The University of Roehampton has faced accusations of being ‘woke’ after psychology students received content warnings ahead of lectures that included an alert about chocolate addiction.
The south-west London institution routinely displays notices before classes to flag potentially sensitive material, a practice that one undergraduate has criticised as patronising.
Octavia Evans, a second-year psychology student, said the warnings left her feeling like she was being treated like a child rather than being protected from genuine discomfort.
“Yes, you read the last one correctly. As a long-suffering chocoholic, I appreciate my lecturers’ concern for my sanity (and waistline), but come on!” she said.
The chocolate addiction warning appeared alongside alerts covering smoking, passive smoking, sexual organs, anger, and the quality of parent-child relationships.
Ms Evans questioned whether the university would halt a lecture if a student complained that discussion of chocolate addiction was unbearable.
“It made me wonder: had a student actually objected a voice crying out that discussion of chocolate addiction is too much to endure would the lecture have been stopped?” she said.
“Or would the university gently remind us that, while it is committed to wellbeing and inclusivity, the material is nonetheless essential? I fear the former.”
The university in London offered a warning for chocolate addiction for one of their lectures
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The student told The Telegraph that another seminar carried a warning about potentially encountering “views that you disagree with”, something she felt was presented as a hazard rather than an essential component of academic learning.
Additional alerts cautioned students about material relating to friends experiencing mental health difficulties or topics about which they might hold strong opinions.
The university’s website previously stated its commitment to fostering a truly inclusive working and learning environment where everyone feels valued and can achieve their full potential.
However, this section has since been removed.
Roehampton placed 92nd on a ranking of “woke” universities compiled by the think-tank Civitas last year.
The University of Glasgow has also drawn criticism in recent months for trigger warning on Harry Potter
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A spokesman for the University of Roehampton defended the practice, stating: “The University of Roehampton is committed to an inclusive working and learning environment.
“As a matter of good practice, students are provided with advance information about course content.”
The controversy at Roehampton reflects a broader pattern of trigger warning disputes across British higher education institutions in recent months.
The University of Glasgow drew criticism last December when it warned undergraduates studying British Children’s Literature that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone contained “outdated attitudes and abuse”.
Critics described the warning as evidence of a “triggering epidemic”.
The University of Sheffield issued warnings about violence and murder in the Bible, advising that the four Gospels contain scenes of “graphic bodily injury and sexual violence” relating to Christ’s crucifixion, a move Christians and historians described as “misguided” and “absurd.”
Meanwhile, Nottingham University attached a trigger warning to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, citing “expressions of Christian faith,” despite the medieval text containing references to rape, lust and anti-Semitism that went unmentioned.
Biology students at Reading University were also cautioned they might encounter “graphic” images of the human body during their studies.