Exeter Uni introduces dedicated BAME counselling support

The Exeter University wellbeing service will now offer a telephone counselling service for the BAME community.

The service comes from Bristol-based charity Nilaari, who provide culturally appropriate support for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students.

This comes after York Uni introduced a similar service following criticism that the all-white counselling staff were out of touch with the needs of BAME students.

Ruby Jones, Exeter’s Student Guild Vice President for Welfare and Diversity, tweeted: “At urgent suggestions from myself & a group of BAME students last year, Wellbeing are now offering telephone counselling for BAME students.

“This is a HUGE win for our non-white student community.”

Exeter University also said: “Following recent discussions with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students, Wellbeing Services are introducing a new telephone counselling service for our BAME community.

“The service is available from Nilaari, a culturally appropriate counselling service based in Bristol who provide help and support for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people.

“Their counsellors are trained and qualified in the same way as our own Wellbeing staff.”

The statement continued: “This is a pilot project and the service will be reviewed over the forthcoming term, so any feedback from students who access support from Nilaari would be much appreciated.

“If you would like to provide feedback, please email [email protected].”

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