Seven years ago, two of Britain’s most elite universities made headlines as it emerged that 21 of their colleges (they have 69 between them) had not offered a place to a single black undergraduate student in 2009. One Oxford College did not have a single black undergraduate in five years. Little seems to have changed since then, according to figures published by Labour MP David Lammy. Between 2010 and 2015, on average, 13 Oxford colleges did not make a single offer to a black A level (one of the common exam systems in Britain) student, while over the same period, a quarter of Cambridge colleges failed to do so.
While Oxford and Cambridge have long faced questions over their openness to students from state schools (dating back to 1852 when, as a House of Commons research paper pointed out, a Royal Commission raised questions about the ability of poorer students to access them), race has become an increasingly prominent issue. The issue has significance not only because of the large amount of public funds received by the universities in the form of funding body and research grants, but also because of the influence still held by an Oxbridge education: 12 out of 23 members of the British Cabinet (including the Prime Minister) attended either Oxford or Cambridge. “An Oxbridge degree is still the golden ticket in our society and a gateway to the top jobs so the government has a responsibility to hold Oxbridge to account,” said Mr. Lammy, following the publication of the data. Difficult questions have to be asked, including over whether there was “systematic bias” in the admissions process that was working against talented young people from ethnic minority backgrounds, he added.
“An entrenched systematic bias persists at all levels of the university, especially with regard to racial and ethnic diversity,” warned Oxford University’s Student Union’s campaign for racial awareness and equality. “The intersection of race and socio-economic status when it comes to students wanting to apply to Oxford University is an area that the university must focus on if it is to improve access for members of disadvantaged groups.” While there have been some improvements (the number of ethnic minority home students at Oxford rose to 14% in 2016 from 5% in 1990; and to 22% from 5% at Cambridge), the government’s recent audit on racial equality in Britain highlighted the sharply different experiences of those from different minority backgrounds when it came to opportunities, treatment and attainment across a host of sectors from education to health and the criminal justice system.
Failure to widen access
“This is the latest damning evidence on the government’s failure to widen access to our most selective universities,” the Labour Party’s spokesperson on education matters said of the figures. While many argued that the figures highlighted some of the reforms needed by Oxbridge more widely, including greater centralisation of the highly college-based admission process, others have pointed to the need for a far wider discussion over the state of education, and its treatment of those from BME (black and minority ethnicity) backgrounds in Britain.
It also raised questions over other aspects of education, for instance, the make-up of university staff (just 6% of staff at Oxford identify as BME, according to 2016 figures) as well as curriculum. A row this week, however, over a student-led campaign to reform, decolonise and introduce post-colonial thought into the literature studied at Cambridge, highlighted the resistance of some within the British society to change.
(Vidya Ram works for The Hindu and is based in London)
