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The movement wants to confront the “male, pale and stale” professors and ensure there is more diversity among teachers in higher education. Data from 2018 by Equality and Higher education staff statistical report showed out of 14,205 male professors, more than 12,000 were white and just 90 were black. In 2016, Oxford University students campaigned to have the statue of Cecil Rhodes, the 19th Century colonialist and slave owner, removed from a university college.

Many of the issues around racial equality are similar and it is great to see her embrace this. Change is long overdue Meera Sabaratnam

One of the campaigners said Rhodes was “responsible for all manner of stealing land, massacring tens of thousands of black Africans, imposing a regime of unspeakable labour exploitation in the diamond mines and devising proto-apartheid policies”. When the Duchess of Sussex became Patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, she made it clear she was surprised at the low diversity of professors in the UK. When she was handed a sheet of data on a royal visit showing how most UK professors are white and male, she said: “Oh my God!”

Meghan Markle has made her first political intervention since she joined the royal family

Meghan Markle wants to increase the number of BME professors