New National Teaching Fellow Dr Syra Shakir, Associate Professor, reflects on leading anti-racist educational change and the lessons transforming higher education has taught her. 

Whenever I am invited to speak at universities, there is one question that almost always comes up. 

“Where do we start?” 

Sometimes the question is about closing awarding gaps. Sometimes it is about decolonising the curriculum, improving belonging, implementing the Race Equality Charter, or responding to increasing political scrutiny around equality, diversity and inclusion. More recently, it has become a question about how we sustain this work during periods of financial uncertainty, politics of division, geopolitical violence and institutional change. 

People often expect the answer to be a new framework, a policy, or a checklist. 

It never is. 

After almost two decades working across teaching, research, leadership and national policy, I have become convinced that meaningful institutional transformation, despite its structural limitations, begins somewhere much simpler, and much harder. 

It begins with relationships and care. 

Throughout my career I have worked on projects that, on the surface, appear very different. I have co-created curricula alongside students. Developed award-winning digital pedagogies to tackle racism. Led institutional Race Equality Charter work. Evaluated national race equality initiatives. Developed coaching programmes to improve student success. Worked with universities across the UK to understand what enables sustainable change. More recently, I have established international networks connecting scholars and activists committed to anti-racist education and action. 

Yet every one of these initiatives has been driven by the same question: 

How do we create universities and communities, where everyone feels they belong, feels respected valued and cared for, can flourish, and has the opportunity to succeed? 

Students are not beneficiaries, they are partners 

One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that some of the most innovative ideas do not come from committees or strategic planning groups. They come from students. 

For years, I have worked alongside students as co-creators, not simply participants. Together we have designed curricula, produced films, developed digital learning resources, facilitated workshops, evaluated institutional change and challenged assumptions about who holds knowledge within universities. 

Some of our most influential projects, including my becoming anti- racist training and the two films Mind the Gap and Re:Tension (written, directed and produced by my great colleague and comrade Ricardo Barker) were born from listening to students’ and staff lived experiences of navigating higher education. The resources I created, used in conjunction with the films, have since been adopted across multiple universities and organisations, received national recognition and sparked conversations that traditional staff development sessions often struggle to achieve. 

The impact has never simply been about producing a resource. It has been about redistributing power. When students become partners in knowledge creation rather than recipients of institutional decisions, universities begin to see themselves differently. 

Change happens through conversations, not compliance 

Higher education has become increasingly good at producing strategies. We have action plans, key performance indicators, frameworks, dashboards and governance structures. These are all important. They provide accountability and create institutional focus. But they are not transformation. 

Real change happens in classrooms and meetings where difficult conversations are welcomed rather than avoided. It happens when peers feel confident to acknowledge that they do not have all the answers. It happens when leaders create psychological safety for honest dialogue instead of expecting perfection. 

Some of the most significant moments in my own work have not happened during committee meetings. They have happened after workshops, when someone quietly says: “I’ve never thought about it like that before.” 

Those conversations matter because they represent the beginning of learning. 

Evidence should help us learn, not simply prove success 

Alongside developing educational practice, much of my recent work has focused on evaluation. Evaluation is not about proving that an intervention works. 

It is about understanding why it works, for whom, under what circumstances, and how it can be improved. 

That shift in thinking is powerful. 

Instead of asking whether an initiative has been completed, we begin asking whether it has changed people’s experiences. Instead of measuring activity, we examine impact. Instead of treating equality work as a series of projects, we understand it as a continuous process of institutional learning. The most successful universities I have worked with are not those that have all the answers. They are the ones willing to keep asking better questions. 

Courage matters as much as strategy 

The landscape for higher education has changed dramatically. Universities are navigating financial pressures, increasing political scrutiny, debates about freedom of speech, artificial intelligence, widening participation, student mental health and rapidly changing expectations of what inclusive education should look like. In this environment it can be tempting to focus only on what is measurable. Yet, some of the most important aspects of higher education remain difficult to quantify. 

How safe does a student feel in a seminar? 

Does a member of staff believe their voice matters? 

Can colleagues challenge institutional norms without fear? 

Does someone feel they truly belong? 

These questions rarely fit neatly into a spreadsheet, yet they shape almost every educational outcome we care about. Creating environments where these questions can be answered positively requires courage. 

Not performative statements. 

Not one-off initiatives. 

Consistent, intersectional, relational leadership that centres care. 

Looking forward 

Receiving a National Teaching Fellowship was an incredible honour because it recognised something I have always believed: educational excellence and social justice are not separate ambitions. The best universities do not simply produce graduates. They create communities where learning transforms people, institutions are prepared to transform themselves, and students leave believing they can shape a more equitable society. That work is never finished. Every conversation, every partnership, every piece of research, every evaluation and every classroom interaction offers another opportunity to learn. Perhaps that is the most important lesson of all. Universities are not transformed by policies alone. They are transformed by people who are prepared to listen, learn and lead together. 

As higher education continues to evolve, perhaps the most important question is not where we start, but how we ensure that the relationships we build today create institutions that future generations will recognise as genuinely inclusive, courageous and committed to socially just educational excellence. 

Dr Syra Shakir is Associate Professor of Learning and Teaching, Strategic Lead Race Equity and REC Silver at Leeds Trinity University. She is a scholar in anti-racist pedagogy, curriculum transformation, race equality and education, leading research and sector-wide initiatives that advance race equity, belonging and systemic change across higher education.