Heritage & Cultural Diversity Forum

The University of East Anglia are proud supporters of The Heritage & Cultural Diversity Forum.

Our shared ambition is to provide minority ethnic students opportunities to be heard, to question, and to challenge preconceptions of higher education, training, and careers through meaningful and relevant engagement.

The Heritage and Cultural Diversity Forum was founded and is led by Obianuju Iyaji who is a teacher, educator, and inspirational leader in inclusive education.

Other key supporters include Norfolk Higher Aspirations Scheme and Norwich University of the Arts.

The Heritage and Cultural Diversity Forum proudly announce the Short Film Competition 2025 and looking for schools to sign up now!

Who is the Short Film Competition for?

The competition is most suitable for Year 10 and Year 12 / L3Y1 students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

What will your students do?

Students will work in small groups of 4-5 to create a Short Film Documentary featuring a story about Black and Minority Ethnic Heritage, with the theme of Breaking Barriers and Boundaries.

Year 10 students will make a short film about an individual. Meanwhile, Year 12 students will make a short film about a community group. All of the short films are expected to be 10 to 15 minutes long.

As part of the project, students will:

• Identify social issues within their contexts and communities.
• Create a creative and research-driven response to a localised social issue.
• Collaborate with their peers and professionals to create their response.
• Present their process in making their creative and research-driven response.
• Showcase their response to the public at the HCDF 2025 on Wednesday 9 July hosted by the University of East Anglia.

Workshop opportunities

From January to April, it is our ambition for participants to engage with workshops centered on creativity, critical-thinking, and problem-solving. These workshops will be delivered either by HCDF Allies and/or creative professionals such as writers, filmmakers, editors, etc.. Workshops will take place in a mixture of in-school and online. This will be confirmed when we have a better understanding of how many schools have signed up to the project and the needs of the participants.

What will your students learn?

By participating in the project and accompanying workshops, students will have the opportunity to develop essential skills to succeed such as:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Problem Solving
• Creativity
• Staying Positive
• Aiming High
• Leadership
• Teamwork

More detailed information on how this project links with the Skills Builder Universal Framework is detailed in the Teacher's Briefing document.

Teacher's Briefing Document

​When will the project take place?

The project will begin in January to finish at the Heritage and Cultural Diversity Forum 2025 on Wednesday 9 July hosted by the University of East Anglia.

Want to sign up?

Complete the Sign Up Form by 30 November 2024.

Do you have any questions?

If you have any questions about the project, please email blackhumanities.project@uea.ac.uk