Edinburgh University apologises for historic links to racist theories

Times

27-07-2025

Edinburgh University has issued a 'deep' apology after admitting it was once a haven of white supremacism which profited from slavery.
An academic investigation has found that scholars at the institution, which was one of the intellectual engine rooms of the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment, played an 'outsized' role in creating racist theories that persist to this day.
The Race Review, commissioned by university leaders in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, found that one of Edinburgh's celebrated moral philosophers and mathematicians, Dugald Stewart, taught thousands of students that white Europeans were racially superior.
There is still a building on campus named after Stewart, one of the founders of Scotland's national academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The review also found that the university had received the equivalent of £34 million in today's prices from former students and donors with links to the slave trade. Some of that money continues to benefit staff and students.
Addressing contemporary issues, the review's authors recommended the institution should unadopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — aimed at protecting Jewish communities — because it stifles 'free conversation' about Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
The definition reads 'Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews' but some academics say this is being used to silence criticism of Israeli government action.
The report makes 47 recommendations for change, such as renaming buildings and repurposing some of its most famous events and prizes linked to former luminaries.
The university, it said, should also sell off investments in companies that have significant links to the Israeli government.
Some critics of the review said that a university facing real financial pressures should spend less time on 'revisionist, right-on views' and 'virtue signalling'.
The authors of the review, commissioned by the principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, said their findings raised serious questions about the university's role as the seat of the Scottish Enlightenment, when it became famous for the works of philosophers such as David Hume.
Its landmark David Hume Tower, on the city centre campus, was renamed 40 George Square in 2020 after an earlier investigation in which Hume was revealed to have held racist views.
The inquiry — chaired by Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland first black professor, who died in June — found that the university still had bequests worth £9.4 million that came directly from donors linked to slavery and colonial conquests which fund lectures, medals and fellowships today.
Mathieson, describing the review as the most extensive investigation of its kind carried out in the UK, extended the university's deepest apologies for its role not only in profiting materially from practices and systems that caused so much suffering but also in contributing to the production and perpetuation of racialised thought.
Among the historical findings were that the university explicitly sought donations from graduates linked to slavery to help build two of its most famous buildings, Old College in the 1790s and the Old Medical school in the 1870s.
The university had at least 15 endowments derived from African enslavement and 12 linked to British colonialism in India, Singapore and South Africa.
Ten of those are still active today and the university was urged to redirect the money to hiring academics from black and minority backgrounds and on research and teaching about racism and colonialism, as well as more bursaries for minority students.
Mathieson said Edinburgh, where staff and students have held protests accusing the university of complicity with Israeli actions in Gaza, was 'actively' reviewing its support for the antisemitism definition addressed in the report.
'The university adopted the definition in 2020 and we fully recognise this is a complex and sensitive topic,' he said. 'Jewish and non-Jewish people alike hold a range of views on definitions of antisemitism, including the IHRA, and we are currently considering our approaches on this in consultation with our university community.'
Miles Briggs, the Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for education, said: 'At a time when Edinburgh University is dealing with SNP funding cuts and questions about its own financial management and job losses, it should have more urgent priorities than pandering to these kind of revisionist right-on views. It is vital that we understand our history but not try to erase it.'
Nigel Biggar, the Scottish regius professor emeritus of moral theology at Oxford and author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, said: 'Everything we have inherited is a mixture of good and bad. If we aren't prepared to honour the achievements of flawed human beings, we'll honour no achievements at all. Self-righteous virtue signalling benefits no one.'