21 former students of UCL (University College London) have voiced complaints over alleged sexism and racism at the Bartlett School of Architecture. The complaints, first reported by The Guardian, stretch back over a decade. The ex-students' complaints include inappropriate comments on race and appearance, which they describe as “systemic” within the school.

The stories of the 21 ex-students were compiled into a dossier by former student Eleni Kyriacou and shared with the Guardian, who subsequently spoke to several recent graduates. Stories told by the graduates include one who said staff were “damaging primarily female students.” The graduate, of south Asian descent, claims that a staff member told a fellow student he could not tell that the graduate was “brown” as “she acted and spoke like a white person.”

Another student details their account of a video published by the school as part of a unit brief, which was insensitive towards race and the Black Lives Matter movement. “The brief had created a connection between hesitancy in the use of color in architecture and race and the Black Lives Matter movement. I found it absurd, ignorant, and offensive,” they told the Guardian. “So, it used a lot of violent imagery and then with that, the voiceover was discussing chromophobia [an irrational fear of color].” According to the student, the video suggested that “if there are colorful buildings in the new world of joy then racism or sexism would be negated.”

That same student also shared their encounters with racist attitudes from their fellow students. “Students at the Bartlett, who came from all-boys public schools in London, called me the ‘whitest’ black person they had met,” the student said. “To them, studying architecture at a top school like UCL was a white and middle-class thing, not a place for a mixed-race, British, Black Caribbean woman with a working-class heritage.”

In response, UCL said they are launching an investigation into the complaints. “We have been aware of issues in the Bartlett school of architecture and have been working hard to address them for some time,” says Prof Sasha Roseneil, a pro-provost (equity and inclusion) at UCL. “We are deeply concerned to learn about these incidents, and we will investigate these, and any others that are brought to our attention.”

The publishing of the Guardian’s article has provoked a strong reaction from the architectural community. The UK-based Future Architects Front, who we spoke to last month on the topic of unpaid overtime in the profession, has shared a series of Instagram messages sent to them by followers. These messages detail more allegations of racism and sexism at the Bartlett and other institutions, including female students being harassed over their appearance, and further incidents of racial prejudice.