Living Black at University 29 Living Black at University 28 Some students commented that there was a culture of limited mixing between students from different ethnic backgrounds within their accommodation. “People of the same backgrounds often stick together as it seems socially unacceptable to mix with other groups of people.” Moreover, several respondents commented on segregation within halls. Within the free text comments, three students commented that they felt that there was an intentional policy to segregate students by race or nationality; this is a theme that also emerged in the focus groups. “Seems that there is segregation in the different blocks of the campus, all people from Asian backgrounds have been grouped together.” “Different blocks were slightly segregated, I’m not sure it was intentional. My block was known as the block for Black people from London. I think it was probably intentional because there was also a block with mainly White students.” There are examples in the UK of accommodation blocks or buildings with a high percentage of Chinese residents. Although this may be a result of the preferences of students themselves, consideration may need to be given as to how this will be perceived by other parts of the student community. Outside of this specific example, it seems unlikely that universities or accommodation providers would deliberately segregate students by ethnicity. However this could be an unintended consequence of other allocation strategies, whether by time of application, qualification for guaranteed accommodation, or student needs and preferences. Whatever the reason, the students we spoke with felt that there existed an intentional policy of racial segregation. Historically racial segregation has always been used to oppress Black people, so this can lead to feelings of discomfort and in some cases distress and trauma. Decolonisation is a term that describes the undoing of colonialism, in which one nation asserts economic, political and cultural dominance over another, exploiting it economically and often suppressing its culture. As such, it is often applied to efforts made to create a more inclusive and representative environment. Many universities are currently engaged in decolonising the curriculum by broadening their curriculum and teaching methodologies to be more inclusive of other cultural perspectives. ‘Decolonising accommodation’ therefore suggests projects and initiatives to create a more inclusive culture within accommodation, both in terms of the physical environment and the activities and services that take place within it. The survey tested student responses to this term. Black students were more likely (26%) to agree that their accommodation needed to be decolonised, although there was also some agreement with this statement (17%) among the White students surveyed. The survey also tested the level of agreement with: "There are references in my accommodation to historic figures or events, i.e. slavery, that are offensive.” There was relatively low agreement with this statement overall, though White students disagreed more strongly with the statement than Black students. 4.3 DECOLONISATION 4.4 SUMMARY AND KEY FINDINGS While half of all students believed that there were positive images of other cultures in their accommodation, Black students in particular were more likely to have expected to see more people who look like them in their accommodation. Where staff diversity doesn’t reflect student diversity, this can lead to Black students not coming forward for help or support. In some cases, the accommodation felt as though it had been purposely segregated, which had a negative impact. A quarter of Black students in the survey agreed that their accommodation needed to be decolonised. 5 The diversity of accommodation staff does not reflect the diversity of the students in accommodation. 6 Some students report that accommodation is allocated in a racially segregated way.