![Oxford University: A dream too far for Black students? [2.1164021164021]](http://www.obv.org.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/630x230/images/Oxford4.jpg)
Oxford University: A dream too far for Black students?
Have universities taken their eye off their responsibilities to promote race equality? asks Rob Berkeley, Director of think tank Runnymede Trust
Within the coming weeks thousands of young people will head to Oxford for the daunting set of interviews and exam papers that are the typical rite of passage for entrants to one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world.
As one of Britain’s elite universities, students who attend the University of Oxford can expect the highest standards of education, including the much lauded tutorial system which gives students incomparable access to some of the best minds; typically being taught in groups of two.
An expensive style of teaching, but one which bears fruit – graduates of Oxford are much in demand and occupy the highest echelons of British industry, public life and academia.
In 2009, this exhaustive interview process resulted in only one British Black Caribbean student gaining access to the opportunities provided by the university.
I left Oxford University in 2000 after eight years of study. For a comprehensive-educated young man from Croydon, the experience of study at Oxford gave me a passion for academic study, but also helped me to develop my personal skills and the confidence to participate in British political life.
I was lucky enough to be taught about politics and economics by the same tutors who taught the Milliband brothers, and to have the opportunity to work with other Black and minority ethnic students at Oxford to reach out to potential students from similar backgrounds through the Oxford Access Scheme.
Back in 1992, I was one of 16 British Black Caribbean students in the first year. 16 out of 3000 students was hardly a marker that the University was being successful in its attempts to attract and recruit students from a diverse range of backgrounds. Yet 16 seems to have been a high water mark. What has happened in intervening years that could lead to progress having stalled so significantly?
Back in the early 1990s we were able through the Oxford Access Scheme to highlight the racial inequalities in the Oxford admissions process that saw talented students from Black communities less likely to be successful (one in three White applicants receives an offer of a place, fewer than one in five Black applicants does the same).
Since then widening participation* has become a buzz word across universities, in particular with the link being made to the level of fees that universities can charge.
However, the targets that government has set have emphasised the socio-economic status of potential students rather than other characteristics such as ethnic background.
Nationally, Black and minority ethnic students are more likely than their White counterparts to attend university. This may have led to universities taking their eye off their responsibilities to promote race equality. Blunt national measures fail to take into account that not all universities are the same, or deliver the same level of opportunities to their graduates. Last year, London Metropolitan University had more British Black Caribbean students than all of the Russell Group universities put together.
Further, the official emphasis for widening participation has been on creating greater demand among ‘non-traditional’ students – locating the problem with the supposed low aspirations of students, rather than with the admissions systems.
Research highlights that Black Caribbean students do not lack aspiration**; instead they lack the knowledge and networks to navigate through the complex systems which might lead to more successful outcomes.
School level careers guidance is too often weak, and institutions such as the University of Oxford are perceived as not being open to the diversity of the potential student population. With only one Black Caribbean student in a year, this perception seems well founded.
Oxford and Cambridge Universities are not simply institutions among many, but the elite of our university system – and receive extra government support as a result. What happens in Oxford admissions has an impact on our public life. In the 2010 Election, 30% of MPs attended Oxbridge (38% of Conservative, 28% of Liberal Democrat and 20% of Labour MPs). Making sure that our elite universities are effective at identifying and nurturing talent of young people from all backgrounds is likely to have a knock on effect on who has the capacity to fulfil future leadership roles.
Oxford University must wake up to the way in which it is missing out on the potential of students from Black backgrounds and work to address it. Not just because I would like to be proud of the university from which I graduated, but to justify its position as an elite university for all.
Best of luck to all applicants in their interviews.
Rob Berkeley
*Look out for Runnymede’s forthcoming review of Widening Participation and race equality, to published in December 2010 – www.runnymedetrust.org
**S.Strand (2007) Minority ethnic young people in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, DCSF Research Report
Comments
Oxford response
This article picks up on comments by Trevor Phillips about Oxford’s black Caribbean student population. These were previously aired in both The Telegraph and the Daily Mail, and the University has published responses that take into account the wider context for the figure.
The University works hard to ensure that all students with the potential to succeed at Oxford apply to study here, regardless of their background or ethnicity. Statistics about black students ending up at Oxford need to be put in their proper context. There are two issues: Are they applying in great enough numbers? And are they getting in?
On the application side, we know that the most recent data suggests that the majority of black students getting sufficiently high grades are already applying to Oxford or Cambridge. Using UCAS data for 2009 entry,452 black applicants achieved AAA or better at A-level excluding General Studies (the minimum requirement for a competitive application to Oxford) and applied to university through UCAS. In that year 221 applied to Oxford (a similar number applied to Cambridge).
On the entry side, success rates for students from black backgrounds can fluctuate significantly year by year. In 2009 just over 12% of black students applying to Oxford received an offer – lower than overall figures for all students. One significant reason may be that black students tend to apply in greater numbers for the most competitive subjects, such as law and medicine.
For example: Around 7% of white students applying to Oxford for entry 2009 applied to study medicine, one of Oxford’s most competitive undergraduate courses, compared to an average of 28.8% of black applicants. Similarly, around 7.4% of white students applying to Oxford applied to study law (another hugely competitive course), compared to 23.1% of black students. According to the most recent UCAS data, this mirrors wider UK trends.
What is particularly worrying is that only 71 black Caribbean students in all of the UK achieved three grade As out of nearly 36,000 students overall. It is also worth remembering that more than 12% of Oxford’s 2009 home student intake came from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Oxford’s admissions team does a huge amount of outreach to try and encourage applicants from all backgrounds and educate students about choosing the right course for them.
Our director of Undergraduate Admissions, Mike Nicholson, noted the following in a letter to The Telegraph and The Daily Mail:
The ‘one black Caribbean student to Oxford’ claim is true, if you only look at one particular year, only look at British applicants, only look at undergraduates, and only look at black Caribbean students (as opposed to any other black students) (‘Oxford took one black Caribbean student last year’, 16 October). A selective use of a figure, to say the least. In Oxford’s total student body, 22% of students are BME.
Importantly, Trevor Phillips’ comments ignore the real issue, which is attainment in schools. UCAS data shows that for 2009 entry to university, just 452 black students in the country achieved the top A-level results necessary to make a competitive application to Oxford. Of those, only 71 were black Caribbean. 221 black students applied to Oxford that year and a similar number again applied to Cambridge (applying to both is not possible). In other words, the overwhelming majority of straight-A black students are making Oxford or Cambridge applications – a very far cry from the picture Trevor Phillips paints of top universities failing to attract minority ethnic students.
Do white students have the same rejection rate?
v good piece by Rob, and interesting that Oxford have been so quick to reply.
Question is: given that nearly all AAA black students apply to Oxbridge, do only one in 71 white AAA students get into Oxbridge too? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect their rate is much much higher.
Joseph Harker
There is a difference between attracting students and recruiting
It is great that Oxford University are seeking to limit the damage to the institution that such a stark figure (only one Black Caribbean student admitted in 2009) represents. Shame that the press office is more reactive than the admissions tutors who made the decisions over who to admit.
It is not good enough for Oxford to look round for others to blame - we know that the education system is not delivering for Black Caribbean young people well enough and other articles on this website and elsewhere point to the possible remedies. It remains the case that of the talented Black Caribbean students who do apply - they are significantly less likely to be successful. Levels of aspiration are not in question here - the article notes that Black Caribbean young people are not short of aspiration. What is in question are the admissions systems that can produce (wittingly or unwittingly) a result as dire in terms of race equality as this.
In no way does this response explain why in 1992 the university was able to recruit 16 students from this group and in 2009 only 1. Oxford may be attracting the students to apply - it is failing to recruit them onto the courses - who is to blame? From this answer the students themselves, the education system - everyone it seems, except Oxford itself.
Rob Berkeley, Runnymede
Fully Explainable.
"In no way does this response explain why in 1992 the university was able to recruit 16 students from this group and in 2009 only 1"
This is fully explainable. Firstly, given that school places are first-come-first-serve based on those who qualify for places, there would be inconsistent changes between applicants for which ever cross-section of society that anybody attempted to highlight.
Oxford University: Politician and leaders
But Oxford University has for some decades churned out leading politicians and not national leaders.
Surely the state of England over the last few decades is testimony to my observation.
But my point is that more of the same from Oxford, in politics, does not bode well for the future of England.
Carl Allen
The trouble with statistics...
I've been following this debate with great interest. Headline grabbing stories about a single Black Caribbean student getting into Oxford, seems on the face of it, to be bad.
But is it?
Joseph Harker asks "... do only one in 71 white AAA students get into Oxbridge too?" in response to Oxford's retort.
Being a journalist one would have thought he could have easily found out. But that aside, this isn't what Oxford said.
They said:
"452 black students in the country achieved the top A-level results necessary to make a competitive application to Oxford. Of those, only 71 were black Caribbean"
So, only 71 students had the potential to apply. Now we know that those students couldn't apply to both Cambridge & Oxford, so we could reasonably conclude just 35 applied to Oxford (or less).
But what the statistics don't tell us is where these students came from and what if any assistance they were given by their schools or other bodies to prepare them for the exams and interviews to gain entrance.
As Alan Bennett's play and subsequent film, The History Boys, beautifully portrays, the assistance and guidance is as important as achieving the pre-requisite exam grades at A Level.
Maybe Oxbridge role models like Henry Bonsu and indeed the author of the piece Rob Berkeley could do more to assist?
With such small numbers they could do it themselves.
Response to Rob Berkeley - Race and the Oxford dream
Whilst I understand Rob Berkeley’s response to the continued under-representation of Black students in Oxbridge universities, it must be pointed out that this is not the first time that Oxford (in particular) has hit the media headlines regarding what appears to be an engrained, structured and institutionalised racism (an emotive term that I tend to hesitate using at a whim!) inherent in its selection and assessment processes.
However, the real question for Rob is what practical steps Runnymede is taking to use its research capability to making a real difference? It is now clearly not enough to present statistical arguments that demonstrate the reality of the adverse impact experienced by prospective minority students when applying to Oxford colleges. We already know this. This is not news! The larger question, however, is how best to use the statistics and ensuing research to robustly combat the identified and well-known problem of under-representation at Oxford and Cambridge?
I suggest that the Runnymede Society ought to re-consider its overall strategic approach. For example, it ought to engage more proactively with the workplace context where under-representation of BME’s in senior management positions continues to exist – astoundingly low for a number of FTSE 100 companies. The equation is simple: greater access to better paid and empowering job opportunities equals greater access to services. This is what constitutes a key part of social mobility – the agenda which combats inequalities in society and facilitates equal opportunities for all – black or white – ensuring greater access to our higher institutions of learning in a qualitative and indeed quantitative fashion. Quantitative in the sense of greater numbers of applications from prospective BME students on par with students from White backgrounds, and qualitative in terms of reaping the fruits that social mobility offers in terms of ensuring the intellectual capability to perform even better in required subjects as a direct impact of attending good schools currently ‘sectioned off’ to those who, at least, appear to be more ‘economically’ viable.
In other words, there is a fundamental socio-economic link between ensuring greater access to Oxbridge institutions and eradicating discrimination that no amount of positive action can solve – and Runnymede ought to be at the epicentre of that. That centre is the workplace, the common denominator for ensuring a fairer and more equal society.
1 black student
it's shameful educational system
Under the LiB-Con coalition
Under the LiB-Con coalition government, it will soon be difficult for anybody to go to University. I would be more concerned about that situation first-and-formost before I would be concerned about the spread of individuals within Universities. It is called PRIORITIES.
I think you will also find that yesterday there was quite a wide spread of heritiges all under the single banner of the Student protest/riot. You should be consoled by the fact that at least different people are all working together in an, albeit violent, problematic and ineffective, attempt to get everybody into University...
"...their responsibilities to promote race equality"
It might seem quaint in socialist Britain to suggest that the responsibility of a university, most definitely, is not to promote racial equality, but rather, having made sure it is open to all who can reach its academic entry standard, to firstly provide students with the best education that the university's resources can provide, and secondly, to pursue truth (knowledge) without fear or favour, regardless of political or social antagonisms towards that aim. It is not the duty of a university to reflect the numerical ratios of racial, religious, gender, or sexual preferences in the community. We know that universities begin to die when they are required to submit to the agendas of political parties or pressure groups. The next item on the agenda of leftist organisations such as the Runnymede Trust will be to pressure universities to have a staff list that reflects the racial balance in the country. That's what happened in the US, and it destroyed the credibility of some universities when people were appointed to academic postions through the application of positive discrimination legislation rather than rigorous academic standards. Many of our universities have already given up the struggle in the face of relentless pressure from feminists, and now have departments whose sole purpose is to promote the ideology of feminism among young women, and to produce feminist propaganda in what are laughingly referred to as gender research journals. And so the universities have become part of the feminist industry, offering career paths, promotion, titles, and other honours to people to engage in what is essentially a long-term political campaign. For the first time since univerisities ceased being devoted to the training of clerics, the univerisities in Britain have become the major organ of an ideological movement.
There is the very real danger that unless they are prepared to become private institutions to allow them to generate non-government funding, the great universities of Britain will be destroyed by their dependence on the goodwill of politicians and their agents, who care nothing for academia, but care a lot about wielding power to achieve their political ends. The article by the left-wing Runnymede Trust should be read in that context.
Great to see the comments
Great to see the comments here about the article - think it is right that we don't just point at the problems but try to reach solutions.
@Jude, you are right to highlight the importance of the workplace - you may be interested in Runnymede's recent publication 'Snowy Peaks' which tries to dissect why Black people are so rarely promoted to the most senior levels in industry. In terms of practical solutions to make change - highlighting the problem with the distribution of Black people across institutions and subsequent engagement with ministers has made sure that universities will be judged not just on widening participation to those from lower socio-economic status, but now also on their work to recruit students from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds. It cannot be right that one third of Black students in the country attend just 7 institutions. With the threat of losing a third of the revenue from tuition fees, this might give the universities some incentive to do something about a problem that has been pointed out consistently since the early 1990s.
@Wordsmith, Universities, like hospitals, schools and local authorities have a legal duty to promote equality as set out in the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and the Equality Act 2010. If you think that they should not, then seek to change the legislation. I do not recognise your characterisation of universities as producing 'feminist propaganda', or being organs of an ideological movement - but maybe you have some evidence that I'm not privy to. Just FYI the Runnymede Trust is a non-partisan organisation - so left and right not a particualrly useful description. We are values-led, however, and are very upfront about it - that we are seeking to play our part in creating a successful multi-ethnic Britain where 'all citizens and communities feel valued, enjoy equal opportunities, lead fulfilling lives, and share a common sense of belonging'. Not a right or left approach.
@Anonymous and @Carl Allen - you are right to point to the fact that for many entry to any HE instiution has become more challenging. While some institutions, however, provide greater access to positions of power, distribution becomes more important. Would that it were not so - but it is.
Post comment here