In this election it seems that the only topics that keep getting thrown around is immigration, NHS and austerity cuts. As the newly elected Chair of the Black Minority ethnic students committee at the University of Sheffield I think one issue that is usually shoved under the rug is the welfare of students and in particular BME students. That is why I think it is important that BME students vote on the 7th of May as they have an equally important voice to express the many issues that affect BME students. This is because it was seen that 66.4% of White students studying first degrees received a first class or second class honours qualification, compared to 48.1% of BME students overall.
BME committees across Universities are here to represents students of African, Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Mixed Race Descent and although they help to raise awareness around campus it is not always reflected on a national scale. This is because there aren’t enough BME politicians running for MP positions and this is a problem in itself. The BME community need a voice and platform to be heard as currently we only have 27 MPs that are representing the whole BME community in Parliament which needs to change. In an environment where Islamaphobia, racism and Xenophobia on the rise this means that BME home and international students are victims to such behaviour and find it much harder to fit into new student communities away from their families. This is seen in the rise of race related hate crimes and this evident in the student communities as Black British students and Asian British students are significantly more likely to drop out of higher education. This is a major issue and such issues are not highlighted or dealt with to a satisfactory standard by Universities.
Not only that but it was seen that in January 2014, the joblessness rate for young black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi people was 45%, compared to 19% for young white people. BME students need to be more active and vote so that they can be heard and that government gets the representation from such groups that it desperately needs. In the last general election 7% of white British people did not register for a vote however, almost a third of black people weren’t registered. BME communities nationwide must go out on Election Day and vote to get the representation in Parliament that it desperately needs.
Photo credit: Mufaddal Zohair
