Standing in the heart of its campus, Amelia’s expression mirrored the awe of a thousand students at De Montfort University’s (DMU) open day. With one of the most renowned art buildings in the country staring down at her, the possibilities at DMU seemed endless; she imagined the people she’d meet, the art she would create, and the teachers whose wisdom would inspire her. What she didn’t expect was to be sitting with me three years later, discussing all the ways DMU has let her down.

“In the firs...

According to UK Parliament, 59% of girls have experienced sexual harassment at school or college. That is more than 5/10 female students. I am one of those girls. And after what I have seen of my peers throughout my education, I am not surprised by that statistic. When I was 9, the boys in my middle school would ask me what texture my pubic hair was. When I was 11, as the only mixed-race girl in our school, they thought it was funny to ask me whether my vagina was purple or pink. By the time I was 13, the girls had grown used to boys looking up our skirts on the school stairs; we had learned to wear shorts underneath. By 15, we had stopped texting the boys in our class for help with homework; they’d just reply with an image of their penis.

Tuition fees are set to increase for UK students next year, rising from £9,250 to £9,535 a year. This £285 increase marks the first-time student fees have risen since 2017. For universities, this is an attempt to ease some of their financial challenges, with three in four universities said to be in the red next year. The announcement has sparked widespread controversy, but teachers argue that university applications are holding steady despite the looming increase. Head of Sixth Form at Stratton School, Robert Clarke, said in an email interview that the number of students applying to university this year has not decreased: ‘the percentage has stayed broadly the same for a number of years’.

It is well-known that Leicester is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the UK. It is well-known that Leicester is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the UK. It should come as little surprise, then, that its top university, University of Leicester (UOL), hosts a diverse student body from various religious backgrounds. As of 2023, Christianity and Islam were the leading faiths of UOL, with 24.2% of students identifying as Christian and 16.3% as Muslim. With this in mind, I set out to speak to Christian and Muslim students on campus to gain a deeper understanding of how religion interacts with student life. When I sat down with fourth-year student Anthony Ikemefuna, 21, who is a spiritual mentor at the First Love church, I was surprised to hear that attending university had actually strengthened his relationship with religion. ‘I was never an active participant in church growing up’, Anthony told me, fiddling with the cross pendant on his necklace, ‘my mum’s main focus for me was education, so church wasn’t exactly a priority’. It wasn’t until his third year of university when a friend suggested that they re-build their connection to Christ, that Anthony decided to join First Love. ‘At first, I was just there for the vibes,’ he laughs, ‘but as I kept attending, I started to take it more seriously’. Anthony decided to become a mentor in his fourth year of university. When I asked him what influenced this decision, the light-hearted energy in the room instantly turned serious. ‘Being a mentor came about after a profound moment with a girl from church’, he started. ‘One day, a girl I hardly knew approached me, crying. She opened up to me about being sexually assaulted and not knowing who in her friend group had done it’. He paused for a moment and touched his cross pendant again, ‘As a man, I had never faced anything like that before. I had to turn to God and ask for the wisdom to help her’. And help her he did. Anthony encouraged her to pray and talk about her feelings. He shared bible scriptures like: ‘God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers’.

‘He rang me up like a gangster, threatening me, shouting, and screaming at me that he was losing money; no one was coming to this concert. And I said, “Listen bruv, you’re shouting at the wrong person. I’ve got a contract here that says you owe me ninety grand. So, I’m going to ask you once, or you’re gonna see me in six hours. Are you going to pay me this money?” Paul Kennedy is telling me a story, the kind of story that has me gripping the edge of my seat and hanging on his every word. Paul is taking me back to when he was touring with Shola Ama in Germany, towards the beginning of her career. He tells me that the concert promoter, disappointed by the number of tickets sold, refused to pay Paul the agreed upon amount of money - to which Paul responded by calling up some of his old army pals. ‘We had a code together, we served together,’ he tells me. ‘So, if any of us were in trouble, we can call each other, and they’ll come to our aid’. Here’s the scene: Kennedy, who describes himself as ‘quite a lot bigger back then’, and three of his mates from the army, fly to Berlin, kick down the door of the venue, and push the guy up against a wall. Paul chuckles to himself as he says: “I think you o