A GOVERNMENT minister has accused Oxford University of prejudice and said it needed to do more for black and disadvantaged communities.
But figures from the university appear to give the lie to the claim made by Labour MP David Lammy. According to a list published by the university, 324 out of 2,940 undergraduate places - 11 per cent - offered in this academic year were taken up by British students from Asian, African, Far Eastern, Caribbean or mixed race backgrounds. Figures for overseas students were not available, but a university spokesman said if they were included, the percentage would rise significantly. This number compared with 17 per cent at Cambridge University and 10 per cent at Sussex University.
A spokesman for Oxford said: "Oxford University works very hard to attract more ethnic minority students, as well as other under-represented groups, to apply. "It's true that we don't get very high numbers of black students applying, perhaps because of a false perception that Oxford isn't for them. But those students who do come and visit the university through our various access schemes find out what a welcoming and diverse place it is."
Mr Lammy, 31, the MP for Tottenham, in London, called on Oxford and Cambridge universities to do more to attract black and disadvantaged students, accusing them of still being "tinged with old-fashioned class prejudice". Mr Lammy - who went to London University and Harvard in the US - said there were too few black people at Oxford and Cambridge, the latter having just 84 black British students out of a total of 11,600 undergraduates. The minister for constitutional affairs was speaking after a BBC2 documentary on Wednesday about black students at Cambridge. He said: "In fairness to Oxford and Cambridge, both have tried hard to widen access in recent years. But it is still not good enough. I know from my experience of higher education in the US that British universities still have an awful long way to go."
He said while at Harvard he was struck by the sense that privilege entails responsibility and was impressed by their sophisticated outreach and bursary programmes. "It is almost as if they view extending opportunity to disadvantaged individuals as their highest mission. There is still elitism, but it is genuine academic elitism, neither as aloof, nor as tinged with old-fashioned class prejudice as one finds in Britain." He said more must be done for black and disadvantaged communities to ensure that "highly talented individuals are given a chance to study at Oxbridge".
OXFORD students are seeking support for an alternative to university tuition fees. The proposals, drawn up by the Oxford University Student Union, call for an end to the fees and suggest higher education should be iunded by higher rates of tax for top earners. They also say all students should be given a non-means-tested £5,000 grant each year to cover living costs.
The ideas were launched yesterday by OUSU president Helena Puig Larrauri, right, and vice president Louise McMullan, left, as the Government gave details of its plan to allow universities to charge variable top-up tuition fees. Under Education Secretary Charles Clarke's scheme, universities will be able to charge fees of up to £3,000 a year.
The NUS, which represents 5m UK students, fears this would deter students from poorer backgrounds from applying to universities which charge the maximum fee, and described the proposals as a "disaster for the future of higher education", despite a package of concessions including grants of up to £3,000 a year for students from less well-off homes designed to help poorer students and appease Labour MPs opposed to variable fees. Ms Larrauri said: "With this alternative proposal we want to show there's another viable and better way to fund higher education. The current funding system provides insufficient financial support, the available support is wrongly targeted and students are forced into crippling debts."
OUSU's proposals have been sent to Labour MPs in an attempt to generate support. John McDonell, chairman of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, has already backed the ideas. He said: "if higher education is to be truly accessible to all, it should be based upon the fair grant proposals set out in this document. The paper confronts the myths and propaganda of the Government fees policy."
However, the university's Chancellor, former Conservative Party chairman Chris Patten, said top-up fees were a necessary evil. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't think that universities would have liked to have fetched up asking for tuition fees, but there's no other lifeline available. Without this, what is a crisis for universities is going to turn into an absolute disaster." Mr Patten was critical of Tory opposition to variable fees, describing it as "opportunistic".
Tory leader Michael Howard said Mr Patten was wrong, but stopped short of pledging to maintain his opposition to top-up fees in the long term.
OUSU's student funding proposals can be downloaded from www.ousu.org
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