by The Commentator on 12 May 2013 23:57

A new report has revealed disturbing statistics regarding enforced segregation on UK university campuses.

The briefing, entitled, "Unequal Opportunity" by campus watchdog 'Student Rights', shows that out of nearly 200 events hosted on UK unversity campuses over the past year, over a quarter have been 'segregated' by gender - with female students being forced or encouraged to sit separately from their male colleagues.

The study into events hosted by student societies included 180 with speakers who had “a history of extreme or intolerant views” in the year until March.

Forty-six of the events in question at 21 separate universities around the country, were found to have either explicitly promoted segregation by gender, or implied that this would be the case, with six of these cancelled before taking place. All 21 of these institutions have equality and diversity policies which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender, as well as a legal responsibility to do so under the Equality Act 2010

The events in question have been primarily hosted by Islamic societies on campuses, who often use separate telephone numbers for men and women to book their attendance, and either advertise each individual event as segregated, or have blanket policies enforcing the move.

Events with speakers such as Zahir Mahmood, Abu Usamah, Lauren Booth, Hamza Tzortzis and Adnan Rashid have all been segregated.

Student Rights noted that, "The fact that such a large percentage of the events logged by Student Rights during this time period either explicitly advertised events as segregated by gender or implied that this would be the case underlines claims that events highlighted are not ‘isolated incidents’ but rather form a part of a wider, discriminatory trend on UK university campuses."

The group has recommended that universities take steps to ensure UK universities enforce anti-segregation policies, however institutions such as Cambridge have already rejected the proposals, telling The Times newspaper that despite the equality policies of the university, "It would be for students to self-regulate."

READ MORE AT THE TIMES (£)