Is racism a problem when going to uni.

I currently live in London and from what i know it is the most diverse place in England. However i've lived here my whole life and i don't really want to stay for university. I'll be applying to university in September and i've currently been looking at places such as Leicester, Manchester, Bristol and Southampton. All major cities as i don't want a drastic change but all not as multicultural as London. I know racism exists everywhere i've experienced quite a bit in London (although all from other ethnic minorities which is surprising) but as these places are less diverse i'm a bit worried there will be more than i can handle especially as i'll living with strangers in the halls. I just read a thread where another black girl described having a horrible time due to racism received from house mates and i guess it worried me. I love the idea of living in halls currently and i can be a VERY social person. I wouldn't say i was shy at all. I think i'm just worried that my house mates won't love the idea of living with me? Any advice on how i can avoid an uncomfortable situation like that or how likely this is to happen.

Yeah, there's people wearing BNP and KKK badges absolutely everywhere.

I currently live in London and from what i know it is the most diverse place in England. However i've lived here my whole life and i don't really want to stay for university. I'll be applying to university in September and i've currently been looking at places such as Leicester, Manchester, Bristol and Southampton. All major cities as i don't want a drastic change but all not as multicultural as London. I know racism exists everywhere i've experienced quite a bit in London (although all from other ethnic minorities which is surprising) but as these places are less diverse i'm a bit worried there will be more than i can handle especially as i'll living with strangers in the halls. I just read a thread where another black girl described having a horrible time due to racism received from house mates and i guess it worried me. I love the idea of living in halls currently and i can be a VERY social person. I wouldn't say i was shy at all. I think i'm just worried that my house mates won't love the idea of living with me? Any advice on how i can avoid an uncomfortable situation like that or how likely this is to happen.

Although I certainly can not speak for everyone and I am sure there are small pockets of racism in certain universities it's not a massive issue. I've attended 2 unis and my friends have attended dozens of unis and racism is extremely looked on and completely unacceptable. If you experienced it in halls or at university your uni would take action, 100% any uni would never allow this to happen knowingly.
Obviously any city has racists in it but I would not think it would be a problem at uni.
I am a bristolian and it is an extremely diverse city, it's also very liberal and open-minded while in some of the rough estates racist attitudes are very alive and well the majority if the city is extremely anti-racist, as a student you shouldn't be in these areas and so largely will be unaware.

I can't speak for other cities although I would imagine Manchester is similar I do have a friend who moved out of Leicester to avoid racism.

Racism can occur anywhere you go.



Uni students aren't racist, do you mean members of the public in the town at which your uni is located in?

I can't speak for the other cities but i'm from Leicester and just finished my foundation at DMU. I can honestly say that racism is an ongoing thing and it will happen wherever you go, there will always be someone who harbours a racist viewpoint. However I can say that Leicester is a very diverse place and one of the very few places outside of London where the minority population is bigger than the white population. There's loads of cultures here and it's one of the few places which can have one of the biggest Diwali celebrations in the country. a Caribbean Carnival and a pride festival and everyone feels welcome.

Also we just got promoted to the premier league

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2674638

Neither did i but i guess London's a little idealistic bubble in terms of racial perception lool

I realise that and i did mention that in my initial post, racism does exist and i have experienced it. I can handle it very well, it's just having to live with someone that openly expressed dislike for a certain race that worries me. Uni students can be racist anyone can.

I currently live in London and from what i know it is the most diverse place in England. However i've lived here my whole life and i don't really want to stay for university. I'll be applying to university in September and i've currently been looking at places such as Leicester, Manchester, Bristol and Southampton. All major cities as i don't want a drastic change but all not as multicultural as London. I know racism exists everywhere i've experienced quite a bit in London (although all from other ethnic minorities which is surprising) but as these places are less diverse i'm a bit worried there will be more than i can handle especially as i'll living with strangers in the halls. I just read a thread where another black girl described having a horrible time due to racism received from house mates and i guess it worried me. I love the idea of living in halls currently and i can be a VERY social person. I wouldn't say i was shy at all. I think i'm just worried that my house mates won't love the idea of living with me? Any advice on how i can avoid an uncomfortable situation like that or how likely this is to happen.

I just want to add that you have to think about the demographic of people attending university, particularly the universities you have chosen. Mostly middle class (or aspiring to become middle class) and racism is not part of the typical middle class ideology. So I am sure there would be the odd racist they would be likely to hide their views because most of the people around them would find racism abhorrent and it would not be tolerated.

I live in Leicester, and trust me its very multi cultural!! Same with manchester! What race are you?

That is true, I maybe didn't word myself right. From what I've observed at uni, I haven't witnessed racism occurring with others.

If you do find that you are in a flat with someone who dislikes you because of your race, you can always request to change halls

That's very true, the course i'm planning to do is also very competitive so hopefully there'll be no problems there



I'm Black African




The ability to change halls is reassuring however it wouldn't be ideal i guess

Leicester is kind of my top choice at the moment and the comments about it have been very helpful

Why is it 'surprising' you've experienced racism from other ethnic minorities? Presumably you are surprised it wasn't from white people?

Anyway ignoring that complete ignorance...my boyfriend goes to Loughborough but lives in Leicester. It's apparently the only place where white people are the minority, so very 'diverse'. And I go to Southampton which isn't really that diverse being in the South, I'm pretty sure there are only 3 black people on my course...the uni attracts a lot of Chinese/Singaporean students though so caters a lot towards them.

Like other people have said there will be racism everywhere. And universities are in general quite diverse because they attract students of all kinds so really I would imagine you would be fine.