Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Universities 'oblivious' to campus racial abuse

With about a quarter of minority students affected, universities must tackle harassment, a report says.

Victims' grades and mental health too often suffer and some quit altogether, according to an Equality and Human Rights Commission report.

But too many universities fear facing up to the issue will harm their reputation, the authors say.

In response, Universities UK pledged "urgent steps" on racial harassment.

The EHRC carried out in-depth interviews with students and staff, commissioned a survey of a representative sample of more than 1,000 students and sent a questionnaire to universities.

The report says about 13% of the students questioned had experienced racial harassment, rising to about a quarter of students from minority ethnic backgrounds, but universities are often unaware of the true extent of the problem on their campuses.

It calls the results "damning".


'Pretty for a black girl'

Students and staff had experienced:

-racist name-calling, insults and jokes

-physical attacks

-racist material and displays often linked to student society events

One undergraduate in Wales, reported aggression from fellow students.

"On multiple occasions, myself or my friends have had the N-word shouted at us or being told they are 'pretty for a black girl'," she said.

While black and Asian students were most likely to report abuse, Jewish and Muslim students also said they were targeted.

A Jewish student said he had been threatened with being put in an oven, amid references to Auschwitz, during a protest event on campus.

Muslim students spoke of feeling the need to play down their religious identity because of security checks at university events.

International students said they often felt unwelcome, isolated and vulnerable, treated like commodities only wanted by universities for their fees.

And many students reported "microaggressions" from staff or fellow students who, for example, expressed surprise they were on a particular course or mixed them up with the only other person of their ethnicity on the course.

Students who complained about racial "banter" said they were often accused of being "oversensitive" and felt they received little empathy or understanding.

"It impacted my academic performance because I didn't enjoy studying or doing group work with students who were so casually racist, sexist and homophobic," said one.


'Isolated and alone'

Others said their mental health had been affected

"I just don't want to be brown anymore. I wish I could boil my skin off or bleach it entirely," said an international student at university in England

And an academic at a Welsh university said: "As a Muslim, suicide is never an option but I feel incredibly isolated and alone. This institution is the first time in my life I have felt the target of racism."

The EHRC found a large discrepancy between the proportion of students reporting racial incidents during its research and the number recorded by universities.

Students are often reluctant to complain at all and many informal complaints are unrecorded, so some universities do not have a true sense of the scale of racial harassment on their campuses, the report says.

About one in five universities said they had received no complaints of racial harassment at all in more than three years.

The report suggests some are reluctant to admit the true scale of the problem for fear of putting off potential students and losing their fees.

"They are living in the past and have failed to learn from history," said EHRC chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath,

"No-one should ever be subjected to racial harassment in any setting.

"Our report reveals that not only are universities out of touch with the extent that this is occurring on their campuses, some are also completely oblivious to the issue."

Universities UK president and Brunel University vice-chancellor Prof Julia Buckingham said the EHRC's findings were "sad and shocking", calling on her fellow university leaders to make tackling racial harassment a top priority.

Earlier this month UUK called on universities to give more attention to harassment and hate crimes related to race or faith.

The body says it will now call on universities to commit publicly to making it easier for people to report incidents and to putting better processes in place to respond more effectively.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×