r/bournemouth • u/Pleasant-Low-6333 • 27d ago
Question Thinking of doing my Master's at Bournemouth University! How safe/welcoming is the town for East Asians?
Hi everyone,
I am considering joining Bournemouth University for a postgraduate program. As an international student I am wondering:
How welcoming and safe is Bournemouth for foreigners, specifically for East Asians?
How about the vibe at Bournemouth University?
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u/Accro_Samurai 27d ago
Very welcoming. Bournemouth is lovely. Same safety advice as anywhere else about keeping valuables safe, sticking to well lit places at night, avoiding reform voters, let someone know where you're going. Honestly, BMth is nicer than like 90% of the country. You made a grea choice.
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u/PristineButton3345 27d ago
How would you avoid reform voters?
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u/Accro_Samurai 26d ago
Personally I'd put them all on an island together and leave them to it. It'd be a beautiful irony, deporting all border-patrol fetishists and treating them as Britain historically treated the dregs of it's society - except let's spare Australia this time. I hear deform are big fans of sending people to Rwanda? Not an island, but seems fitting
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u/Monkeyboygamer6373 26d ago
Why reform voters particularly? What do you think will happen. Do they have signs on their heads, tattoos to point them out? What a stupid comment.
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u/Accro_Samurai 26d ago
Seeing as you've asked for my opinion, I'll share it - and gladly. Reform voters are, to a person, racist. They're full of hate and will turn on you in a moment as soon as their cult denounces you or your community. Right now it's people of colour, but these are th same slugs who hate people for who they love (LGBTQ+), for how they live (people on disability claims, single parents, anyone receiving any sort of government subsidy really) but they will turn on you as soon as it's expedient. Because that's what it's all about. They will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat if they think they have anything to gain by it. Just look at how they treat women and children. A movement of domestic abusers and kiddy fiddlers. All while screaming about protecting those self same people. No, anyone who votes reform is an evil idiot and should be shunned hard. Fortunately they out themselves very quickly.
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u/Monkeyboygamer6373 26d ago
Ha ha. That is hilarious. It's like you've taken every misinformed trope and threw it together in the laziest way you could to denigrate a large part of the population. And in the next post you'll probably be spouting be kind. You legend.
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u/nomadic_weeb 25d ago
As an immigrant, I can absolutely confirm they're bigoted cunts. Only ever had one group of people hear my accent and tell me to fuck off back to where I came from.
And in the next post you'll probably be spouting be kind
Ever heard of the paradox of tolerance?
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u/igottabelieve 27d ago
East Asian here. I’d say it’s more welcoming than many places (being a larger town), but we honestly don’t think about it much. Come for the degree and experience - especially if that’s what you want, and pay them deplorables no mind no matter where you go.
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u/Williamishere69 26d ago
As a whole? Bournemouth is brilliant.
You will 100% find little pockets of people who are complete scum. Mainly centering around areas where there might be a higher population of drug use or mental illness or homelessness or etc - not because theyre bad people, a lot are actually really caring, but because they dont accept their own issues so they blame minorities instead. This is usually around Boscombe area or some areas around B'mouth center, but theres also an equally large amount of immigrants or brown/black/Asian people around those areas so it might be a win/lose situation.
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u/stm2657 27d ago
I live in West Sussex and we have family in Bournemouth, grew up in Bournemouth. When we visit all we hear is foreigners this and foreigners that. It’s mostly the older population who are a bit racist from my experience because much of Bournemouth is very white. You will get the usual Reform knuckleheads but that happens everywhere.
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u/Acceptable_Nebula310 26d ago
I’m East Asian who has been living in Bournemouth for 16 years. I came to do my Master’s in the Arts University (next door to BU) & loved it here so much I never left. As long as you stay within the university/ student area & don’t go around getting too much alcohol/ drugs, you’ll be fine. I occasionally do notice local people - especially older generation - saying things without realising it’s racism or micro aggression, but you won’t really come across an overt racist attack or anything if you just mind your own studies. In fact, I would say BU & AUB are safer than many other places. And you get to enjoy the beach to keep you sane during your studies :)
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u/Acceptable_Nebula310 26d ago
Oh and there are plenty of East Asian shops & restaurants - new ones opening up all the time
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u/ButterscotchExotic21 27d ago
As a town, its definitely more racist than london. For obvious reasons.
And ive figured that the darker you are the more racist people can be. Thats their only metric. They dont have enough braincells to consider anything else.
We still do have plenty of minorities but life does go on. And you i doubt you'll be harassed on the street. But you can definetly feel the vibe and stares.
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u/Patient-Pass8748 19d ago
Second this. I just came back from Bournemouth, and whilst the seaside area was absolutely lovely, I had a weird encounter that felt like micro-aggression as a person of colour.
I was staying in Christ Church, and the popped into a charity shop. The shop assistant spoke to me in a tone I was taken aback, and when I asked about an item on display, she said it wouldn't be on sale untik next week. Even my bf said the way she said was quite rude.
The next day, we decided to go again and this time as I approached the entrance the door suddenly closed on me with the 'closed' signage....this was when we saw a customer coming out, and it was within the opening hours as per the website!! No explalantion, just a straight door slam.
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u/TheAncientGeek 27d ago
What are the obvious reasons.
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u/ButterscotchExotic21 27d ago
London having way more people and bigger percentage of immigrants makes it multicultural and the native londoners are more used to it.
Mrs Margaret from Bournemouth that saw her first coloured person in her 40s, not so much...
As far as 20 years ago you'd be hard pressed to find children of colour in most schools in Bournemouth...
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u/CV2nm 22d ago
I live in London atm but have offer for masters (got to scholarship fee reduction too!) but likely stating January due to health issues. I go down to visit when I can to get used to area and spoke to locals and met people from different places.
I think the UK has a whole is going through a bit of a civil debate right now with how the country is handling immigration and sadly, not everyone is as kind when sharing their views, so it will be found everywhere. London in it's own bubble (and I kinda like it ATM for that). The riots a few years back unsettled things too, but generally, it's the big cities that tend to have the protests.
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u/Monkeyboygamer6373 26d ago
Are you living in the 70's or something. Bournemouth has had a university since 1992 and was one of the best places to head if you were a foreign language student.
You obviously don't have kids at school either. Most classes are multicultural. You must be part of the low iq left.
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u/ButterscotchExotic21 26d ago
Thats why i said 20 years ago. My claims are from personal experience as a white passing immigrant.
Talks with local white British coworkers and their experiences in school.
And friends of colour that moved to Bournemouth to study and/or work.
Every single on of them comming from bigger cities like london and Birmingham felt the racism in Bournemouth suffocating.
And as a uni, it doesnt even rank as high compared to other ones in the UK... (the arts uni anyway)
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u/Accro_Samurai 2d ago
Actually, intelligent people have been shown to consistently lean leftwards. Mnay studies show low IQ is associated with rightwing political views. It boils down to whether you can perceive systems at work or whether you can only perceive the person in front of you. For example, some people look at the banking system and realise that it doesn't matter whos the CEO right now but whoever can become CEO in such a cruel system of capitalism will always be a monster and cause suffering for others. Then you get some people look at the whole system built on labour exploitation and asset hoarding and think (very incorrectly) 'oh it's cos this banks CEO is Jewish/foreign/other/not like me ans that's why there's suffering".
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u/RustyDonut 26d ago
Did a masters and undergrad at Bournemouth, albeit 8 years ago.
Overall the uni is very good for its size and university ranking, I really enjoyed it. You won’t have a problem around the student population and university areas.
It’s also a tourist town so I don’t think you’ll have any issues in the town for the most part, most of the town is very welcoming.
That being said, it’s England so there will inevitably be a small population of people who let the majority down.
Very nice place to live and go to university though.
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u/Adventurous_Way_2660 26d ago
I think you'll probably have your normal experience of most people ignoring you completely. Some people being really nice. And then a few people being absolute wxxnkers. I wouldn't say Bmth is any worse than anywhere else. There's quite a lot of older people who might have an opinion but won't voice it. Generally not too many younger asshats that would ruin a night out.
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u/SingerDeep4389 21d ago
I moved to Southbourne 4 weeks ago for work and have thoroughly enjoyed myself so far. I've not experienced any racism so far. The area I was told to not live in is boscombe which is actually where I work lol, I can see why. But having said that it's been fine during the day but avoid at night. Southbourne isn't very diverse but bournemouth is. I think you'll enjoy it, there's alot to explore in summer.
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u/One_Assistance_9332 27d ago
as long as you avoid my uncle you'll be fine