An academic who claimed Oxford University rejected his job application because he was black failed in an appeal court bid to have the matter referred to an employment tribunal.
Dr Chinasa Anya, 47, who has a PhD in Metallurgy, was employed as a research assistant on a two-year contract by the university in October 1994, but at the end of that period unsuccessfully applied for another research post. Dr Anya, of Beech Crescent, Kidlington, has had his race discrimination claim dismissed by employment tribunals on three occasions.
On Wednesday, he argued that a January 2002 tribunal had "erred in law" in their treatment of his case. But Lord Justice Kennedy and Lord Justice Sedley, sitting at London's Appeal Court, dismissed his application to appeal, ruling the tribunal had dealt with the case "appropriately" and that its decision was legally sound.
The academic, who now works in an Oxfordshire juice factory, said his scientific career was in tatters. He has vowed to fight on and take his case to the European courts.