University can be 'psychologically destructive' for black students because they study so many white Europeans, according to the leader of the NUS.

Undergraduates with a non-white or non-European heritage found it difficult to 'relate to' their subjects, Malia Bouattia said.

It is the latest in a line of controversies for the 28-year-old - the first female black Muslim to be elected president of the National Union of Students.

Malia Bouattia said undergraduates with a non-white or non-European heritage found it difficult to 'relate to' their subjects

She was previously condemned for arguing that it is Islamophobic to oppose ISIS and described one university as a 'Zionist outpost' because it has a large Jewish society.

In May while she was in charge of the NUS black students conference it called for prisons to be abolished because they are 'sexist and racist'.

An in an interview with the Guardian, Ms Bouattia - who last year ran a campaign titled 'Why is my curriculum white?' - renewed her attack on universities for entrenching racial divides.

'Even if people have accessed higher education, they've accumulated vast amounts of debt,' she said.

'And have they had a positive experience, being forced to engage with content that doesn't relate to them, and perhaps is psychologically destructive?

'When we look at the incredibly Eurocentric curriculum, where people don't see themselves in what they're studying, and can't relate to it, and feel that their European counterparts hit the ground running, they can't see themselves advancing in the subjects.'

The comments come as universities try to meet a government target to increase numbers of black and minority ethnic undergraduates by a fifth by 2020.

Ms Bouattia was born in Algeria but grew up in Birmingham. She has spoken of feeling alienated after suffering online abuse from Islamophobes.

In her interview, she denied ever having said anything antisemitic despite being given an official warning while she was NUS black students' officer for pejorative use of the term 'zionism'.

The black students conference which Ms Bouattia previously headed called for prisons to be abolished because they were 'sexist and racist'

Ms Bouattia also called for the abolition of the government's counter-extremism Prevent strategy, instead urging more youth centres and job opportunities for young people.

'When we think about the context in which we're in, where there's demonisation of being politically active, you've got the Prevent agenda, which is hunting down students that choose to be politicised, particularly those who are racialised.'

Emran Mian, director of the Social Market think tank, told the Times: 'About 14 per cent of academic staff in UK universities identify as being from a black or minority ethnic background and almost 17 per cent of students.

RECORD OF CONTROVERSY NUS president Malia Bouattia is no stranger to controversy. While at Birmingham University she opposed efforts for the union to issue a formal condemnation of ISIS because it would be a 'justification for war and blatant Islamophobia'. She also described the university as a 'Zionist outpost' because it had a large Jewish society. In May while Ms Bouattia was in charge of the NUS black students conference it called for prisons to be abolished because they are 'sexist and racist'. Advertisement

'While senior academic ranks may still be insufficiently diverse, the representation of minority perspectives in UK higher education should be improving.'

One of the motions passed at the NUS black students conference in May was titled 'Prisons are Obsolete! Abolish Them Now!'.

It resolved to 'call for the abolition of the prison-industrial complex'.

The motion, which pointed to high rates of re-offending and the disproportionate number of black people in jail, concluded: 'Prisons are sexist and racist.'

Ms Bouattia once described her own university, Birmingham, as a 'Zionist outpost in British higher education', and opposed efforts for the union to issue a formal condemnation of ISIS because it would be a 'justification for war and blatant Islamophobia'.

Following her election in April, Labour MP and former NUS leader Wes Streeting said the union was 'lost', while his colleague John Mann said he was 'aghast' at her statements.