Oxford University has rejected claims that there is 'racial bias' in its admissions policy, after a government commission this week began an investigation into why Oxford and other leading universities are failing to admit more students from ethnic minorities.
Trevor Philips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), has criticized leading universities, including Oxford, for their failure to attract and then accept more minority students, especially those from black origins. In a speech last year he said, "in our most distinguished universities you can pick out the invisible messages of 'no blacks need apply.'"
The Commission has ruled out asking for quotas, but one CRE official said: "If you have a black student and a white student with equal qualifications at the front of the admissions queue, we would want the university to take positive action to choose the black student first." A spokesperson for the University said, "We don't do positive discrimination, we believe the only criteria for admitting people should be academic ability."
Oxford University takes five times fewer black students than the national average, a study conducted by the Higher Education Statistics Authority has shown. Across all Universities, 4.6% of undergraduates are from the Black ethnic group, mostly made up of students with African and Caribbean origins. At Oxford, this figure is just 0.9%. Black applicants are also more than twice as likely to be rejected as white candidates. Only 13.5% of students with a black ethnic origin were accepted last year, compared with 29.7% of white students.
The University has denied that there was any bias in the admissions process. Helen Odom, Outreach Officer for Lady Margaret Hall, Somerville and St Anne's Colleges, told Cherwell, "there is no discrimination at the selection stage." Odom claimed that the problem was that "comparatively low numbers of ethnic minority students apply in the first place."
Tutors who have spoken to Cherwell have expressed their disinclination to implement the recommendations of 'positive action'. Alan Ryan, Warden at New College said: "At Oxford we have a notion of merit that makes us think that it's simply unjust to take someone with worse skills than someone we turn down. I'm not in principle hostile to affirmative action - I spent a lot of time in the States and saw it working not too badly - but I doubt it would work very well here."
The CRE blames the disappointing performance of black pupils at A Level for the low acceptance rate of black students at Oxford. Admissions statistics for the University show that the average offer for black applicants is actually lower, albeit marginally, than for other ethnic groups.
Oxford runs access schemes, some of which are designed to attract intelligent black students to the University. David Johnston, access coordinator at the Oxford Colleges Admissions Office told Cherwell: "the Oxford Access Scheme run Aspirations Days for Year 9-11 African and African-Caribbean pupils, the Oxford University Black Boys Can project for 13-16 year olds, and trips for several community groups working with Black students and their parents." (all sic)