for black students
studying at one of the most prestigious
universities in the world
academic pressure isn't always the only
challenge
for some it can feel like entering a new
world
you feel like you have to be strong you
know my mum keeps saying to me just keep
fighting
just keep going just get that degree
over the years oxford and cambridge
universities have come under pressure
for their lack of ethnic diversity
i think it's a place where race has not
been
acknowledged as relevant particularly to
the whole intellectual experience of
being at cambridge last year at
cambridge
the numbers improved on previous years
with the university accepting
a record number of 91 black british
undergraduates
but beyond numbers is the experience
i'm ashley john baptiste a bbc reporter
but also a cambridge graduate myself
and whilst i'm so glad i studied there
as a mixed race
south londoner who grew up in care it
felt worlds apart from what i was used
to
and nearly 10 years on from my own time
i want to find out what life at
cambridge has been like
for a new wave of black british freshers
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the data is stuck black british
undergraduates have never made up more
than three percent
of cambridge's undergraduate population
this doesn't include international
students
who roughly make up a quarter of all
undergraduates
steps have been made to improve things
in 2018
the university launched the stormzy
scholarship to fund a selected number of
black freshers
but i know firsthand that once you enter
cambridge
it's not uncommon to feel out of place
and as much as the university did offer
support
i often felt like an impostor and
totally out of my depth
it's because of my own experience that i
really want to know how
current black students are coping in a
space that is still predominantly white
and privileged
and to give us that insight meet fabiana
[Music]
success and sharon
success is from manchester and studying
medicine
for his nigerian parents seeing their
son study at cambridge
is nothing less than a dream come true
back home in africa
when they want to maybe make fun of you
if you are studying so much
they will ask you why are you studying
so much
are you going to cambridge it's a big
thing for us
success is enjoying university a few
weeks in but
he was a bit concerned about finding a
barber in cambridge
who could cut afro hair success why is
it taking you so long
to get a haircut in cambridge
when i looked in the mirror one day and
saw this mess
i don't really know where to go a few
weeks into cambridge how's it going yeah
oh god it's stressful
it has been good like i have found i
found people that
that are quite like me um i found people
are very different to me and we get on
and it's yeah it's just been a really
good experience what i heard about
cambridge oxford and all that kind of
stuff like this is the place i've wanted
to go to
love that sharon from tottenham is
studying history in spanish
her family of evertray and origin have
come to visit
growing up we like cambridge always was
seen as something so like unattainable
but always like a goal for you you
always wanted to go to cambridge
i feel like cambridge is very welcoming
is that representing for eritrea there's
not that many eritreans that go to
cambridge i came
just this short time in this country and
i never dreamed
that it's my daughter or to go to
cambridge but it
is just the dream thank you charlemage
to make me proud as a mom
i think you do get a sense that you you
are different it doesn't feel bad but it
just
is something that you do have to kind of
just think about just be like
you know if you enter certain like
classes you
might be the only person of color there
you might be the only black face there
you might be the only one with
your hair there or you know i mean like
your hair yeah what do you mean by that
like you know my big like curly hair
yeah like
some of my friends have said like
they've changed hairstyles and like
people don't recognize who they are
academically it's definitely lived up to
its name but what i was surprised about
is how
i've been eased into it in a way fabiana
is from coventry where she lives with
her jamaican mum
she's studying psychology and behavioral
sciences
you know where you're going so you had
to
play the part don't work overnight just
get up and say i'm going to be pushed
you've been working towards this
you're not a follower you're a leader
i'm a leader you are just a few weeks in
fabiana says she encountered racial
discrimination
from another student at a social event
the incident
involved the use of a racial slur this
boy
just said like a really ignorant comment
he just said i'm too drunk to say the m
word
so that was something that like threw me
off because i've never really
experienced
someone like outwardly saying something
like that to me like i've never been
called the m-word or anything like that
what went through your head it was
mainly just like shock
like i didn't i couldn't say anything
everyone was just like oh my gosh i
can't
believe he just said that no one really
spoke up apart from me and my black
friend
you're definitely like i'm black at
cambridge
she decided not to report the issue but
confronted the student privately who she
says
later apologized
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it's not too long after her own
encounter that fabiano hears of another
black student who alleges
they've been discriminated against
according to the student
the incident involved a staff member
from trinity college which is one of the
colleges
of cambridge university i was on the
train one of my feet
was on the seat a man from trinity
college
looked at me in disgust and just said
verbally assaulting me on the train i
think to myself
would i have been spoken like that if i
was a white man it really grates me
that i'm getting emotional about it yeah
because
you feel like you have to be strong my
mum keeps saying to me just keep
fighting
she just she's saying do you want to
drop out
do you want to leave i'm fighting for
every other black person who i know
needs to occupy these spaces
[Music]
the university has taken steps to
improve its diversity
but it's clear that some black students
still struggle
i took the guys to share their concerns
with the university's vice chancellor
a lot of black students feel like when
they get here they don't really feel
like a part of the university like
instances where
we just feel like outcasts what
mechanisms does the university have
for issues that black students
experience so the first step is creating
a critical mass of of
being students black students in
particular so that people did never feel
alone one of the things that we've done
is uh committed to a three-year program
of
increasing dialogue around issues of
race do you think this is a place
that is institutionally racist i think
it's a place
where race has not been acknowledged as
relevant particularly to the whole
intellectual experience of being at
cambridge so in that sense i would say
it is racist because it doesn't
acknowledge race in people's lives
[Music]
despite challenges the university's
african caribbean society
also known as the acs has been a
lifeline for the students
it's a group that celebrates african and
caribbean culture
and tonight the students are attending a
special dinner
when else in cambridge's history would
you get a room full of you know black
minority ethnic students and like
we're all just here addressing and
thriving it's just such a beautiful
symbol of how far we've come and
i'm so excited to be able to criticize
it was just over halfway through the
academic year
that the national lockdown was announced
as a result of the coronavirus
the university closed students sent home
lectures were moved online it marked the
end of their student experience
as they knew it
[Music]
this whole coronavirus thing has just
been getting on my nerves
i feel like it's stressing everyone out
there's nothing to look forward to
because summer's basically locked off
now
it's been four weeks i think since i was
back
at home what the heck has gone on my
hair exams
are in september now and whilst dealing
with lockdown
black lives matter protests broke out
across the uk
in the summer following the death of
george floyd in the u.s
my mental health is not in the best
shape i'm sure every black person came
which has a story to share
about some sort of cover racism it's
kind of hard
being away from cambridge and not having
that support system so yeah it makes me
miss cambridge a lot
uni's almost done i've literally got
like one assessment left to do then i've
finished first year
okay i've just come off the phone um
i've just had my director of studies
meeting so kind of like my parents
signed me without my parent
and i got my exam results
somehow i managed to bag a first in both
history and in spanish
and then when she told me i was just
like
i i just i don't know how especially in
this term because it's just been like
it's been disgracefully hard and i don't
think i've actually had time to just
kind of process this year properly and
just sit down and like
i don't know a lot of it was kind of
filled with fear and like
obviously the whole you know imposter
syndrome and feeling like
do you really belong here like are you
really the type of person
they're looking for where you just kind
of you know with a bit of like a pity
acceptance like there's all those kind
of things that
rush into your mind and just kind of
comment on the other side i don't know
it's actually a miracle and if this is
what i can achieve in my first year
best believe it's been so long since
i've seen the students
so long that a whole term has passed
i catch up with them to find out how
despite everything that's happened
they feel their first year has panned
out
i always say that i've never felt as
black as i have
here in cambridge i mean like like in
coventry there's a lot of black people
around these asian people around me like
it's very
diverse but here it's not diverse you're
very aware that you are black
there's no practicality if there's
nothing that you apply
you know to make black students feel
more you know safe and
more accepted in this in this community
that at the end of the day
you know you can't say we've made
progress we've tidied our hair we've
spoken the way that we need to speak
we've silenced this elements of our
culture we've done this
to accommodate any spaces and still
that's not enough your environment
can make things difficult for you but
it's not a barrier
you can overcome whatever you want to
overcome and be who you need to be
it might just be a little bit more
difficult but that doesn't mean
you can't do it
you