BAME Students Make Up One-fifth Of New Oxford Undergraduates

The University of Oxford admitted one in every five British undergraduates of black or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds last year. However, the institution was found to overrepresent privately-educated students. Although the university claims it is making steady progress toward a more inclusive student body, only 22.1% of British students at the university are from BAME backgrounds, compared to 26.2% of such students across all UK universities. Despite widening access programs – resulting in a rise in the proportion of black students admitted to the university from 2.6% in 2018 to 3.1% last year – many Oxford colleges still admit a limited number of black students, with some admitting five or fewer between 2017 and 2019.

While state-educated students at the university have increased from 55.6% in 2014 to 62.3% today, they remain underrepresented. Only 7% of pupils in the UK attend private school, although this rises to approximately 16% for sixth form students. Despite improvements in admitting students from the UK’s most deprived areas – up from 8.6% to 12.2% over the past five years – most of Oxford’s students come from London or the south-east, while just 2.1% are from the north-east and 4.5% hail from the East Midlands.

Criticism of the university has recently arisen due to alleged mishandling of racist incidents. Its Oriel College narrowly voted in favour of removing a statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes. Some students of BAME backgrounds claimed that their experiences at the university were challenging, while the institution had been criticised by policymakers for overlooking qualified state-educated students, particularly those from deprived or black backgrounds.

Regarding the admissions figures, Professor Kalwant Bhopal, director of the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Research in Race & Education, argued that the university now needs to address the gap in attainment for these students and the lack of BAME academics in senior decision-making positions. Meanwhile, Oxford vice-chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, said the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted deep educational inequalities, with the university having to move its state school access programme online. Nonetheless, she was determined that the university would continue to widen entry opportunities for talented young people from all backgrounds.