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Why do we need a black students' campaign?

Too often, the perspective of black students is marginalised from the curriculum or from the mainstream of student life. Too often, our student experience is marred by the racism we encounter in education, at work and in wider society. And too often, our needs are neglected, our views are excluded, and our presence is under-represented in the decision-making process.

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The NUS Black Students’ Campaign believes all students should have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their race, religion, nationality or background. We’re the largest organisation of black students in Europe, representing all students of African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean descent. We campaign and lobby to raise awareness of issues affecting black students at a local and national level. In addition, we highlight the inequality black students face within the education sector and society.

Here are just five reasons why we need a Black Students’ Campaign 
  1. As graduates, black people are three times more likely to be unemployed than white people within six months of graduation. Within five years of graduation, black students earn up to nine per cent less than their white peers for the same work.
  2. Research by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills  (DIUS) in 2007 found that black students are less likely to get a first degree when all other factors are equal.
  3. Black people are up to 44 per cent more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act but are less likely to be referred by their GP than white people, a significant high percentage instead get referred through the criminal justice system.
  4. 72 per cent of Muslim women have experienced verbal abuse and threatening behaviour relating directly to their visible Muslim presence.
  5. 18 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women graduates who are Muslim are unemployed – this is two times the rate of their Christian, Jewish and without religious conviction counterparts.