Universities teach Scots history ‘from an English perspective’

IT IS the country of Adam Smith, David Hume and no fewer than seven British prime ministers.

But now leading historians claim that universities are failing to teach students properly about Scottish history and achievements because of a shortage of senior academics from north of the Border.

Senior professors have criticised the “narrow prism” through which they say British history is delivered in higher education, arguing that it overlooks the contribution of Scotland.

Ali Ansari, professor of modern history at the University of St Andrews, says students are learning “Anglo-Scottish history as a series of antagonisms” instead of an interlinked set of events.

At the Chalke Valley History Festival near Salisbury, Prof Ansari, 51, said that greater representation of Scottish teachers in faculty posts would help to provide a more “holistic historical perspective” of the formation of the United Kingdom.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: “Too much history teaching, even that described as British history, has an English focus … only drawing in the Celtic periphery when it impacts upon or is impacted by English developments.

“But posts in Scottish history could bring a different perspective on the Scottish wars of independence, rather than focusing chiefly on Edward I, Edward II, Wallace and the Bruce.

“Viewing Scottish history and historical developments on their own terms as opposed to ‘reactions’ to English developments restores balance to the narrative and provides a better appreciation of the internal dynamics of Scottish history.”

His comments come amid growing concerns that module choices on offer at UK universities are too focused on the English elements of British history.

And a recent poll found that one in six Scots aged 16-24 says they were not taught about their country’s history at school.

Dauvit Broun, a professor of Scottish history at the University of Glasgow, says colleagues have been denied chair positions because their teaching material was “too Scottish”.

He said: “When people think of the history of the discipline, the chair of history is assumed to relate to England, not to Britain as a whole.

“If there was to be a commitment to expanding the teaching and research of British history in an inclusive sense in English universities, then the quickest way they could do that would be to hire lots of Scottish historians because that is what we do already.”

‘Too much history teaching only draws in the Celtic periphery in terms of the English impact’