Students from ethnic minority backgrounds are under-represented at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, a recent report has claimed.

The report, published by Race for Opportunity, a branch of the outreach charity Business in the Community, claimed that only 10.5 per cent of Cambridge students and 11.1 per cent of Oxford students are from black or minority ethnic backgrounds (BME). These figures are significantly below the national average.  

Some Russell Group universities are, however, making notable progress in improving diversification: at both the London School of Economics and King’s College London, over 40 per cent of students are from ethnic minorities.

Similarly, minority percentages remain high at Imperial College and UCL, with over 37.8 per cent and 31.5 per cent of students from BME backgrounds, respectively.

The report goes on to assert that the most under-represented groups at Oxbridge are black and British Bangladeshi students and that, furthermore, at Oxford and Cambridge, there are seven times fewer black or black British Caribbean students than on average at other British universities.

Speaking to Varsity, Jon Beard, Director of Cambridge’s Undergraduate Recruitment, disputed the accuracy of the figures, stating that for the academic year 2008-9, records show that 15 per cent of those students who declared their ethnicity described themselves as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME), a figure substantially in excess of the 10.5 per cent alleged by the report.

Beard went on to explain that “the local nature of part-time admissions naturally skews figures in favour of those institutions near large towns or cities where BAME populations exist. There is a real need to ensure that important and necessary research on this subject accurately captures all the issues, such as educational achievement and social and geographic factors.”

He added, “simply suggesting that certain institutions are in some way 'failing' without any discussion with those institutions is helpful to no-one."

UCAS data suggests that, currently, BAME students represent only 13.3 per cent of students who achieve three A grades at A-level.  This implies that Cambridge, through initiatives such as GEEMA (Group to Encourage Ethnic Minority Applications), is attracting a significant proportion of those students who are eligible to apply.

For Sabiha Massey-Ahmed, a student at Newnham College, coming from an ethnic background has been a positive one. According to her, “Coming to a place like Cambridge can sometimes not be easy. You may be the first of your community to study at a Russell Group university.”

She added, “It is easy to preconceive Cambridge to be full of white, private schooled quasi-geniuses. But once you get here, you realise how very diverse and accommodating it really is.”