THE University and College Union (UCU) today slammed a university’s “threat” to cut a unique African history course and sack Britain’s first African-British professor of history as an “attack on black academia.”

UCU said that the University of Chichester wants to axe its history of Africa and the African diaspora masters and make Professor Hakim Adi redundant.

The move is part of a wider review which has put four permanent academic staff under threat of redundancy.

Prof Adi is Britain’s first and only professor on the subject.

The course was created to train mature students of African and Caribbean heritage as historians.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “The University of Chichester’s decision to axe this crucial course and put Professor Adi at risk of redundancy is nothing less than an attack on black academia. 

“It is no surprise that only 1 per cent of UK professors are black when a university like Chichester is willing to sack [Prof Adi] and shut down a course created to train black academics.

“Chichester’s management urgently needs to show it is committed to widening access into higher education and reverse this awful decision.”

The University said that a “difficult decision” to close the course was made following a routine review of programmes that “fail to consistently recruit sufficient students.”