The Changing Landscape of Higher Education for British Muslims: Exclusion, Marginalisation, and Surveillance

Given the ongoing difficulties of exclusion, marginalisation, and racism, on the one hand, and the more recent occurrences of Islamophobia and securitisation, on the other, the study of Muslims in higher education is as important as ever. This chapter explores how the perception of Muslim students in the higher education system in the UK has evolved over the past five decades. In particular, the categories used to identify groups have shifted away from people of colour, conceptions of race, and ethnicity, to, most recently, religion. This particularisation of the religious category might result in an overemphasis on religious norms, values, and identities as separate and exclusive, as opposed to as an essential part of the educational landscape. This process has evolved against the backdrop of the neoliberalisation of education, which has resulted in the localisation and globalisation of education, with implications and consequences for British Muslim students. The chapter provides an overview of the significant developments in how Islam and Muslims are perceived and their implications for a young population in a polarised and conflict-ridden nation. The influence of securitisation remains the greatest challenge in the present era, with the Prevent programme representing the current peak of neo-orientalist, racist, and Islamophobic counter-terrorism policy thought.