Pity the poor white lad born in Keighley. He inhabits an area voted one of the worst places to live in Britain. Anti-social behaviour crimes are reported as being the highest in Yorkshire; unemployment is rife; and his long-term prospects are not great: Keighley has a high level of residents with either no qualifications or qualifications equal to one or more GCSE at grade D or below. Cambridge must seem like a million miles away to him.

And it is. The university’s admission statistics paint a very grim picture for Yorkshire folk. In 2015, only 155 Yorkshire men and women were accepted – 4.5 per cent of the total number of students admitted. The figures are worse the further north you go. This is in stark contrast with the South of England, particularly the South East. 34.3 per cent of students who entered in the same year were from London or the Home Counties. With the population of Yorkshire at 5 million, that gap is unacceptable.

In particular, white, working-class boys are the ones struggling most. It wasn’t for nothing that Theresa May promised to reach out to this neglected part of our society. While girls and those from immigrant families are steaming away, boys from poor backgrounds struggle to make the grade. Forty per cent of young people make it to higher education, yet only 10 per cent of white boys from disadvantaged backgrounds find themselves in the same position.

This is a problem far bigger than Cambridge. After the recent Brexit vote, the nation’s eyes (or rather London’s) opened to the fact that the North has not done too well out of post-industrial Britain. As the looms and engines in the northern mills and factories went silent, there was nothing to replace them. Keighley was a major industrial centre of textiles and weaving, right up to the late twentieth century. Now there is nothing. In contrast, the South East’s economy has grown over the past decade, especially in the capital city, which now generates approximately 22 per cent of the UK’s GDP. Simply walk around Cambridge to witness its growth; new buildings are being erected all over the city. It’s not surprising that in this context the economic woes of the North seem so far away. Brexit was to some extent an opportunity for towns and cities like Keighley to kick Westminster in the backside and remind them of how neglected and ignored the people of the North felt. Now our politicians must respond with promises and plans of much-needed investment to boost infrastructure and education, making these areas attractive places to do business once more and, more importantly, improve the life chances of the local communities.

This university must respond too. This might be a deep-rooted national problem, but that does not mean that Cambridge can sit back and do nothing. Jo Johnson, the universities and science minister, has identified the problems students from poorer backgrounds in certain parts of the UK face when applying to higher education, and wants to encourage universities to get involved with pupils at school level, helping with applications, choosing the right university opportunities and even raising academic standards in the classroom. The colleges of Cambridge should embrace these ambitions wholeheartedly. At the moment, colleges are assigned areas for outreach. But this is imbalanced. Areas of London like Islington and Tower Hamlets have each been assigned colleges, but large areas of the North, like Yorkshire and the Humber, have only been given one. This needs reform: colleges should distribute areas in the UK more equally so that places like Keighley can enjoy a much more efficient, focused response to the government’s plans. Instead of acting as one large university, colleges can be far more effective in engaging personally with pupils and getting to know their respective areas. This is a great opportunity for Cambridge to lead the way.

It is also a chance for CUSU to do what it does best: campaign for more equality in our admissions, more focus from the university towards areas that have been neglected, and more attention on ethnicities that struggle to get into Cambridge (in this case, poor white boys). It is falling well short. CUSU’s equality and diversity campaigns directed at ethnic minority youngsters are laudable. Their neglect of those north of Crewe is not. In their drive for equality, CUSU has ignored large swathes of the population, abandoning those who truly need their help. One has only to look at the CUSU committee to understand their lack of concern for this issue. Not one white male from a northern, working-class background. It’s easy to rage against ‘the patriarchy’ and ‘white privilege’. It seems to be a lot harder for CUSU to accept that things are far more complicated than that.

We know these people are struggling, we know this is a problem. CUSU could make a first step by opening up its committee to become more diverse (ironic, isn’t it?). It could broaden its campaign agenda to raise awareness to this problem. It can start sending representatives to northern, working-class areas to teach them that the University of Cambridge is open to everyone, that they do have a chance of getting there, and that they have not been forgotten. Giving youngsters dreams and ambition is one of the most powerful things we students can do. If CUSU doesn’t act on this issue, that lad from Keighley might never make it to this wonderful university. As someone born, bred and educated in Leeds, this is of huge importance to me. It should be to anyone who cares about equality and diversity.

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