EDI training for freshers

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I recently went back to uni for a reunion and saw the timetable for freshers week pinned up. Certainly more structured and less booze focussed than my hazy memory of the 90's.
I noticed they have a mandatory sexual consent session and a whole day of mandatory EDI sessions. I think my year would have been a bit bemused at that.
I'd be interested to know how this stuff is perceived by students now - anyone have insight into what sort of content its likely to cover? Do they think its odd for a uni to give young adults mandatory moral education sessions? (if thats what it is!) Do they turn up and behave?

Cool adhominem.

If you are going to have such strong views on a topic you should probably do some basic research first.

The number of working & lower-middle class kids who tell me about feeling intimidated & stupid because of class backgrounds is legion. And I've generally only worked in elite and/or Russell Group universities.

There's loads of stuff online about northerners getting slagged off for their accent at Leeds and Scots getting the same in Edinburgh. DD1 loved Liverpool when she went there because one of the students who gave a talk had a proper Scouse accent.

Feels like a backwards step though, when I went to Glasgow Uni a million years ago the halls were very much a melting pot of the middle class from across all of Scotland but the University always had contextual offers for working class Glaswegians (about half the students were local) and so I was friends with people from the Gorbals to Glenalmond College.

If only it were that simple…

It’s necessary. But there are always going to be those who ignore it. A male student groped ds in his first week at uni. Ds was upset and disgusted, felt assaulted. The uni took it seriously, including involving the police, and ds felt supported by the uni. Ds was also appalled because he and the other student would have both had years of PSHCE lessons at school, plus the orientations at the uni, plus the posters everywhere about consent - yet the other student chose to break those rules.

Completely different to our experiences and expectations as female students years ago.

Universities have to provide training to students on harassment and sexual misconduct as part of their Office for Students registration. It’s a new requirement which has come on this academic year.

Crackpot woke ideology that has pushed transgenderism and critical race theory into the heart of British institutions.

Wow.

I have no desire to aspire to be like the US.

I'm not sure it is ahead of us on acceptance anyway.

I am still unconvinced that all this EDI training actually improves matters too. What we are seeing is a massive backlash against it, which suggests it's very resented.

We'll do things in a British way, that reflects British history and British cultural differences. And by that I actually mean not just in terms of immigration patterns but also the difference between Brits and Americans who are white and have lived in their respective countries for generations.

The UK has a very different culture and way of dealing with things to America even though we share a language. DH works for a US company and comes across this daily. It causes conflict in ways which are invisible. Some manners when asking for things wouldn't go amiss as a simple example.

We are actually meeting a friend who is American later today who lives in Europe as well as her American friend from home and we are very aware of these differences and how we approach certain topics and make jokes.

The UK is not some kind of backwards American colony, which some Americans seem to think. We are just different. We don't like the arrogance.

Stop telling us what we should do and get your own house in order first.

I'm middle class and went to uni in the north. It was a decent uni.

There's a difference between the northern middle class and the middle class from London. It's not a lower-middle class thing. It's a 'god they have no idea outside their own class bubble and outside London' thing.

Hopefully today’s class would be more respectful. Which, according to my friend who is a lecturer they are. I can’t speak for all universities but her EDI training covers everything, including class-based discrimination. As does my company’s EDI training. I can’t see how discussing consent and being aware of other people’s differences is a bad thing?

I went to uni in the 2000s and luckily most people in my class were there to learn. You don’t always learn about things you agree with, that’s sort of the whole point. People were respectful though and wouldn’t have been mucking about like being at primary school.

Completely agree.

There was a big push of publicity around this by a newly set up Scottish socialist society at Edinburgh uni, especially complaining about English students. Of course no bias or conflict there…

See also IED

Indeed. Talk about a minefield. (no pun intended)

Yup, that as well @RedToothBrush (I taught for a long time in an excellent university in north-west England). Students were very aware of regional differences.

My daughter always considered herself to be from a fairly affluent family and she recognised how privileged she was - until she went to uni in London for a year when she was considered to be poor amongst her peers. It's a different world.

I'm really sorry but you do understand I was being sarcastic? I was pointing out how America, like we always do, has taken things to an even further extreme when it comes to DEI or EDI or whatever. I do NOT think the UK should adopt American DEI practices I think America has taken our own DEI to a place of, well, it's own form of perverted bigotry.

Sorry if my American sarcasm wasn't clear.

Thanks for the insights into what this looks like in practice.

My recent experiences of this stuff is of it going bad and leading to divisiveness and bullying, often led by recent grads so I suppose I come to it a bit jaded and cynical. Its nice to hear some positive examples.

It doesn't seem like a bad idea to tell them something like 'you are going to meet loads of people who are very different to you, enjoy the experience, be excellent to each other and don't be an idiot'. Perhaps we had something like that as part of a welcome talk, I can't remember now.
I'm not sure how they spin it out to a whole day, but perhaps they wrap in some getting to know you activities. If they socalise less in person now due to devices etc perhaps thats valuable.

Class is an interesting one. I've thought in the past of how to bring it in to stuff around EA2010 but its hard - how do you define it? How do you do it without stigmatising people or starting a load of class/money based conversations and prying? I've always ended up giving up.

I came to uni from a UK backwater which didn't really have any 'rich' people. Uni was the first time I met people who were properly wealthy or had been to private school. To be fair, I was pretty oblivious to it then, I only got tuned into it a few years after leaving when I'd lived in wealthier areas and learnt more about the signifiers of status and wealth. Shame, if I'd learned this earlier I could have been much more successful in bagging a rich husband (JOKE).

Haha - there is nothing new under the sun! I remember similar from friends at Edinburgh in the 90's. Except perhaps its easier now for overenthusiastic student outrage to jump into the mainstream?

That's out of order!

I bet the mandatory sexual consent classes won't mention that you need to disclose your biological sex if you present as the opposite sex.

Or that you cannot consent on behalf of other women to allow men into female changing rooms.