Black students on going to Oxbridge: 'it's not even asked or pushed for, it’s just assumed no one is applying'
James Robson, University of Oxford ; Katriona O'Sullivan, National University of Ireland Maynooth , and Niall Winters, University of Oxford Just 1.5% of all offers from Oxford and Cambridge universities went to black British A-level students in 2015, recent data obtained by Labour MP David Lammy revealed. The majority of places went to students in the south-east of England with professional parents. This has sparked extensive debate about the accessibility of elite higher education institutions for the socioeconomically disadvantaged and black, Asian and minority ethnic students. It has also led to calls for elite institutions to do more to improve their widening participation schemes and offer more places to students from different backgrounds. In response to these debates, the Oxford African and Caribbean Society explained : It is true that the data reveals significant issues of institutionalised cultural and economic bias at Oxford; however it is al...