The Duchess of Sussex has supported a campaign by black academics and students to “decolonise the curriculum” and confront the legacy of empire and racism on university campuses in her first apparently political intervention since joining the royal family.

The movement to add black and female thinkers and writers — rather than focusing heavily on “male, pale and stale” ones — has been hugely controversial since campaigners tried to topple a statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oxford three years ago.

When the Duchess of Sussex visited City University in London on one of her first outings as patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) this month, her enthusiasm for change became clear. After hearing a presentation from Meera Sabaratnam, who is