At least seven colleges, including prestigious Russell Group universities, have apartments or housing blocks specifically designated for LGBTQ+ undergraduates, according to Mail Online.
The decision has drawn criticism, with some calling it social segregation and others saying it was patronizing to assume that homosexual students needed their own halls.
After it was discovered that unoccupied rooms at LGBTQ+ residence halls are left empty rather than offered to straight students, education campaigners expressed concern that the practice could add to a lack of student accommodation.
According to the universities of Sheffield, Cardiff, Bristol, Bath, Southampton, Southampton Solent, and Essex, the move was made to protect LGBTQ+ students from “homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia” by straight roommates.
LGB Alliance’s Kate Barker, a proponent of LGBT rights, remarked, ‘Learning to live alongside people from different backgrounds and with different outlooks is one of the most important lessons of the university.
‘LGB Alliance student networks tell us that these silly ideas are widely considered patronising to gay people and indeed to the whole student population. Experiencing difference is their priority, not narrowing their perspective.’
Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘It will likely create division and resentment within student communities.
‘Any restrictions on students from diverse backgrounds and orientations mixing together is a recipe for social disintegration among the student body. It does not benefit anyone, however well-intentioned it is.’
Essex University said the move was ‘welcoming and inclusive’ and that ‘it may be helpful to be with people who may have shared life experiences’.