Hawzah News Agency (London, UK) - The data, obtained from freedom of information requests by The Independent, has shown more than 60 percent in the last two years, the newspaper reported on Monday.  

Rights groups and activists have called for universities to do more to tackle racism amid concerns, saying that the numbers could be much worse due to underreporting.

The National Union of Students (NUS) said racist incidents are happening every day on campuses across the country, but often students do not tell their university faring they will not be taken seriously, according to the report.

Racist chants often take place in student halls and at times objects are thrown at black students, according to reports.  

According to an analysis by The Independent, 129 alleged incidents of racism were reported to British universities in 2017, compared to 80 incidents in 2015, which is a rise of 61 percent.

The analysis further reveals that in just one year, the number of complaints about racism from university students and staff rose by nearly a quarter, with 105 incidents reported in 2016.

Nearly two in five (37 percent) universities have seen the number of incidents of racism increase over the past two years, according to the data analysis of 94 universities.

The NUS has argued that the scale of the problem is even greater because the rise in reports can be attributed to the efforts of student officers running intolerance campaigns on campuses.

The data also shows that the number of religiously motivated hate crime incidents at universities doubled from 2015 to 2017. Muslim students were particularly targeted in such attacks.

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