Islam and Muslims on UK University Campuses: perceptions and challenges

The report from the AHRC funded ‘Re/presenting Narratives of Islam on Campus’ research has been released.

This was a collaboration between Professor Alison Scott-Baumann (Principal Investigator) and Dr Aisha Phoenix (SOAS University of London), Professor Mathew Guest (Durham), Dr Shuruq Naguib (Lancaster) and Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor at Coventry University.

This AHRC-funded research project provides the first nationwide picture of how Islam is experienced, perceived and interacted with on university campuses in the UK. It shows how the UK Government’s counterterrorism Prevent strategy has reinforced negative stereotypes of Muslims and has encouraged ‘a culture of mutual suspicion and surveillance’ on university campuses.

Based on findings from a national survey of 2,022 students across 132 UK universities and interviews and focus groups conducted with 253 staff and students at six higher education institutions, it recommends that universities take an active role in building peaceful relations on campus and beyond.

This can be achieved through active challenge of prejudice and empowering Muslim and all marginal voices. As discussed in our forthcoming book, suspicion and negative stereotypes need to be replaced with shared, equal and just understandings of who we all are.

Read the full report here.

Source: isa-rc22.org