By Gabriel Princewill-
British Universities caught up in racist allegations in the past have been asked for an update of how their current policies, and how those issues were resolved.
Bristol University, Durham University, and Exeter University, have all been contacted today by The Eye Of Media.Com for an update about their handling of past racist complaints and the current policies, after the respective institutions made headlines last year, after black pupils complained last year complained of being openly being victimised racially.
The inquiry follows an admission by a U.S university that racism was alive in their institution. The White House opened an investigation into Princeton University last week, accusing it of civil rights violations after its president admitted that systemic racism exists at the institution.
And in 2019, British Universities were said to have failed to address tens of thousands of racist incidents every year, due to denial about the scale of the problem, the government’s equality watchdog warned in 2019.
With British universities now open for the new semester after months of closure following the pandemic, a number of Universities have been approached by The Eye of media.com, to inquire about the progress they have made in terms of tackling racism.
An inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that about a quarter of minority ethnic students, including non-British white students, said they had experienced racial harassment since the start of their course.
In March, 2019, five Exeter law students sent allegedly racist, Islamphobic and sexist messages in the group, including “if you ain’t English, go home,” “bomb the mosques,” “we need a race war,” and “rape them lifeless.
Screenshots of “racist” messages in an Exeter students’ WhatsApp group sparked outrage after they were shared without fear or concern. An internal investigation found Bracton Law Society’s conduct “fell short of the standards and values of the university and the students’ guild”. The society, which was founded in 1965, was subsequently replaced by a “new, distinct law society”, the university said.
Racial Harassment
A report by the Equality and Human Right Commission entitled Tackling Racial Harassment : Universities Challenged, found that Black students, reported the highest rate of racial harassment (29%), followed by Asian students (27%) and mixed/other students (22%). Also, 9% of white British students said they experienced racial harassment, including anti-English, anti-Welsh and anti-Scottish sentiments.
The report, also found 8% of all students surveyed suffered racial harassment in the first six months of the last academic year, which amounted to about 180,000 students across the UK.
A third of those said they reported racist incidents to their university, the equivalent of 60,000 students nationwide. Yet a separate survey of 141 universities by the body found only 920 formal complaints of racism by students and staff recorded between September 2015 and February 2019.
Of these, 560 were made by students, equivalent to only about 80 complaints every six months.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive at the EHRC, said the findings showed universities were “not only out of touch with the extent that [racism] is occurring on their campuses, some are also completely oblivious to the issue”.
Professor Julia Buckingham, president of Universities UK, which represents 136 universities, described the findings as “sad and shocking”, and called on vice-chancellors to publicly commit to making tackling racial harassment a top priority. Holding those universities to account as students begin a fresh semester is paramount.
Complaints about pervasive racism in some of Britain’s brightest Universities is disturbing, though the guilty parties account for a minority of the overall students at various Universities.