Oxford University has been accused of “social apartheid” by Labour MP David Lammy. The allegations come after data was released showing that nearly one in three Oxford colleges failed to admit any black British A-level students in 2015.
The data, released under the Freedom of Information Act, is the first of its kind to be released since 2010. It shows that ten out of 32 did not give a place to any black British students with A-levels in 2015. In the same year, six Cambridge colleges did not admit any black British students with A-levels.
It was also found that Oriel College offered just one place to a black British A-level student in six years. This comes after findings from 2010 that showed that Merton failed to offer a single place to a black British student in five years.
Lammy, a former education minister and current Labour MP, told The Guardian: “This is social apartheid and it is utterly unrepresentative of life in modern Britain.”
He went on to say: “Difficult questions have to be asked, including whether there is systematic bias inherent in the Oxbridge admissions process that is working against talented young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.”
There were also findings released which showed that 82% of Oxford offers went to students from the top two socio-economic groups in 2015.
Large regional disparities were also revealed, with the north-west of England and disadvantaged regions of Wales being underrepresented.
The data had been first requested in 2016. While Cambridge released their data immediately, Oxford only released their data earlier this week when notified about The Guardian’s article, having denied the earlier request. Lammy’s attempt to have this information released sooner involved directly approaching the University’s vice chancellor.
Lammy claimed that the University’s decision to only partially release the information now was “defensive” and “evasive”. He also said that he was “disappointed that the University has combined all black people together into one group”.
In response to these findings, a spokesperson for the University told The Guardian that fixing the problem will be “a long journey that requires huge, joined-up effort across society – including from leading universities like Oxford – to address serious inequalities”.
This new data also showed that only three Oxford colleges made at least one undergraduate offer to a black British A-level student in every year between 2010 and 2015.
David Lammy is known for campaigning for racial equality and increased access to top universities and has had several disputes with Oxford. He had previously obtained data that, in 2009, only one black British student of Caribbean descent had been accepted as an undergraduate.
Lammy has also previously criticised Oxford for “unconscious bias” which he claimed systematically disadvantages applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In response to Lammy’s comments, Oluwatobi Olaitan, Exeter’s JCR Equalities Rep, told Cherwell: “David Lammy’s comments are a huge reminder that our education system has a serious problem with providing equal opportunities to those socioeconomically disadvantaged.”
Having worked with University access programmes, he is aware that “steps are being taken to address this issue” but emphasises that “there’s still so much more work to be done to ensure we make places like Oxford accessible to all regardless of background.”
This comes after data released by Ucas earlier this year found that, of the 2,555 offers made for 2016 entry, just 45 were to black applicants.
Offers were made to 26.3% of white applicants, but only 16.8% of Asian and 16.7% of black applicants.
Hope Oloye, a third year Pembroke student who founded the Afro-Caribbean Tyler Prize, an access mentoring programme for Afro-Caribbean students, said: “I think the data’s hardly surprising, you only have to look around Oxford to realise it has a diversity problem.
“I think we have to be careful not to further propagate the idea that Oxford isn’t a place for black students, because a lot of the current discourse has the potential to deter prospective Afro-Caribbean applicants.
“It’s good that we’re finally having a frank and open discussion about it now as it gives us the opportunity to address the problem. Oxford needs to take an active approach in rectifying this issue.”
Don’t separate black history from British shame
Rosa Parks sat at the front of the bus. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Barack Obama stood up and said: “Yes We Can.” For many, this remains the extent of their knowledge of black history. It is a narrative of persecution and vulnerability in which those of colour are presented as the victims of a largely untold story, filled with stock images and stock narratives.
The education system continues to laud our history as a tapestry of pioneers and war heroes whilst ignoring the seemingly undeniable fact that the victories of the British Empire were deeply embedded with a dark history of colonialism and slavery. In countries which have both caused and harboured similar atrocities, their historical narrative is marked by a deep and inescapable shame. They acknowledge the failings of the past, and look optimistically to the future, in the thorough knowledge that such events cannot repeat themselves.
Yet Britain’s curriculum remains in denial, and monumentally so. In my secondary school there was no option to study black history, and Black History Month was limited to a display board of the faces of Afro-Caribbean icons. Such efforts were acknowledged as a token gesture to the small number of black faces which walked the halls, rather than an attempt to educate the largely white student body. Black History Month holds value because the impact of black history pervades every aspect of our present society, totally inescapable no matter how much we try to disguise it. Over the past five years there has been a 49% increase in ethnic minority long-term youth unemployment, compared with a 2% fall in white youth unemployment.
The same report also found that black and Asian workers are more than twice as likely to be in insecure work. Figures tell us that black workers with degrees on average earn 23% less than white workers with degrees. Such statistics shatter the self-congratulatory rhetoric of ‘post-racial Britain’. Perhaps the reason our country still harbours racial divisions and insensitivies is because we are yet to confront our questionable history with any sufficient vigour.
British scholars will make a conscious effort to engage disparate voices, realising necessarily that their own narrative does not tell the whole story. There are of course figures within academia who acknowledge the euro-centrism of the current system, approaching prominent intellectual figures with a certain degree of scepticism. They understand that the position which such intellectual figures hold in the academic hierarchy has the potential to demonstrate how deeply racist ideology is rooted in our education system and an inherent colonial bias.
But this does not change the fact that the villains of British history in the large part hide in plain sight, and despite some valiant efforts, remain there, unexposed by our education system. In some cases, they are made to be the heroes. Just last year, the History faculty took steps to correct the disparity between prizes offered for European and African history. More still needs to be done, however – and not just in Oxford.
British history is clearly full of triumphs, tales of military strength and groundbreaking innovation. But it has had more than its fair share of gross miscarriages of justice. Part of the mark of an intelligent community is not to conceal our errors but to shove them into the light, warts and all. It is, if anything, to make British history more holistic and accurate. Black History Month has an important role in the British consciousness. It is affirming to those who are often overlooked, and educates those who, through no fault of their own, have been left largely oblivious to the complexity of black history. But it can be better. Instead of just championing our black heroes like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, we should take this opportunity to assess our own British villains.