Twenty-one Oxbridge colleges took no black students last year

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/06/oxford-colleges-no-black-students

"The university's admissions data confirms that only one black Briton of Caribbean descent was accepted for undergraduate study at Oxford last year"

Way to single someone out.

"I'm black and applied for Law at Oxford this year. Got 5 As at AS level, near-perfect predictions far beyond what they ask for and pretty nifty GCSE grades too. Didn't even get an interview and everyone thought there was something smelly in the water. They never told me why I wasn't good enough. I would be very worried for the future and direction of our society if this is why."- a comment

(edited 13 years ago)

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Reply 1

TheSownRose

It's not Oxford's fault that the black applicants* weren't good enough, was it?

EDIT in response to your added part: They wouldn't have even know he was black before they interviewed him. Seeing as they didn't, they would never had known...

* There - no 'the blacks' anymore.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 2

O93

If they don't meet the requirements, or there are better applicants, why should they get a place?

Reply 3

BorisMalden

Quite a shocking statistic, but if they've honestly picked the best candidates, they've done nothing wrong.

Whether they have or not is a different matter...

Reply 4

username549578

Do the universities know the applicants race. I didnt know that.

Reply 5

Delaney

Ohh please, they're picking the best candidates and it's hardly Oxbridge's fault if none of them are black.

Reply 6

natty_d

If only one black undergraduate of carribbean descent was admitted - then I know him! :zomg:

He loves it there.

More to the point, I think it's the fact that they aren't encouraged enough by school to apply or have certain pre-conceived ideas and believe they won't fit in there.

There are lots of black students doing well at other unis so :dontknow:

Reply 7

lonely14

I agree what others have said, there is no need to make this about race. It's about whether the candidate is suitable for that course.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 8

juliewho

Isn't there also a statistic that says there is the smallest percentage of applicants from that background? so smallest group of applicants = smallest group of acceptances... was my logical thinking anyway :L

Reply 9

Jackthevillain

Stop playing the race card rather pathetic.

Reply 10

ily_em

"I'm black and applied for Law at Oxford this year. Got 5 As at AS level, near-perfect predictions far beyond what they ask for and pretty nifty GCSE grades too. Didn't even get an interview and everyone thought there was something smelly in the water. They never told me why I wasn't good enough. I would be very worried for the future and direction of our society if this is why."- a comment

It's LAW. I'm sure there were plenty of white people with similar grades who didn't get interviewed at Oxford.

Maybe those colleges didn't have many/any black applicants? It just happened to be that the white people who applied were better.

Articles like this aren't going to help drive up the number of black applicants either; they're just encouraging people to not apply because they're scared of prejudice.

Reply 11

Margaret Thatcher

This is why the Guardian is on par with the Daily Mail.

Yeah, let us make one of our most valued higher education institutions which thrives on accepting only the best engage in tokenism so that the Guardian doesn't bawl if it isn't diverse enough.

Reply 12

Roflhahalol

Original post by TheSownRose

It's not Oxford's fault that the blacks weren't good enough, was it?

EDIT in response to your added part: They wouldn't have even know he was black before they interviewed him. Seeing as they didn't, they would never had known...

Do you really have to refer to us as "the blacks".... seriously?

Reply 13

KingofSpades

what about blacks not of Caribbean decent? I've seen some of my friends photos and they show a few blacks- they can't all be toilet staff

Reply 14

LaughingBro

Racist or not racist; that is the question!

Reply 15

TheSownRose

Original post by Roflhahalol

Do you really have to refer to us as "the blacks".... seriously?

I'd have referred to white applicants as 'the whites', if that makes it any better?

Reply 16

Aj12

Original post by Krebs

Afro-Caribbean men have the lowest literacy and maths scores, from this its not suprising many do not go onto oxbridge. The uni does not even know the race so its got nothing to do with that.

I love that this is getting negs despite I did not actually say anything racist.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 17

MSB

"Oxford's breakdown of its latest undergraduate admissions figures, published on its website, shows that just one black Caribbean student was accepted in 2009, out of 35 applications."