What its like when you didn’t expect to be the minority at university

www.nottingham.ac.uk

Since coming to university in September, I have heard the phrase: “you should totally blog about your uni experience!”, from countless friends and family, and each time my response is the same. Each time I tell them something along the lines of, “I don’t blog about myself”, “this blog isn’t personal to me”, or “my blog is supposed to be strictly professional”.

I have now come to realise that each of my posts reflect, to some degree, part of my character. Whilst they are usually driven by fact and evidence, this blog is essentially an opinion blog and it is inevitable that there will always be some sort of bias behind what I write.

I say that to say this: this website is about myself, my views and the way I see the world. I set out this blog to talk about issues that I wanted to read about, and that I knew would engage my audience. As of now, the majority of my readers are of a similar demographic to me. They are of a similar age to me, and an overwhelming proportion of them reside in and around London. This blog post will be no different to my others in the sense that it is written for my audience to engage with and relate to, whilst also providing insight to things they may not yet be aware of.

As a first-year student from an Indian family, I have faced what can be described as a ‘culture shock’. As conveyed in the title, this was an issue that I had been aware of prior to September yet had never really expected to have such an impact on me. For some, this failed realisation may simply be put down to naivety or perhaps even unrealistic expectations, and whilst those factors definitely hold some ground there are far more contributions which meant that I was unprepared for this.

At university there are a wide range of people that come from all over the UK, as well as from around the world and those people represent all sorts of cultures and backgrounds. Yet, undeniably, there is a significant majority of white students, something I had recognised at an earlier stage due to things like university fairs and open days. This did not mean I was at all prepared for my own experience.

I come from an area close to West London where the demographic is incredibly diverse and unsaturated. I went to schools where over half of the students were Asian. I have never been the minority. Up until now.

My specific position as a minority can be put down to my course choice of English and Hispanic Studies. Unfortunately, though it may be stereotypical, Asian students don’t usually choose courses that fall under the Arts category, instead partaking in courses that fall under the Sciences such as physics, finance and economics. No matter how much we may not want this to be true, it is reality. Only recently I was asked by an Asian Uber driver what course I did. Once I told him he took one look at my name, asked me if I was Punjabi, and then proceeded to question why I wasn’t doing maths. During first semester, I attended a flat party hosted by physics students who were Asian. My course choice was almost a joke to them, and they questioned why I was “studying a language we already speak”. Unfortunately, this mentality is still very much prevalent amongst the Asian society.

In part to this outdated mentality, I am usually one of the very few non-white students in most of my classes and whilst in an ideal world this should have no impact on me, it does. Naturally I will choose to sit with another non-white student and in terms of my course my closest friends all belong to some sort of ethnic minority, whether that be South Indian, Chinese or Muslim. And, naturally, I have observed that white students are more likely to sit with each other than with people belonging to a different ethnic background.

 Last semester, I had a class where I was the only non-white student, and despite how silly it may sound it did impact my attendance and performance in that particular module. This semester, my timetable had been changed significantly and it happened that I am now in a class that is far more diverse, and, honestly, it has positively affected my work output in that module. Realising this now, it seems like such a ridiculous and trivial matter, but it’s the reality that things like this can affect you without you even being aware.

When it comes to students who belong to the majority there are subtle but clear differences. They usually have different interests to me, especially in regard to things like music, food and which club nights they prefer to attend. But there are also instances where my culture separates me in more indirect ways.

One thing that I have found is characteristic to Hispanic Studies, is that a large proportion of students choose to live on campus in the university halls. When it came to choosing accommodations, the accommodation I chose and now live in was essentially branded as the “place where all the brown people live”, a generalisation admittedly but still largely true. And truly that influenced my choice of halls, creating another difference between myself and my course peers.

I think for students that come from areas like London which boast a plethora of ethnic backgrounds, you never experience the reality of being a minority, and it is something that you are never really prepared for. But the experience is honestly enlightening because essentially many professions are dominated by the white male and sadly this is just something that many people from a non-white background will have to face and overcome. So, whilst situations like these can be discouraging and something you truly were not prepared for, its preparing you now. 

Thank you for reading!

Aman