UK Think-Tank Says Promoting “Identity Groups” Harms Student Unity. Duh…

Thank you, Captain Obvious, for coming to the very obvious conclusion that actively dividing students into closed and highly exclusive groups, and often pitting these groups against each other, does not foster student unity. As my teenaged self might have said, “No duh.” The Higher Education Policy Institute, which touts itself as “the UK’s only independent think tank devoted to higher education,” released a report titled, “To encourage a sense of belonging among students, avoid excessive focus on identity differences and increase engagement with local communities” This was based on their “Student belonging and the wider context” study, in which they said,

“Equality, diversity, and inclusion policies should be wary of highlighting divisions among students at the expense of student cohesion in academic and co-curricular activities.”

Essentially, they’re arguing that cohesion and unity needs to be fostered in young adults on university and college campuses in order to set them up for cohesion and unity in the greater world once they leave their young adult academic life. Teaching division and identity group exclusivity in school means they will be ill-prepared for unity and cohesion later in life, which is as damaging to society as it is to a campus student body.

They interviewed students on campuses, many of whom indicated a desire to find “common ground” and “celebrate” those commonalities rather than being encouraged into exclusive “identity groups,” which actually damage “cohesion.” Mind you, these “identity groups” are being facilitated and pushed hard by campus equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies which have encouraged the formation of exclusive identity groups and even sponsored identity group-specific events like racially discriminatory graduation ceremonies.

Considering they’re a think-tank, they must not do much thinking because this is just a basic understanding of humanity. When you intentionally divide people into specific and exclusive groups, there is necessarily less cohesion and unity overall because everyone is divided. Then, a sense of unity or belonging, which is so important to young people, can only be found in belonging to a specific identity group, to the exclusion of all other groups. And this in turn further damages cohesion and unity overall. That’s literally just common sense, which clearly isn’t common any more.