Instead, decolonisation requires a decentring of the West as the universal reference point and a shift from vertical power relations to more horizontal forms of discourse and knowledge exchange. Asia as Method by Kuan-Hsing Chen offers useful frameworks for thinking beyond Eurocentric universals without simply inverting existing hierarchies. (2010)
Decolonisation is a political term that emerged in direct opposition to colonial empires, and its use should not be reduced to a metaphor. As Tuck and Yang (2012) argue, decolonisation is fundamentally about Indigenous land and sovereignty. Its radical potential lies in its ability to prevent the repetition of colonial violence and dispossession, rather than serving as a symbolic or rhetorical gesture.
For this reason, conversations about decolonisation should be uncomfortable and unsettling. They should not function as institutional claims of “doing something good”. Sara Ahmed similarly warns that institutions often adopt the language of decolonisation and diversity too easily, using it as a form of self-affirmation rather than structural change. (2012) What matters most is critically examining what these initiatives actually do rather than simply treating them as box-ticking exercises. (Ahmed, 2012)
Why can/does UAL recruit so many international students?
It is not surprising that UAL attracts a large number of international students through learning above. Western universities continue to hold economic, cultural, and symbolic capital, reinforced by global rankings in which UAL is one of the best in the world. As Mbembe warns, the idea of the “world-class” university contributes to a form of global educational inequality, shaped by the historical power of former empires such as the UK and the dominance of English. (2016)
UK higher education is also heavily market-driven. Since around 2011, government funding for teaching has significantly declined (House of Commons Library, 2024, p. 28), and with undergraduate fees for home students frozen, universities started relying on fees. At UAL, 58% of income comes from international students. (UAL, 2025) This creates a structural power imbalance in which international students are essential to institutional survival yet positioned primarily as sources of revenue.
Even more problematically, even when marginalised artists are successfully absorbed into the global art economy, exhibiting in capital cities, selling work at institutions such as Christie’s, and contributing to contemporary art history, they often remain positioned as “the other” if they are not Euro-American because you are playing in the field of the western context of art in which we are taught universal value of art. James Elkins articulates that the art history framework is centred on Western art, and the method of critique is also Western. (2006)
This literature review reshaped my research question. One question is whether international students can be meaningfully included in decolonisation discourses within the UK. A second question is how institutions can become more inclusive of those who study in the UK temporarily. My research is more closely aligned with the second question, while being informed by decolonial thinking, particularly in its critique of Euro-American–centric education and its emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
Ahmed, S. (2012) On being included: racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Chen, K.-H. (2010) Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization. Durham and London: Duke University Press
Elkins, J. (2007) Art History as a Global Discipline. London: Routledge.
House of Commons Library (2024) The Post-11 July 2024 general election: A guide to the results. Research Briefing 10037. Available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10037/CBP-10037.pdf (Accessed: [25 Dec 2025]).
University of the Arts London (2025) Report and financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2025. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/513765/UAL-Report-and-Financial-Statements-31-July-2025.pdf(Accessed: [25 Dec 2025]).