Living Black at University 26 Living Black at University 27 In response to the statement “I can easily access culturally relevant services like hair care, food and makeup close to where I live”, there was a mean score of 3.8 indicating that most respondents either agreed or strongly agreed. This was lower for Black respondents at 3.4, with 28% of Black respondents indicating that they either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement. This is usually outside the direct control of the accommodation team, nonetheless this is a context which affects the daily lives of Black students. “It was definitely a white space, but more due to the location of the university rather than the university itself.” Some focus group respondents said the whole university, including their accommodation, feels like a ‘white space’ because of the lack of racial diversity of academic and support staff. This can be seen in areas like catering, where provided, with some students reporting a lack of culturally relevant food including Halal options. About half (51%) of all demographics felt that there are positive images of diversity in their accommodation, and there were no differences in scores between White and Black students. However when it came to the statement, “I expected there to be more people that looked like me” there were significant differences in mean scores between White and Black students, and 46% of Black students expected there to be more people that looked like them ( Figure 5 ). This suggests that, for Black students, the reality is not living up to the image presented when it comes to representation in accommodation. Some students in the focus groups said that they chose universities that they knew had a high population of Black students, and we have seen examples on The Student Room of Black students trying to find accommodation in which there were other Black students. A lack of staff diversity was discussed in the focus groups, and some of the students did not seek support because they felt uncomfortable having no-one who looks like them to discuss issues with. “There needs to be a more diverse, easily accessible group of staff. In accommodation, it is vital that people feel comfortable and have someone who is equipped to handle these situations.” This is discussed in more detail in section 5. POLICIES AND PROCEDURES . 4.1 THE ENVIRONMENT AROUND THE ACCOMMODATION 4.2 REPRESENTATION 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 5% 11% 30% 35% 11% 5% 20% 28% 13% 35% 2% 5% Black/Black British White Key Disagree Strongly disagree N/A Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Figure 5: I expected there to be more people that looked like me in my accommodation