Green Party leader Dr Caroline Lucas MEP spoke out today in response to worrying new reports (1) that Oxford and Cambridge universities are under-performing in the recruitment of students of Indian, African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage.
Caroline Lucas said this morning: "It's frankly shocking to hear that there are seven times fewer Black or Black British Caribbeans at Oxford than there are on average at other universities.
"In order for Oxford to reach the national average, it would have to recruit 44% more students from BME backgrounds."
Elite universities outside London "must try harder," report shows
The new findings show that London-based universities belonging to the prestigious Russell Group, including the London School of Economics, Kings College London, Imperial and University College London continue to be the best-performing institutions for numbers of BME students.
But outside London, of these 20 top institutions, only Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Warwick are attracting good proportions of ethnic minority students.
Caroline Lucas, who is tipped by pollsters to become the first UK Green MP in the coming general election (2), continued:
"On the whole the UK is doing quite well, as the proportion of ethnic minority students is rising broadly in proportion with the growth of the 18-24-year-old ethnic minority population.
"But it's simply unacceptable that most of the more prestigious universities are recruiting too few members of ethnic minorities."
She added:
"If there is an issue with members of ethnic minorities not meeting entrance standards, then this suggests there's a problem lower down in the education system, with fewer pupils from minority backgrounds being supported to reach their potential. Here's where I think the Green Party's approach would be important, for instance making class sizes smaller and making sure pupils get the most appropriate support for their individual learning needs. This would mean more money for education, but it's absolutely essential for the future of our society that we make that investment."
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Notes
1. Analysis of the Higher Education Statistics Agency's (HESA) Student Record for 1995/96 and 2007/08 and the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey for the same years, reported by PA 3.2.10 at 2:45:51 AM.