“The idea of diversity or affirmative action is often nestled in trying to let these poor people that weren’t included into the club – or – there’s privilege here and they should have it too.

But, I think we need to shift that round because as an example of it, if I go into my kitchen, and all I have is hundreds of tins of baked beans, I can’t actually make a nutritious, interesting meal. I need – I expect to have variety, like I need to have lots of different things in there to have a rich meal that I’m making.

So affirmative action or diversity is not about letting other people in so that they can become baked bean tins too, it’s about realising that there’s a lack. Until we have the variety, there’s a lack, there’s something missing.

That shift around of thinking is really important to consider yourself when – I’m the thing that’s been missing and this is what’s going to make this thing richer – and I think that’s really important for students as they enter into this soup of property and gatekeeping.

That realisation that it’s not that you’re there to give you a chance to see what the ‘promised land’ is, it’s that it’s not the promised land until we’re all there.”

Adesola Akinleye