ROCK star Skin has revealed how a racist remark by a college tutor spurred her on to musical success.

The former Skunk Anansie singer was taking an interior design degree and was on the verge of being thrown out for neglecting her studies at the former Teesside Polytechnic.

She said: "I'd spent too much time doing other things. I had a meeting with a tutor who said I was only there as an experiment.

"I can accept being told off for not doing work, but not for being an experiment. There were very few black people at the poly and I was the first Afro-Caribbean person in my class.

"I was absolutely furious and very shocked. But then I did really well the next year, coming third in the class. That showed them."

Skin - real name Deborah Dyer - was at the Middlesbrough-based polytechnic, now University of Teesside, from 1989 to 1992. Her debut solo album, Fleshwounds, is released today.

The university recognised her achievements with an Honorary Master of Arts degree in November 2000.

A spokesman said: "Since its formation in 1992, the university has been committed to equality of opportunity and the acceptance of diversity.

"Currently, almost five per cent of our students are from a non-white background."