Top UK university removes Muslim prayer spaces during exam season on eve of Ramadan

One of the UK’s top ranking universities has come under fire for removing Muslim prayer spaces.

Muslim students at the University of East Anglia were told on the eve of Ramadan that their Friday prayer space was to be taken away due to a “lack of space” during exam season.

The only daily prayer space available on campus is to be permanently removed and replaced with a corridor to the university Library, it was reported.

Students on Friday took part in a public prayer session in the main university square in peaceful protest against the move.

A spokesperson from the UEA Islamic Society said: “We are shocked and appalled that the University, who re-located us… on the condition that they would investigate a permanent solution which they have failed to produce, would take away our only prayer spaces during exam period and before Ramadan.

“They have done this without consulting or telling any Muslim Students or the Student Union.

“All we want is to pray in peace and in cohesion at UEA but after years of being bumped around campus, being the only faith forced to use our campus cards to access our prayer space and now finding out by accident that our prayer space is being permanently taken away, UEA does not feel like a space for Muslims.

Over the past few years, Muslim students at the university have used a lecture theatre for prayer and worship. The larger Friday worship sessions take place at a separate location by the Blackdale student residences.

Both arrangements were set up as a temporary solution while the university discussed plans for a permanent prayer space.

From Sunday, however, the Muslim student community are to be left with no designated prayer space, a move students say they had not been invited to discuss.

UEA’s Student Union has accused the university of discrimination, failing its duties under the Equality Act.

Union spokesperson for welfare, community and diversity, Jo Swo, said the situation had caused “a tremendous amount of anxiety and inconvenience for Muslim students as it has made them feel observed and treated like an inconvenience to the University”.

UEA has begun dramatic plans for expansion over the next few years, pledging to recruit up to 3,000 new students by 2030 – a rise of 20 per cent.

Students have complained that the space assigned for prayer is too small to accommodate the estimated 600-plus Muslim students already on campus.

“The University, which has been expanding its numbers, is trying to convince us that the already crowded Multi-Faith Centre will somehow fit all current students of faith,” a university Islamic Society spokesperson said.

“They don't seem to realise that not only is the space not big enough to accommodate or balance all students of faith with Muslim students praying 5 times a day, but the facilities are completely inadequate.”

A UEA spokesperson said the Vice Chancellor would be meeting with students imminently to discuss the matter.

Prayer facilities for Muslim students would “continue to be provided”, they added.

In a statement, the university said: "As part of a £2m investment in new library study spaces and the complete refurbishment of the University’s main lecture theatres the use of a prayer facility near Lecture Theatre 2 will be temporarily unavailable for safety reasons during the building works.

"That facility will become available to Muslim students again from the beginning of the new academic year.

"The Blackdale main hall will also continue to be available to Muslim students during the evenings but will not be available for Friday prayers for one month while exams take place.

"As a result, during this period, the main worship space in the University’s Multi-Faith Centre* will be available to Muslim students for Friday prayers."

The main hall would be available again for Friday prayers once the exam season finished, they university said, adding that a working group had been established to consider longer-term solutions for the faith group.