Which are the most diverse universities?

Preferably outside London? I am white and live in a 97% white area and I strongly dislike this. I want to be the minority for once. I want to have more friends of different ethnic backgrounds and learn about their cultures through them. I hope this doesn’t sound harsh or anything I just want to experience new cultures. Thank you everyone

Reply 1

Pinkisk

In students? Probably Brunel. It's mostly composed of minorities. UCL is very diverse too. Queen Mary is diverse. Kings is diverse. Most universities in London are diverse.

In staff (those that design your course, assess and grade you)? I think, none are diverse.

All universities in the UK are, in staff, exclusively composed of white, middle/upper class people. Staff from minority backgrounds are in my experience practically non-existent. They suffer abuses at the hands of both staff and students.

I attended a university in the North for three years. We had two black lecturers, a genius neurologist, the best that we had on our course and a doctor in physiotherapy. He was really good as well. He took us for our circulatory and muscular system classes. The neurologist, his notes were amazing. His lectures were amazing as well. A feminist student in our cohort singled him out for abuse in one of our classes. This led to his suspension after which we never saw him again. She reported him for being sexist after he used a picture of bare breasts in one of our anatomy and physiology classes and this is how we went from having two black lecturers on our course to one black lecturer on our course.

Students made the life of the second black lecturer, also an amazing lecturer, a living nightmare. They were all part of a group on WhatsApp and they would constantly agree to give him the poorest feedback at the end of each module. The guy, despite being so amazing, was just broken all the time. I befriended him and me and a friend of mine kept sending him gifts and things like that throughout the three years that I was there. I wanted him to know that he was amazing and that I appreciated him for his hard work. He always used to light up when he saw us.

My uni was like 80% white students. Classes were all very segregated. You would walk into a class and see all the white students sitting on one side and all the minority students sitting on the other, in the back on their own...except for one guy that was one of the smartest in our year, an Arab. He used to sit right at the front of the class and pretty much dominate all sessions...The white students in our cohort hated him so much. He wasn't a part of the WhatsApp group. People used to hate on him there all the time behind his back. Their hate was clearly driven by envy. At the end of the first year I didn't see him anymore. I think he changed universities.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 2

harrysbar

Original post by ACG18

Unis in large cities are generally more diverse than unis in small cities.

Outside of London - Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester are known to be very diverse cities.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Aston University.

Reply 4

Clearing and Applications Advisor

If you search for the “Transparency Return” on each university website then you can find a breakdown of applicant and entrant ethnicity.

Reply 5

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Or you can see charts for various student populations here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/access-and-participation-data-dashboard/

Reply 6

Aston University

Official Rep

Original post by ACG18

Hello,

Aston is situated in the heart of Birmingham which is a very diverse city. Aston reflects that diversity with a very multicultural student population, spanning multiple ethnicities, cultural backgrounds coming from over 130 nations.
All students are encouraged to learn new languages during their time at Aston too, with free courses in Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish offered.
This might be able to provide you with the diverse environment you're looking for.

*Ethel

Reply 7

billijean0419

Original post by Pinkisk

What uni did u go too ?

Reply 8

hapaxlegomena

some Cambridge colleges tbh
at my college like half my friends are international students

Reply 9

Ghostlady

We went to a few unis on open days with both daughters and from what I noticed that had more diversity than others we visited was Leicester and Reading.

Reply 10

Cranfield University

Official Rep

Original post by ACG18

Hi there 😊

Cranfield is a really diverse place, with a highly international student population. Of course, the spread varies from year to year, and between courses, but it’s been a great place for me to learn about other cultures, and meet people from different backgrounds.

While we don’t have the details for every course, the website has details of the previous year’s cohort in many cases. For example, the MSc in Management (2021/22) has 18 different nationalities!!! This was 12% UK/EU and 88% international. Check it out here:
https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/masters-courses/management

It’s also been a great place for international celebrations. I started in September 2020, when admittedly there wasn’t many events (thanks COVID!), but since then I have got to celebrate my first Diwali, Lunar New Year, been to international food festivals, and so many more.
Just since the start of this academic year, our students association has hosted salsa, Halloween events, bachata, a garba night (Gujarati folk dance), and November has only just started!

This week I went to a (free!) fireworks display for Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night. Although it’s a largely international uni, a great part of that is allowing non-UK nationals (like me!) celebrate traditionally British events. I know many students from further afield who now love to sit in the bar and watch the football (what could be more British!), and join in on the pub quizzes.

We also have many international societies, including Chinese, India, Turkish, and Nigerian. Many of these societies have helped organise the events I spoke about above!

The Cranfield campus also is home to an ecumenical chapel for many different Christian denominations, and a Mosque for daily and Friday prayer, Qur’an study, Eid and Ramadan observations, and more!
There’s also info on local contacts for Greek Orthodox, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, and many more here:
https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/study/life-on-campus/worship
You can also find photos of our worship spaces there, in case you’re interested 😊

The Cranfield teaching teams also put a lot of emphasis on international applicability of the course. For example, in the Management MSc students have the opportunity to acquire a working knowledge of a second commercially useful language with courses offered at the Beginners or Intermediate level in Business French and Spanish. The course also features the unique opportunity to spend one month in Spain while learning! The course also features case studies from many different counties, and international visiting industry speakers and professors.

I definitely haven’t covered every aspect of international spaces, but I hope this gives you a sense of some of the great things the diverse community brings to Cranfield!
Ciara
3rd year Agrifood PhD student
Cranfield Student Ambassador