‘I was incredibly anxious’: Glasgow University students share experiences of racism on campus after new report

Students from Glasgow University have spoken out after a damning new report suggested at least half of its “ethnic minority” cohort have faced racist abuse on campus.

The survey, carried out by Glasgow in response to a 2019 study by Scotland’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) into racial harassment at UK universities, was published as part of the university’s “effort to address racial inequality,” it said in a statement this week.

Five-hundred ethnic minority students answered the questionnaire, while 20 staff members underwent what the university called “very in-depth interviews” to understand how the two groups’ experiences compared.

According to the “Understanding Racism: Transforming University Cultures” report’s findings, more than a quarter of Glasgow’s ethnic minority students believe the university has a “serious problem with racism”.

In most student cases, the perpetuator was a peer but a “significant minority” were identified as “academics”, it found.

Speaking to The Independent, a former student at the university, who wished to remain anonymous, described her experience of its failings – which left her sharing student accommodation with a man “convicted of committing racial hate crimes”.

The 23-year-old, who describes herself as “Bame”, said the man freely explained his conviction to her and that it happened “when he first enrolled at the university a few years prior”.

“This immediately made me feel really uncomfortable within the hall and made me wonder why he had been allowed to come back into the exact same block where these events first took place,” she said. “It was quite evident to me that he hadn’t really learnt anything after his previous actions.”

The former student, who studied at Glasgow until 2020, added that she “picked up” on various discriminatory comments the man made throughout her first year. “One time, in response to someone asking him something, he said: ‘Yeah, I’d date anybody, except blacks and Asians’,” she said.

“I couldn’t really believe what I’d heard.”

Describing how the situation impacted her mental wellbeing, she said: “I spent the rest of the year feeling incredibly anxious and couldn't wait to move out of my halls. I spent a lot of time baffled and wondering why everyone else thought that these actions were okay.”

A Glasgow University spokeswoman said: “While we can’t comment on individual cases, we encourage anyone at the university to come forward if they have experienced unacceptable behaviour including racial harassment.

“We know there is more for us to do to further strengthen our processes ... we are committed to being an anti-racist organisation, to act decisively against racism and racial harassment on campus.”

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Fifty per cent of the ethnic minority students surveyed reported being harassed between two and five times since beginning their studies, while one in 20 students reported more than 20 separate incidents of racially charged abuse.

The university subsequently admitted this highlighted a “significant variance with the handful of racial harassment cases captured by our university processes”. Both students and staff said they were reluctant to report such incidents due to a lack of confidence they would be taken seriously “combined with a fear of reprisals” from peers and colleagues.

According to the report, Glasgow found just 14 complaints of racism logged via the university’s official complaints system between March 2015 and May 2019. Of these, two cases were upheld, 10 were dismissed, one received an apology, and the other withdrew their accusation.

One current third year Glasgow student, who also asked to remain anonymous, said she was not surprised by the lack of people willing to report such incidents.

Speaking to The Independent, she said from both personal experience and what friends had told her, the university’s complaints procedure is “traumatic” and she “wouldn’t recommend it to anyone”.

Recalling the “only time” she attempted to use the service to report an issue related to racism, the student said she was “made to explain her situation” before being told her experience did not qualify as harassment or abuse.

“A white man in his 50s telling you your experience is bad – but not bad enough – is damaging,” she said, adding her mental health “plummeted” due to the handling of the call. “It makes you feel like your experience doesn’t matter when clearly it does.”

The student, who is of south Asian descent, said she also experienced racist abuse in her halls of residence. “I was practicing writing in my family’s language because I’d learned it during my year out,” she explained, “when my white, male flatmate came in and started making those stereotypical noises people do to mock Indian people.”

Growing up in southwest London, the student said she was used to living in a “multicultural” city and while she “obviously knew racism existed” had never experienced it personally – until beginning her studies at Glasgow.

The report concludes by suggesting a number of ways to tackle racism on its campus, including making senior management take an anti-racist approach to processes and systems.

The 20 staff members who were interviewed – some of who previously studied at the university – said they regularly faced more indirect “coded forms” of racial abuse, which caused a “corrosive and scarring effect” on their physical and mental health.

Last year, Universities UK (UUK) published guidance to help British universities tackle racial harassment – specifically to improve awareness and understanding of white privilege and microaggressions, after one vice-chancellor warned they “perpetuate institutional racism”.

A key recommendation from UUK was that “rapid action” and anti-racist training could improve awareness of racial harassment against staff and students.

As a member of the Glasgow University Students of Colour Network, the second student said the organisation runs microaggression training courses for clubs, societies and students – because “it’s important people realise racism isn’t always direct and that you can also report something you witness rather than experience first-hand”.

The university’s principal Sir Anton Muscatelli called the report “a very difficult read”, saying: “On behalf of the University of Glasgow, I want to apologise unreservedly to my colleagues and our students who have been impacted by racism or racial injustice while working or studying here.

“I want to also recognise the detrimental impact these experiences have had on inclusion, your wellbeing and your sense of belonging – for a university which prides itself on its values and reputation this is unacceptable.”

The report and so-called “action plan” will now be monitored going forward by the university’s Race Equality Group.

It comes after Glasgow was named as the Times Higher Education (THE)’s university of the year in 2020, largely due to its work redressing historic links to slavery through a programme of what the institution called “reparative justice”.

Despite the university’s best efforts, though, students remain unconvinced.

“I feel as though Glasgow should be doing so much more to address racism that occurs on campus,” the first student said.

Meanwhile, the second went a step further: “Until Glasgow addresses its clear issues with systemic racism, nothing is going to change. How can it?”