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| University of Ìbàdàn , Nigeria |
Master’s Degree, St Andrews University
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| University of St
Andrews, Scotland, UK |
In her first week, Adérónkẹ́ attended her Business Management class and was eager to engage with the lesson. So when the professor asked a question, the first-class University of Ìbàdàn graduate shot her hand up to answer. All other students in the class sat motionless, so the Nigerian with her hand up was undoubtedly a very noticeable sight. But somehow Adérónkẹ́ was invisible to the white Scottish professor’s gaze who called on every white student in attendance to respond to his question, their inanimate hands already hinting at the lack of correct answer to exit uncertain lips. Only after every other student had answered unsuccessfully did the reluctant professor finally call on the chestnut brown-skinned woman whose hand had confidently remained up throughout his concerted effort to ignore her, and she answered with the correct response. Now, it’s true that some teachers purposely avoid keen students to somewhat dissuade their potential lesson overdominance thereafter (story of my own academic life!) However, this was Adérónkẹ́’s very first class with the lecturer in question, meaning that he did not yet know her as ‘overly keen’ and the sole identifying factor at that initial stage to bypass her only raised hand was that it was melanated. The professor’s clear aversion to his Nigerian’s student’s very presence never mind aptitude was then to continue throughout the course, openly expressing his amazement when she wrote a paper and obtained the highest mark from his entire class.
At first, the uneasiness from her academic acumen seemed restricted to the Business Management class alone. Indeed, Adérónkẹ́ excelled in her Medical History class so much that one day the professor there, Dr CJ, called her for a meeting and asked, ‘What do you want to do after university?’ Wide-eyed and excited for her impending future, she gushed about working for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and become a research consultant. She shared an ambitious career pathway which her consistently high assignment grades of 16/17/18 out of 20 would easily lead her towards. Adérónkẹ́ left the meeting, happy that her professor had shown an interest in the upcoming life he was helping her to shape. But by the time she reached home not even an hour later, she’d received an email from the school administrative office citing that same professor saying, ‘You have been accused of plagiarism and a review panel has been called.’ Her jaw dropped with disbelief, if Dr CJ was going to accuse her of cheating/intellectual theft, then why not do so during the meeting he called rather than cordially asking about her career prospects? Her disorientation shifted to decisive action, gathering up her University of Ìbàdàn course work and certificates proving the quality of her work and that she did not need to cheat. At the review panel, it was revealed the plagiarism accusation was because Adérónkẹ́ ‘hadn’t put an asterisk’ next to certain quotes she had made in a submitted assignment, a flimsy premise quite unbelievable if she didn’t still have the paperwork proving this to be the case. The typing was utterly incongruous with plagiarism and the panel dismissed the case accordingly, only to then ‘give her the opportunity’ to take a replacement course to make up her academic unit , apparently intent on unnecessarily penalising her some way or the other.
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| Overlooked in lectures, work downgraded |
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| Working on MA final project without tutor support |
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| Negative academic references sent out |
Doctorate study, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
In the run up to her application to apply at Heriot-Watt, Adérónkẹ́ spoke to a Nigerian professor of Water Resources Management based there, Dr Adébáyọ̀ J. Adéloyè. She first asked if there was any lecturer interested in her area of research. Then she opened up about the prejudices she’d faced during her masters study at St Andrews. He replied she had clearly unsettled someone there and needed to be careful in her next venture, undoubtedly drawing on his own years of experiencing racial prejudice in Scottish higher education. In any case, this was her chance to again flex the brain muscles that had defined a lifetime of scholastic success…at least before the St Andrews debacle.
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| Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, UK |
Her doctorate research topic was based on leadership roles in helicopter accidents using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) model for accident investigation. As advised, Adérónkẹ́ added the element of ‘culture’ to make it a hybrid of the model of her new supervisor, Dr WG. Her work on ‘Culture in Helicopter Accidents Investigation and Analysis: Theoretical Development of the HFACS-CUL Tool’ again garnered great interest, bringing an opportunity to present at a ‘Human Factor’ conference in Poland. Regrettably unable to attend, she asked her supervisor to present her work on her behalf, which he did. Her presentation by proxy was received with such acclaim that she then received requests to have it included as a chapter in a book. We could imagine that the praise her supervisor also received by association should have been satisfying in itself. However, this white male researcher returned from the Polish voyage with a different attitude, apparently tempered with new intimidation for his brown-skinned female student. Just like at St Andrews, he started noticeably trying to find ways to derail her academic acumen.
The first strategy was giving her assignments that had nothing to do with academia, like asking Adérónkẹ́ to put up research posters and measuring an area for refurbishment in the department, surely a task for the facilities staff. The second strategy was familiar; spontaneously insinuating that Adérónkẹ́’s English ‘wasn’t good enough’…after already a year passing where her language ability had been just fine, indeed requested to be part of a publication. The use of language for racist means was accompanied by other constant criticisms from her supervisor to put her down. It wasn’t just Adérónkẹ́’s first supervisor who took issue with her intellectual prowess. Towards the end of the 1st year, her review was coming up, before which her second PhD supervisor Dr NG was appraising her work. Wide-eyed from the insights within, she couldn’t help herself but to say out loud,
‘Ah, I can’t even believe this type of idea can come from…’, before trailing off.
‘From what?’ the Nigerian student enquired curiously.
‘Oh nothing,’ replied the now flustered supervisor before changing the subject. Still, Adérónkẹ́ took her feedback and applied it to her work. When she was placed in a tough spot during the review proceedings, the astute student was still able to adequately defend her position. Afterwards, Dr WG came to congratulate her for surviving such a stern interrogation (…no thanks to him…).
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| Supervisor distraction from PhD by journal paper |
Come her second year of study, Dr WG had a new strategy of making Adérónkẹ́ evade her PhD study all together by telling her to write journal papers rather than focus on the doctoral research she was paying her tuition fees for, distracting from her purpose of being there. Remembering what Dr Adébáyọ̀ J. Adéloyè told her and not wanting to foster the same adversarial environment at St Andrews, Adérónkẹ́ did everything her first supervisor requested, focusing on writing a journal paper which he kept extensively ‘correcting’ for all its apparent ‘errors’ (in stark contrast to the ‘Breast journal’ paper she’d independently written herself with 116 citation to date). This back and forth continued for a full year when she raised the odd state of affairs with Dr Stephen Olúbọ́dúnwá Ògúnlànà, another Nigerian professor at Heriot-Watt who confirmed it was peculiar. So finally after 12 months of tuition fees and living expenses exhausted, she finally insisted there would be no more paper writing and needed to focus on her PhD. Her supervisor protested, ‘after all my corrections, you’re not going to publish the journal paper?’ Rather than being concern for her scholastic wellbeing, he was clearly upset by losing this strategy to stoke his own ego by keeping her academic progress at bay.
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| Dr Scott Shappell |
Come her actual second year of study (now her third year), Adérónkẹ́ pushed ahead with her research on Extracting Cultural Factors from Helicopter Accident Reports Using Content Analysis. Even amidst its draft phase, the merits of her efforts attracted acclaim as always, this time coming from Dr Scott Shappell, Professor of Human Factors and Systems at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the USA. She’d contacted him to use his model for her adaptation, and upon seeing her work, he invited her to partake in his research circle. Adérónkẹ́ happily obliged, and after publishing a paper with the American academic, her 1st supervisor called her, demanded why she had written a paper with Dr Scott without informing him (…like he ‘owned’ the Nigerian student or something???) In any case, Adérónkẹ́ confirmed she had indeed previously informed her supervisor of the collaboration, but he denied this. He then asked for Dr Scott’s email address, which Adérónkẹ́ unassumingly shared perhaps believing it was for innocent networking within their academic sector. However, a major network rupture became apparent thereafter when Dr Scott refused to interact with her again, with email after email to him going unanswered. What had the supervisor said to Dr Scott for him to quite suddenly cast her out of his research circle that way?
In the meantime, Adérónkẹ́ continued to receive consistent criticisms and put downs from said supervisor. These eventually led to her visiting student support, where it was discovered that she was in fact dyslexic. Note this learning difference should not be conflated with a learning disability as she’d proved time and time again with her praiseworthy intellect (despite what her supervisors said). Indeed, she was in good company with the likes of innovative & creative minds such as Benjamin Zephaniah, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein all being blessed with dyslexia. Regardless, knowledge of her dyslexia seemed to somewhat assuage the supervisor’s intimidation as his criticism died down and he became ‘nicer’, seemingly more supportive. But in the third year of the doctorate, that support was to eviscerate. With her work getting notice again, Adérónkẹ́ was due to present her research at a 2015 US-based ‘Human Factor’ conference in Las Vegas. Her appearance was being coordinated by the departmental admin team…except they made an error with booking the conference dates meaning the university incurred much higher flight prices, which would then get blamed on Adérónkẹ́. Clearly frustrated with their incompetence, she informed them of her disappointment over the whole affair. Her first supervisor Dr WG got involved, and rather than support his aggrieved student, he insisted that SHE apologise to the admin team for essentially not doing THEIR jobs. She conceded to apologise for getting her supervisor involved but refused to apologise to the ‘wounded’ departmental admin team.
…and this stance apparently turned out to have devastating reverberations.
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| PhD rejected without credible justification |
After many years of hard academic work and research, alongside hard emotional work with unwarranted stress from persistent racist microaggressions, Adérónkẹ́’s fourth and final year (including the one in Aberdeen) came around and it was time to submit her thesis as well as deliver her viva presentation discussing her work. As usual for such a momentous occasion, there was an early morning rise, special clothes were selected, butterflies in stomach were calmed, and she headed to the facility that she’d spent full days in from 8am in the morning to 8pm at night for half a decade. Entering the building with all 328 pages of her research, Adérónkẹ́ was ready to cross over into the next phase of her life and entered the viva venue with confidence…only to then be told by the PhD examiners that after 4 years of study (plus one extra year wasted on her first supervisor’s delay tactics of paper writing) and £50,000 of costs (fees/expenses), her thesis had been rejected.
Right there in the corridor, Adérónkẹ́ screamed her lungs out.
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| Dr Barry Stauch NTSB |
Through a haze, she heard the examiners say that the Director of Research had confirmed her thesis rejection…which was odd because the Director of Research had had nothing to do with her doctoral studies. Deeply de-moralised, Adérónkẹ́ returned home and decided she wanted a neutral opinion. So without saying her viva had failed, she sent her thesis to Dr Barry Strauch, Senior Fellow of the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) America. Adérónkẹ́ had used some of his papers for her research, and thus had introduced herself to him at the Las Vegas conference. Impressed by her work (as standard), he called it ‘methodologically innovating’ and took the time out to give her feedback for slight adjustments to augment it. As Adérónkẹ́ reviewed his feedback, she was astonished by its length, depth and quality. None of her own paid Herriot Watt PhD supervisors had ever given her such extensive feedback like Dr Barry had done for free. (Again, similar to St Andrews when Adérónkẹ́ and a Ghanaian student had received inadequate to no support for their final MA project.) In any case, his high praise re-moralised her, igniting the confidence to appeal the failed viva decision. This wasn’t the end of her doctoral studies; it was the start of a fight to have her work recognised and appeal its rejection.
With this change in gears, Adérónkẹ́ drafted her appeal letter and attached Dr Barry Strauch’s positive appraisal. But the acclaimed academic’s comments were inexplicably refused by the Heriot-Watt appeals panel, who then upheld the initial decision. Adérónkẹ́ then hired a lawyer to draft the second appeal letter. In this round of deliberations, she focused on supervisors’ issues including insufficient supervision, the stress of which had contributed to her miscarrying a pregnancy in her first year at Heriot-Watt. She also demanded to know what her first supervisor Dr WG had said to Dr Scott Shappell for him to stop all contact with her, which the supervisor refused to divulge. Such silence frustrated the appeal process as all the xenophobia towards her was subtle and inferred. As such, there was no actual concrete evidence of racism to hold them to, its true face held barely below the surface.
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| Appeals panel for doctoral thesis |
In contrast, the appeals panel just wanted to focus on Adérónkẹ́ rather than the supervisor’s own incompetence and prejudice in his role to support her. In addition to insisting the multi-journal-published researcher was a ‘weak student’, they wanted to use personal reasons for her thesis rejection. In the end, her second appeal was again dismissed, and Adérónkẹ́ was instructed to ‘correct’ her thesis, a task she embarked on for a whole year. The outcome of this further delay was Heriot-Watt offering her an MPhil qualification instead, the equivalent of 1 year of study vs a 4-year PhD (protracted to 6 years). The message was clear; ‘you and your work were not good enough’…hence it was therefore quite odd when her PhD examiner Dr HD who denied her doctorate qualification then quoted her thesis in his own journal in 2017(!)
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| Dr Geoff Palmer |
Still indignant about the whole debacle, the Nigerian researcher approached three journalists about everything that had happened in the white establishment of academia. But no one in the white establishment of media chose to publish the story, effectively asserting ‘Black Intellect Doesn’t Matter’. It was a bitter pill to swallow, made even more so four years later when Heriot-Watt Jamaican Life Sciences professor, Dr Geoff Palmer helped Adérónkẹ́ realise her PhD had already been ‘marked’ as a fail on the 12th of December three days BEFORE the viva presentation on the 15th of December. ‘How on earth can work fail before it has even been submitted?’ was her understandable thought, and she contacted the University Vice Chancellor to say so. He instructed the Registrar to investigate and the departmental admin team did not deny it. Instead they insisted it was university policy to fail students before they submit their work and would send a link to a webpage explaining it all…except the weblink was ‘broken’(!) Ah yes, for pointing out their own incompetence for messing up the logistics for the Las Vegas conference, it seems to me that the wider network of departmental admin teams were adamant that Adérónkẹ́’s competency to receive her PhD be shredded.
Here’s the thing with an academic, they love learning by default. So whatever forum that takes place in, that’s what they will pursue…which brings us to Fife College.
Higher National Diploma, Fife College
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| Fife College of further & higher education |
It was clear that Scotland did not want Adérónkẹ́ to fulfil the lofty academic promise that Professor Robin Flowerdew had seen when he first filled in the masters application for her. So at the very least, she decided to get as HND in Quantity Surveying at Fife College. As all her other Scottish study endeavours, it started well…up until it was evident that the Nigerian student was doing ‘too well’. This was the case later on in her first year when her project supervisor, Ms OA, showed up. Upon submitting her report, Ms OA gave her a low mark saying her English 'wasn't good enough' to make the grade (that old chestnut). But by then, Adérónkẹ́ was savvy to the game and knew what to do. She went to the other students on the course and took photos of their marked projects, all of which had been awarded higher grades but were clearly of lower quality than hers both in content AND language. She then called a meeting with the same supervisor, showed her the photos of the other students’ work and asked her to justify her grade. Ms OA clearly could not and thus awarded Adérónkẹ́ her proper mark which was a distinction.
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| Wise to the racist game... |
Her second year of study brought with it yet another biased project supervisor, Ms BM, though this time the mode of undermining Adérónkẹ́’s work was another accusation of plagiarism. Her first experience of this was in 2005 at St Andrews, and to be experiencing the same thing in 2019 at Fife College made her reflect. This was a go-to tactic that white racists use against ethnic minorities/international students to their own ‘supremacist’ advantage, pulling people of colour down ‘where they belong’ regardless of actual merit…or indeed because of it(!) Still, she was now savvy to the game and instead of mere ‘letter writing’, she arrived to the review panel with evidence/records that proved each time she had not committed academic misconduct. Though with one strategy to ‘put the Nigerian student in her place’ thwarted, the panel then switched attack gears. Their new accusation was that Adérónkẹ́ was being condescending Ms BM who was also on the panel that day and they all walked out of the meeting, leaving the bewildered student in the room by herself. Ultimately unphased, she emailed all concerned that if she was not allowed to speak up, they had denied her human rights. She then requested a meeting with the curriculum manager, Mr SD, who replied with a refusal stating, ‘I don’t want to talk to you as you’re “aggressive”’. Ah yes, the old ‘aggressive woman of African origin’ trope, which is basically a complaint that the African woman in question wouldn’t shut up and take the disrespect being meted out to her! In any case, Adérónkẹ́ responded, ‘how am I “aggressive”?’, but Mr SD had no answer for her. There was really no overcoming such a plain stated fact, nor the clear evidence that she hadn’t plagiarised her work. Understanding she would not be intimidated, the curriculum manager fell silent, the review panel disbanded and the project supervisor retracted her accusation, all begrudgingly having to recognise the Nigerian student's hard work with the mark that it deserved: distinction.
Yes, after getting a first-class degree of distinction from the University of Ìbàdàn, almost 15 years later she would finally have the same recognition of scholastic distinction on the Scottish shores that had originally held so much promise. Although this was not by fighting fatigue in the library as she studied her books, it was by fighting racial prejudice from ignorant white Scottish ‘intellectuals’…and isn’t that an oxymoron if you’ve ever seen one!
Aftershocks…
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| If you forgive them, you are the power |
With all that has befallen Adérónkẹ́ throughout her experiences in Scottish higher education, it has been a challenging spiritual journey to drive out the utter hatred and bitterness for the consistent evil directed her way from St Andrews during her studies and afterwards with her references; Heriot-Watt throughout her studies; and even Fife College giving it a go. Because of their racist (likely compounded with sexist) insecurities, they stole her rightful qualifications from her, thus taking away the career she would have pursued, the riches she would have had, the house she would have built. But ultimately she resolved to not allow them to take her piece of mind. After many years, she is miraculously not coming from a place of hate, but a place of pity and forgiveness. She recognised that if you hate, you give them the power. But if you forgive them, you are the power. So she now has the power to pray for them and bless them. She even now sends Dr WG, her first Heriot-Watt supervisor who derailed her PhD, birthday greetings and insists would hug him if she saw him on the street(!) One thing remains clear though, Scotland would be in a much better place without these stratospheric levels of debilitating white insecurity from all around. And on the day that happens, Adérónkẹ́ still looks forward to gaining her justly deserved PhD award.
NB: Adérónkẹ́'s experiences aptly demonstrates the racial hostility, bias and discrimination within universities and colleges outlined in the Scottish Racism in Education article. Read on for information on courses of action to challenge and overcome racism in this area.
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by Abiọ́dún Ọlátòkunbọ̀ Abdul
facebook.com/abiodun.a.o.abdul
facebook.com/ScottishRaceRelations
Quite appalling! I salute the resilience and courage of this Intellectual amazon. The story needs to make it to mainstream news and even get its own cinematic adaptation someday.
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