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
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