Black students squeezed out of Oxbridge

With the new figures coming out from two of the most prestigious universities in the world, Black British students are once again being squeezed out of the elite establishments. Less than one in 100 students beginning courses at Oxbridge in 2010 were Black, including just 20 of the 2,617 British students accepted to Oxford, a fall from 27 in 2009. The number of new Black students at Cambridge dropped to 16 among an intake of 2,624, compared with 25 the previous year, admissions data show.

Why does all this matter? Well, it matters for a number of reasons. Take the present Coalition Government’s Cabinet for example. More than two thirds of the Cabinet is Oxbridge educated, including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor. In politics, an Oxbridge education clearly gives you a substantial head start to reach high office. The same can easily be said for law, the media, the sciences and top flight financial world.

The fact that the figures are getting worse not better perhaps indicates more the growing social economic gap that Black communities are particularly vulnerable to.

In the past the greatest lie perpetrated by many commentators including the educationalist Tony Sewell, was that neither Black families nor their children truly aspired to go the elite institutions. The reality is that thousands of Black students aspire to be the best; many of those can be seen at MP Diane Abbott’s annual top Black students’ awards.

The grim educational reality is those costly private institutions with small classes and a dedicated focus on preparing for Oxbridge entrance fantastically gives an advantage to the privileged. Adding to the squeeze, middle class families are now saturating both Faith and Grammar schools - once a route for bright working class kids, Black and White, to enter Oxbridge - in order to save on increasingly high private tuition fees.

Some argue too that the future does not look bright with the Government’s growing Free Schools and Academies cherry picking the best students and casting aside the rest who will have little hope of high achieving.

If we care about education, we must challenge its gross inequality exacerbated by both class and race. We must find a way so that elite institutions can recognise talent that is wider than just those who have extreme privilege. Furthermore, and not least for our economic recovery, we must not abandon those who are not high achievers as life’s losers.

http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/oxford-university-dream-too-far-black-students

Simon Woolley

Image: Cambridge University