"Yet lecturers were failing you because of the colour of your skin."
Aamer Anwar reflected on his career and how his drive to call for change was motivated from an early age.
The lawyer is at the centre of BBC Scotland’s The Firm, which centres on Anwar’s law firm, where he and his team work on the nation’s most complex and controversial cases.
Anwar’s work to drive change started at the University of Glasgow when he led a campaign against alleged racism at the city’s Dental Hospital.
And while he encourages people to speak up, there was a time when that wasn’t the case.
During his childhood, his father was abusive towards him and his mother.
In a TikTok video, Anwar said:
“You were told to keep your mouth shut and that always just stayed with me. I always want to fight back.
“You want to speak up. This is wrong.”
Recalling the campaigning, he continued: “It was when I was studying engineering at Glasgow University.
“My flatmates were dentists; they worked extremely hard.
“They were predominantly from an Asian background. And I watched how they went from the first three years doing extremely well.
“And when they went to clinical, all of a sudden it dropped.”
Aamer Anwar explained that it was “an open secret” that university lecturers were racist towards ethnic minority students.
He continued: “This is supposed to be a university where you come to study. Doesn’t matter what background you are, what religion you are, what race you are.
“Yet lecturers were failing you because of the colour of your skin.”
@bbc_scotland “You want to speak up. This is wrong.” At Glasgow University, Aamer Anwar campaigned for fairness in marking, a pivotal moment in Scottish student activism. Watch The Firm on BBC iPlayer. #TheFirmS2 ? original sound – BBC Scotland
At the time, Anwar was President of the Asian Student Society and he raised it as an issue.
However, this presented further challenges as he said:
“I was seen as problematic. People were scared of being attached to me.”
“So I had very close friends who would meet me secretly but couldn’t be seen in public with me in case they were as the ones who were the whistleblowers.”
This caused some of his friendships to break down.
Anwar called for an inquiry into the matter and requested anonymous marking.
Due to the campaign, anonymous marking was introduced in universities across the country.
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