Mohamed Elmaghrbi

Job Title

Assistant Professor – Faculty Director for Student Recruitment

What does your job entail?

My main role at the university is a lecturer on the foundation engineering program. I also help deliver the pastoral care to our students within the department, and I work alongside colleagues across the faculty and university in different groups and committees to help deliver different university strategies.

Courses Studied

Foundation Engineering and Physical Sciences
Civil and Environmental Engineering BEng
Civil Engineering PhD

What made you want to become an engineer?

From a young age I was always curious about finding out how things work, I was probably better at breaking things than I should have been, but it taught me a lot, mainly because I had to fix them. That curiosity led me to study physics and mechanics and put up with the maths that came with it.

Why is Black History Month an important celebration for you?

I think the current educational systems, across the whole educational journey, fails to imbed in our subconscious, the importance of the contributions our black communities to our history and society. I see Black History Month as a great tool which we can use to bring forth some of these stories, and to celebrate the roles of our black community past and present.

What are your experiences as a person of colour in the UK?

I travelled to the UK from the south of Libya when I was only 19, and I think it is normal to feel alone during the early stages of such a change in surroundings, especially that my family stayed, and are still in Libya. However, as life went on, I started to understand the UK’s society structure better, and unfortunately discrimination does present itself in different forms within our society.

My strongest memories, is being stopped at every single airport to be searched, it is sad, but has become a joke within the friendship group. It is the only way to take things like this, as I believe that the person who is stopping me doesn’t even realise what their unconscious mind is asking them to do.

I am not naive to think that we will be successful in eliminating that 100%, but I am hopeful that we could make strides towards equality within my life time.

Who would you say your role model is?

My life role model is the prophet Muhammad saw. What he went through to deliver the message is something special, but for me, it is how he went about treating others from all different religions and backgrounds that makes me believe that if we do try to emulate him in our day to day life we would be a much better society.

From my lifetime, I would say that my role models have changed over time, as I think of a role model as someone who is not related to me, and at the same time within my “circles”. My current role model is Stacy Johnson MBE, she has been my mentor for the last 8 years, and as one of the most successful black women at the University of Nottingham, she has gone through many glass ceilings through her life, and I have had the pleasure of learning so much from her and having her there when I have needed advice

How do you think the faculty and University can further progress inclusion and diversity?

In general, I think the faculty are taking the correct steps along the path to eradicating biases within the workplace for both staff and students. The recent increase in the staff numbers with EDI specific roles within their profiles will help speed up this journey. Examples such as the reaction to the BLM statements and students’ letters shows you how different we are dealing with matters now compared to a few years ago.

More specifically, when it comes to areas such as racism, I think that there is a bigger society-wide responsibility here. I still think that the university should be leading by example in its own practices, and that is being done, but I would want to see us leaving the physical boundaries of our institutions and working with schools, colleges and local communities to help with the shaping of the mind of the younger generations.