A landmark report addressing historic racism and colonial links at the University of Edinburgh ¡°deflects scrutiny¡± from modern-day injustices at the institution, staff have claimed.

Edinburgh¡¯s four-year found that the university had ¡°benefited financially from the profits of African enslavement and colonialism¡± and was a ¡°haven¡± for discredited scientific racist theories.

Philanthropic gifts linked to colonial goods such as tobacco, sugar and cotton were estimated to be worth at least ?30 million to the university, while its Old College and New Medical School buildings, built in the 1700 and 1800s, were funded through donations from graduates linked to transatlantic slavery.

Following its publication, principal and vice-chancellor, Peter Mathieson, offered?¡°our deepest apologies to all individuals and communities impacted by the legacies of our connections to enslavement and colonialism¡±.

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The Edinburgh University Staff 4 Free Speech group, which?claimed to represent the concerns of more than 100 academics, said?it was?¡°extremely concerned¡± about the report, claiming it had ¡°an agenda¡± and ¡°dismissed¡± concerns about other forms of historic injustices.

The group questioned the scope of the report, co-led by Tommy Curry, a professor in critical race theory and black male studies at the university, adding that ¡°the claim that this report can in any way be described as ¡®comprehensive¡¯ is therefore untrue¡±.

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Writing in an open letter, the group claims the report was an ¡°attempt to deflect attention from Edinburgh¡¯s associated complicity in 2025 human rights abuses in favour of events from the 19th century, long since concluded and which cannot be changed, no matter how much handwringing¡±.

The group points to the university¡¯s?current reliance on money from China through student recruitment and commercial deals with Chinese companies, noting that Edinburgh has failed to close its Confucius Institute, despite many other institutions worldwide deciding to shut them?amid concerns about their links to the Chinese state.

The university has also accepted donations from the Kremlin-backed Russkiy Mir Foundation and the Sackler Foundation,?it highlights.

Staff further questioned some of the figures used in the report, such as a claim that less than 1 per cent of Edinburgh¡¯s staff members are black, pointing out that the appendix makes clear that the ethnicity of many staff members was ¡°unknown¡±.

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In launching the report, Mathieson said?that ¡°only by fully engaging with and understanding the entirety of our institutional past can we truly learn and move forward¡±.

¡°We cannot have a selective memory about our past, focusing only on the historical achievements which make us feel proud. We are right to address its complexities too, and learn from those aspects which are highly challenging to confront.¡±

The report also addressed Edinburgh¡¯s links to racist theories, claiming the university was a ¡°haven¡± for academics who believed in racial inferiority and white supremacism, including ideas that ¡°Africans were inferior to whites, and that non-white peoples could be colonised for the profit of European nations¡±.

The institution¡¯s Anatomical Museum¡¯s collection of 1,800 human skulls includes a ¡°large?number¡± that were ¡°taken, without consent, from prisons, asylums, hospitals, archaeological sites and battlefields¡±, it found.

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Many were used to study the now discredited field of phrenology, a racist theory that skull size determined intelligence.

Curry said that the report ¡°demonstrates a level of self-reflection that very few institutions have had the courage to embark on¡±.

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¡°We hope our findings will enable the university to emerge as a better version of itself. This sets a standard for other institutions to not only reconsider their historical perspectives and legacies, but also their institutional culture,¡± he said.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com