Cambridge University English academics may be forced to include more ethnic writers in an effort to 'decolonise' the curriculum for students.

English Literature professors are being asked to 'ensure the presence' of Black and Minority Ethnic writers (BME) in their courses.

It came after Lola Olufemi, Cambridge University Student Union's women's officer, penned an open letter titled 'Decolonising the English Faculty'.

Lola Olufemi (pictured with Labour MP Diane Abbott) is women's officer at Oxford University Students' Union and called for the English department to 'decolonise' the curriculum

The letter, signed by around 150 university students, read: 'For too long, teaching English at Cambridge has encouraged a 'traditional' and 'canonical' approach that elevates white male authors at the expense of all others.

'What we can no longer ignore, however, is the fact that the curriculum, taken as a whole, risks perpetuating institutional racism.'

It also hinted at several of changes, including ensuring that all exam papers included 'two or more postcolonial and BME authors'.

Students at the university study a range of 'period papers' ranging from 1350 to the present day - including the works of Shakespeare.

CAMPAIGNER ALSO SLAMMED 'SELFISH' WHITE PEOPLE ON AFRICAN HOLIDAYS The plans follow an open letter from students' union women's officer Lola Olufemi,(pictured) demanding an end to 'institutional racism' in the syllabus Lola Olufemi has previously blasted 'selfish' white people who holiday in Africa. The student said 'middle class' gap year travellers are doing nothing meaningful to help the continent by visiting. In Varsity, the Cambridge University student newspaper, she wrote: 'It shows an astounding level of entitlement to think that you, on your gap year or your three weeks abroad "exploring", are going to do anything meaningful or long lasting to help the communities that you fetishise.' She added: 'What drives middle class white people to travel abroad is an inherent selfishness''. Miss Olufemi has also said Cambridge can learn from Oxford's Rhodes Must Fall campaign, which demanded Cecil Rhodes' statute be removed because of his commitment to imperialism. Advertisement

But campaigners have argued that the English courses focus too much on white men and exclude female authors and those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.

They have also claimed that it offers a perspective too shaped by colonial ideologies.

Minutes from the Teaching Forum's meeting earlier this month, seen by The Telegraph, showed what actions have been discussed by academics to address the students' concerns.

They included several practical proposals, such as an introductory lecture that would 'offer perspectives on the global contexts and history of English literature'.

Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a teaching fellow at Churchill College and member of the Teaching Forum, said the motion was a step forward.

'They are a good start and I'm glad to see the Faculty responding with attention and interest to a student-driven demand for change,' she wrote in an email.

'I think it is important, however, to view the 'inclusion' of postcolonial and BME texts not as an endpoint but the beginning of a discussion about what 'English literature' is and what exclusions it has always relied on.

'The curriculum first needs to make empire, race, identity more central than it has been – something students HAVE to engage with rather than are 'allowed' to engage with.

'Given British history, empire is central to understanding both texts and contexts. It's a 'white' issue as much as it is a 'BME' issue. That understanding must drive changes.'

But Gill Evans, emeritus professor of medieval theology and intellectual history at Cambridge University, said the approach created some 'major problems'.

She told The Telegraph: 'It goes with the calls to stop teaching predominantly Western or European history as well as literature.

English Literature professors at Cambridge will be required to 'ensure the presence' of Black and Minority Ethnic writers (BME) in their courses. Pictured: King's College

'If you distort the content of history and literature syllabuses to insert a statistically diverse or equal proportion of material from cultures taken globally you surely lose sight of the historical truth that the West explored the world from the sixteenth century and took control - colonially or otherwise - of a very large part of it.

'It is false to pretend that never happened.'

The move follows criticism of both Oxford and Cambridge for their low levels of admittance of students from ethnic minorities.

Oxford colleges were branded 'fiefdoms of entrenched privilege' after figures showed almost a third failed to admit a single black British A-level student in a year.

Meanwhile six Cambridge colleges failed to admit any black British A-level students in 2015. Between 2010 and 2015, only 1 per cent of offers were made to black students at Cambridge, and on average a quarter of colleges failed each year to make such offers.

But Ms Olufemi told the university's newspaper Varsity that she believed the outcome was 'a promising step forward that the letter is being taken seriously by the faculty.'

Ms Olufemi is women's officer at Oxford University Students' Union

'There needs to be a complete shift in the way the department treats western literature in comparison to that of the global south and non-white authors must be centred in the same way Shakespeare, Eliot, Swift and Pope are; their stories, thoughts and accounts should be given serious intellectual and moral weight,' the English graduate from North London added.

It is understood the proposals are in a very early stage and no decisions have yet been made.

The ideas have been put forward by a small group of lecturers within the English faculty, but would need to pass a number of stages in order to be implemented.

This includes being given the approval of the university’s Education Committee and the General Board, which are made up of senior staff.

There is no guarantee that any of the ideas will ultimately be taken up by the university.

University sources said that even if the proposal were to be implemented, there would not be any cases of white authors being dropped and replaced by the new additions.

A spokesman for the University of Cambridge said: 'There has been no decision to alter the way English is taught at the University of Cambridge. While we can confirm a letter was received from a group of students taking the postcolonial paper, academic discussions are at a very early stage to look at how postcolonial literature is taught.

'Changes will not lead to any one author being dropped in favour of others – that is not the way the system works at Cambridge. There is no set curriculum as tutors individually lead the studies of their group of students and recommend their reading lists – those reading lists can include any author.

'The Teaching Forum is a body which has no decision making powers and its decision points are questions to be discussed by the faculty. The Education Committee in the faculty will look at those points in a robust academic debate. Post-colonialism is taught at the moment in a non-compulsory paper – the faculty constantly looks at what papers will be compulsory.'