Universities have been warned of a “creeping segregation” on campus after Sheffield became the first in the country to open student housing where only gay and transgender students are allowed to live.

Sheffield University says it will open a set of LGBT-only student flats in September to provide a “safe space for students to be themselves”.

The university has received 30 applications so far and plans to expand the accommodation next year beyond the 12 rooms currently offered.

It follows concerns from the student union that gay and transgender students will be subject to “bullying and harassment” in mainstream accommodation.

A report from gay rights group Stonewall this year found that 42 percent of LGBT students in the UK are forced to hide their sexuality at university, and 33 percent have received “negative comments” from other students.

But the director of the country’s largest student accommodation service criticised the plan as a form of “segregation” which will ghettoise gay youth and divide student communities.

Celeste Jones, former Women's Officer at Sheffield University Students' Union, who campaigned to introduce the LGBT-only flats credit: Sheffield University Students' Union

“University is about opening your horizons and meeting people from different cultures, different backgrounds, different sexualities, everything,” Simon Thompson, director of Accommodation for Students, told The Telegraph.

“I think it’s a disadvantage if people close themselves off and don’t socialise with straight people. It just seems madness to me.”

He said he is already concerned about racial segregation on campus, with a number of student housing blocks in Manchester, London, and Liverpool becoming known informally as “Chinese-only”.

They mean some Chinese students now live entirely separate lives to their white British classmates, he said.

He said Sheffield’s plan will go even further by enacting an explicit ban on heterosexual students, and will further fuel student segregation.

Gay rights campaign Stonewall offered only muted support for the idea, saying that LGBT-only accommodation could help gay and transgender students “in the short term”.

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But they said addressing homophobia on campus “is also about changing the wider culture to be inclusive and accepting of all people”, adding: “We’re working towards a world where everyone can be accepted without exception, wherever they live, work, study, or pray.”

Birmingham University briefly considered its own LGBT-only housing scheme in 2016, but quickly dropped the idea after lack of interest from students.

Sheffield University insisted this weekend that they do not want to “encourage any feeling of segregation”, and said the LGBT-only flats will be situated in the same building as other flats.

They added: “Our student union and LGBT society confirmed that this would provide a supportive and comfortable environment.”

The students’ union said: “By no means is this accommodation compulsory, nor do we wish to encourage segregation, but we feel it is extremely important that our students have the choice of living in LGBT+ only accommodation if they so desire.

“Even if just a tiny fraction of LGBT+ students feel this will benefit their University experience then we feel it is all entirely worthwhile.”

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Gay-only dorms are already in place at some US colleges, with even Georgetown University, which is run by Jesuit Catholics, opening one earlier this year in Washington DC.

Many US universities have also generated controversy by opening “racially-themed dorms”, which critics say carry disturbing parallels to 1950s-era segregation.

In 2016, California State University opened a “black living-learning community” after the Black Students’ Union warned that racial “micro-aggressions” from white students made them feel unsafe.