Call for outreach to BME students

by Nadeem Badshah

UNIVERSITIES URGED TO DO MORE FOR DIVERSITY

Top universities must do more to attract students from different backgrounds after a damning report highlighted a lack of “ethnic mixing”.

Ethnic minority undergraduates are more likely to attend new universities in big cities while white students tend to go to mainly white institutions, the study claimed.

Black and Asian students are not spread evenly, with most of them in multicultural areas, according to the findings, by the University of Bath.

And almost two-thirds of British Bangladeshis go to a small number of “super-diverse” London universities, with racism fears and the cost of living away from home being motivations.

Millions of teenagers are preparing for university following the A-level results released last week showed that boys outperformed girls in the share of top grades for the first time since the last major reforms in 2002. This year, 26.6 per cent of male pupils gained As and A*s, compared with 26.1 per cent among females.

Labour MP Rushanara Ali, a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration, said “radical action” is needed including outreach work to make the system more diverse.

She told Eastern Eye: “Ethnic minority and working class students have always been underrepresented within the university system, especially so at Russell Group institutions.

“This report highlights that not only structural inequalities remain prevalent in 2017, but with financial challenges, as well as concerns about racism, this pressing issue has become an even greater problem.

“What we need to see to begin to tackle this problem is much more outreach to students from different backgrounds by different universities and much more radical action by the government to support widening access initiatives into universities.

“Such action will encourage greater representation of ethnic minority and working class young people in the UK’s university system.”

The report also found there are some universities where almost three-quarters of UK students are from ethnic minorities and others where more than 95 per cent of students are white.

At around 20 institutions, a majority of undergraduate students were from ethnic minorities.

Researchers said institutions that are more ethnically diverse tended to be “less wealthy universities, which provide higher education for large numbers of first generation university students”.

Dr Stephen Jivraj, is a lecturer at University College London and author of Ethnic Identity and Inequalities in Britain.

He told Eastern Eye: “Ethnic minorities remain spatially concentrated in large cities and therefore there will be a stronger pull to their local universities because they are plenty.

“The fears of racism reflects findings from the survey of ethnic minorities that shows ethnic minorities living in areas where there is a higher concentration of people in their own ethnic group worry less about racial discrimination.

“I think there will be a trend towards more ethnic minorities attending universities outside the locations where they are concentrated as they become less spatially concentrated – a trend we have seen happening slowly over the last 20 years – but progress is hampered by inequalities ethnic minorities continue to experience in health, employment and particularly housing.

“My advice to students would be to prioritise subject and then location because you might miss your opportunity to study at an institution that will expand your knowledge the furthest.”

Separate research showed white applicants have a one in four chance of getting into Oxford University or the University of Cambridge.

In 2015-16, Cambridge received just over 7,200 applications from white British teenagers with 2,037 successful. And Oxford had 8,700 white applicants with 2,233 getting onto courses.

The success rate for British Asians is 29.9 per cent, compared to a one in eight chance for black students.

Farah Elahi, research analyst at race equality thinktank Runnymede Trust, said: “The [University of Bath] report’s findings on university segregation are alarming, and chime with research we have done previously, including experiences of BME lecturers.

“The danger is that it has a chill effect in deterring BME students from applying to ‘white-dominated’ universities.

“These institutions need robust policies and practices to create a more equal environment that tackles overt racism, and improves the syllabus and culture of universities.

“We also need to address factors such as tuition fees that may put off students from applying to universities far from their home.”