Thirty-two black students were accepted for undergraduate study at Oxford this year, the highest number in ten years.
The acceptance rate of black students also increased to 14%, an improvement on both 2009 and 2010 figures (12.2% and 8.8% respectively). Black students accounted for 1.3% of all offers made in 2011, the same percentage as those students achieving AAA at A level who are of black ethnicity. A spokesperson for Oxford University promised that Oxford would “continue to do more to improve these numbers.”
White students still have a considerably higher acceptance rate at just over 24%, and such discrepancies led to David Cameron labelling the situation “disgraceful” in April of this year. The University explained that a lower success rate for black students was attributable to a number of factors, adding, “The latest national attainment figures show that of the 36,000 UK students getting AAA or better at A-level, only 452 were black. White students are still nearly three times more likely to get AAA at A-level than black students. School attainment is the biggest barrier to getting more BME [Black or minority ethnic] school students to Oxford.”
Black students’ choice of course was also said to have contributed to lower acceptance rates. A spokesperson explained that, “Black students still apply disproportionately for the most competitive subjects at Oxford, contributing to lower than average success rates.” Oxford’s three most competitive courses (E&M, Medicine and Maths) account for 44% of all black applicants, compared to 17% of all white applicants.
While conceding that they are not “as ethnically diverse as some universities,” Oxford insisted they “want talented black students to know they are welcome,” and stressed their commitment to “widening access to Oxford from under-represented groups.” A spokesperson also refuted criticisms that the UK’s top universities were “failing to attract minority ethnic students,” adding, “Of those (the 452 black students who achieved AAA at A-level), 221 applied to Oxford, and a similar number again applied to Cambridge. In other words, the overwhelming majority of straight-A black students are making Oxford or Cambridge applications.”
Hannah Cusworth, the OUSU Vice President and Access and Academic Affairs Officer, explained that whilst the figures do not “concretely show anything,” she found them “heartening,” adding, “they perhaps suggest that the attainment of black British students is improving.” She explained she was “shocked” to discover that only 452 black students achieved AAA at A-level according to the most recent statistics, and acknowledged that “attainment is a serious barrier to more black students winning places at Oxford and so schools have got to work harder.” When asked what Oxford could do to increase its intake of black students, Cusworth stressed the need for Oxford to “continue to refine its outreach work” and to “take [the issue of] supporting students after they receive their offers more seriously.”
Chidi Onyeche, the BME Officer for the Student Union, explained that although the statistics were “positive,” Oxford “still has a long way to go before we can celebrate any true achievement.” She criticised Oxford’s approach in “discouraging perceptions” of it as a “white middle class institution” as “misguided and limited.” In particular, Onyeche condemned the “Target Schools Initiative”, which sees a number of black and ethnic minority students coming to Oxford for a day, as it takes place “when the children are too young” and is “never followed up again.”
She also argued that, “Oxford seems focused on the success of the school visits but the way that they measure such success once again is misguided,” adding, “Success is not based on the number of people that apply after the school visits take place but how much closer we come to dismantling the perceptions and myths that surround this university.”
Oxford’s African Society also welcomed the increase in the acceptance rate for black students, yet highlighted the contrast in success rates for white students. In a statement, they called for the university to “educate prospective black candidates about subscription rates for various disciplines, so that they are able to make informed decisions in the application process.”
They argued that black students are “under-represented by a factor of 30” at Oxford, and also called for Oxford to make courses more “financially affordable” to black families by “setting up bursaries or offering partial fee waivers.’
They also highlighted a recent report by the NUS which showed that “1 in 3 black students feels that their perspective as black students is marginalised and disregarded in their higher education,” and called for the university to “encourage black students to apply by openly tackling institutionalised and individual acts of racism on campus.
Issah Abdul-Moomin, a first year PPE student, explained that, “increased diversity would be a great thing for Oxford,” yet acknowledged that, “looking at the statistics, it comes as no surprise that there are so few of us.” He said that this was something he had “anticipated” and which has “not been a huge problem,”. He concluded that, “the lack of diversity at Oxford is a problem that needs to be tackled at secondary school level by encouraging aspiration and improving attainment, rather than expecting the University to admit second rate applicants in order to tick boxes.”
Such views were shared by second year PPE student Nadia Odunayo, who argued that “There is definitely a problem with the intake of black students, but this exists not with the university being discriminatory, but with state schools not preparing the students to a competitive standard. If Oxford wants to remain one of the top universities in the world, they have to keep admitting the best students, regardless of background.”
