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Ten of the University of Oxford’s 32 colleges, and six of the University of Cambridge’s colleges, did not admit a single black British student with A-level qualifications in 2015, The Guardian reported, prompting a former education minister to accuse the universities of “social apartheid.”
“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,” said the former minister, David Lammy, a member of Parliament from the Labour Party.
Lammy said that “there are almost 400 black students getting three A’s at A-level or better every year,” the A-levels being subject-based qualifications that are used as admission criteria by U.K. universities. About 3.5 percent of the U.K. population is black.
Spokespeople for Oxford and Cambridge both said that more work needs to be done to address inequalities in education.
