King's College to 'replace busts of founding fathers'
King's College London will replace busts and portraits of its founding fathers with ethnic minorities amid pressure from students, according to a dean.
The world famous institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience plans to move portraits of former faculty staff from the main entrance wall.
They will be replaced with likenesses of more black and minority ethnic scholars, it has been reported.
The decision follows concern among academics that the current teaching is too ‘intimidating’ for ethnic minorities.
King's College London is believed to be planning to replace busts and portraits of founding fathers Dr Henry Maudsley, left, and Sir Frederick Mott, right
The proposals were revealed by Professor Patrick Leman, the institute’s dean of education, who said that the faculty should not just be filled with ‘busts of 1920s bearded men’.
He insists they are ‘not throwing anything into the bin’ â€" but trying to make the institute feel less ‘alienating’.
The institute, founded in 1924 as a hospital medical school, only exists because of a donation from Dr Henry Maudsley, a pioneering British psychiatrist.
His bust, along with that of Sir Frederick Mott, who drew up plans for university courses for training in the field of psychiatry in 1896, are believed to be the subject of Professor Leman’s remarks.
He said that the portraits lining the main entrance are ‘almost entirely white middle-aged men’ and will be replaced with a ‘wall of diversity’.
He added that all current portraits of former deans would be ‘taken down’ and rehung, and that teaching materials, such as diagrams of the human anatomy, will be changed to feature a ‘range of ethnic groups’.
‘We’re trying to reflect the diversity in terms of students we have, but also trying to be more inter-cultural, more international in terms of how we develop the science,’ he told The Telegraph.
King's College London is making the changes due to pressure from students to honour more scholars from ethnic minorities
‘We are making sure that the space in which students learn... doesn’t just have the busts of the bearded 1920s men, but also has pictures of people from different ethnic groups, different cultures. It’s not that we’re throwing anything into the bin.’
Keith Mott, a systems engineer and direct descendant of Sir Frederick Mott, said that whilst he was not ‘offended’ by the plans, he would caution against universities seeking to erase controversial parts of their history.
Meanwhile, Sam Barrett, President of the King’s Conservative Association said it was ‘political correctness gone mad’ as he accused the university of caving to students’ demands.
The decision comes two years af ter King’s sparked controversy for removing a photograph of Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, in response to his opposition to gay marriage.Â
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