Grime talent appreciated at Oxford University

Lucas Bertholdi-Saad is right to highlight that, notwithstanding its intensive outreach work, the University of Oxford needs to be more ambitious in its initiatives to attract ethnic-minority applicants and enable them to achieve at a high level (Stormzy has shown Oxford has a problem, 13 November). Targeted scholarships are important, as are more members of ethnic-minority academic staff who can act as role models, and there is a need to diversify the curriculum.

But it’s not the case that grime talent goes unappreciated. The research programme Creative Multilingualism, led by Oxford’s faculty of modern languages and involving five other universities including Birmingham City University, is collaborating with Punch Records to investigate the creative potential nurtured by multilingual communities in Birmingham and beyond – see www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk

Grime artist RTKal and standup sign language comedian Rinkoo Barpaga have contributed to our Open World Research Initiative conferences, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, and inspired us to rethink our concept of languages in the UK.

Many children are being encouraged daily to forget the languages they have learned at home in favour of “pure” English – even though there’s plenty of evidence to show that knowing more than one language is an academic advantage, quite aside from being a national asset for trade and diplomacy.

UK society as a whole needs to appreciate its multi-ethnic talent more fully. A bit of grime will go a long way.
Katrin Kohl
Professor of German, University of Oxford
Rajinder Dudrah
Professor of cultural studies and creative industries, Birmingham City University

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