Living Black at University 48 49 Living Black at University The lack of cultural understanding was highlighted as a key issue. “I sometimes feel in some sites there is a lack of understanding of cultural differences, such as with Chinese/ other international students sometimes people don’t take into account just how different some aspects of culture can be and they find it difficult to understand that things are just done differently in different places and there is always a period of adjustment when moving to a new country. Things are never said out of malice but just out of ignorance/lack of awareness. We need to be a bit more open minded about our differences and also allow for adjustment periods when people come to live in our country.” There were also reflections on the level of staff training available. “In my experience, we do not train, empower, or support students or staff in confronting overt bias or in thinking critically about our institution/policies/procedures toward antiracist action. When students have challenged the university around this, it has focused more on trying to quash the comments than on the real issues raised. Outside of other union members (Unison, UCU), I have not met staff who feel capable or confident in addressing issues.” On the positive side, there were examples of anti-racist policies and procedures being used effectively. “Following an incident, a colleague was dismissed for offensive racist remarks made to another colleague. He felt he was “just joking”, I am glad to know this was taken seriously enough to warrant a thorough investigation and subsequently he was dismissed. This demonstrated a zero- tolerance acceptance to racism in our business and made the person who was verbally attacked feel more secure in the workplace.” The staff survey supports the findings from the student survey in showing that there is more to be done to improve the experience for Black students and to tackle racism. It suggests that there is currently an inconsistent approach across the sector, with examples of both good and poor practice. There was a clear theme that staff feel that there is insufficient training around equality, diversity and inclusion within an accommodation setting. Analysis of the staff survey provides a wider context to the student data and has been helpful in generating recommendations.