Dinham, A.; Francis, M.; Shaw, M. (2017) Towards a Theory and Practice of Religious Literacy: A Case Study of Religion and Belief Engagement in a UK University. Religions, 8, 276. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8120276

Equality Act 2010, c.15. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents. (Accessed: [4th July 2025]). 

Macfarlane, B. (2004) Teaching with Integrity: The Ethics of Higher Education Practice. New York: Routledge Falmer.

Rekis, J. (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Hypatia 38: pp. 779-800.

QAA. (2023). The Inclusive Education Framework: Final Evaluation Report.

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^[1] In Towards a Theory and Practice of Religious Literacy: A Case Study of Religion and Belief Engagement in a UK University(Dinham, Francis & Shaw, 2017) the authors describe “a tension between global and local prevalence of religion and belief on the one hand, and widespread assumptions of secularity in universities on the other”. Arguing the university should act as a site for a renewal of discussion that includes religion, they also observe that “they are conceived of as places where debates about interesting and difficult issues are encouraged”.

^[2] Dinham, Francis & Shaw identify the binary understanding of religious and non-religious perspectives “that is either ‘secular’ or religious” p.14 

^[3] In Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice Dinham & Francis point to “a lamentable quality of conversation about religion and belief, just as we need it most” (2015) p.4

^[4] Research by Arts SU presented by Yemi Gbajobi at the UAL Education Conference 2025 at London College of Fashion on 1^stJuly 2025 demonstrates that students who feel part of a community at UAL through participation in the Student Union had higher retention rates and improved attainment across a wide range of demographic factors.