The Student Room Group

only 452 black students in the UK met Oxfords entry requirements!

Oxford defends its lack of blacks by claiming the statistics were skewed and that they in fact admitted 30 to 40 students of African heritage last year. They then claim that:

"only 452 black students across the country had even achieved the A-level results demanded by Oxford to meet its minimum entry requirements for the 2009-10 academic year." [1]

Do you reckon this statistic is accurate? When I did AS levels I wasn't aware the examiners knew my ethnicity.

If it IS accurate, what do people make of it? Where does the fault lie? Is it a damning indictment of the low aspirations of British students of African heritage, or is it society wot is to blame?

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who even cares?!
Reply 2
Well I care because it's plain unfair and grammar schools should be brought back to enable poor people (of any ethnicity) compete for top universities - even I at a private school think it's unfair.

EDIT: Hmmmm nice to get negged for showing sympathy and decency. Just shows that I should be the Conservative everyone expects of me then...
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by The TSR Star.
who even cares?!


Well, firstly, Oxford ?University care, as they are being told to take more black students. If there are only a few hundred making the requirements, it seems unfair to hold a University responsible. Rather the schools system should be held to account.

Secondly, to improve our wonderful multicultural society, we need more black professionals, and this is not going to happen if such a minuscule amount is getting educated properly.

Maybe your attitude is "they're only blacks, so they don't need education" - seems a bit sinister to me....
It's mainly because people of African heritage are more likely to live in deprived areas where schools are generally worse and the results for everybody are well below the national average. Obviously then because they're more concentrated in these areas, their results are going to be on average, a fair bit lower.

Whilst it's sad to put it so bluntly, we will see it change in the future, as the country becomes more demographically integrated. It'll just take time.
Reply 5
Original post by teadrinker
Oxford defends its lack of blacks by claiming the statistics were skewed and that they in fact admitted 30 to 40 students of African heritage last year. They then claim that:

"only 452 black students across the country had even achieved the A-level results demanded by Oxford to meet its minimum entry requirements for the 2009-10 academic year." [1]

Do you reckon this statistic is accurate? When I did AS levels I wasn't aware the examiners knew my ethnicity.

If it IS accurate, what do people make of it? Where does the fault lie? Is it a damning indictment of the low aspirations of British students of African heritage, or is it society wot is to blame?


I thought it was the number of black students who applied to Oxford who had the required grades...
i thought this was common knowledge for anyone who even thought about this issue. the reason why very few black people are at oxford is because black students have the lowest grades of any demographic at gcse and A-level; so why the hell do people blame oxford for this? having low grades and not applying=no oxford place. simples.
Reply 7
If you don't get the results, you don't get in. A fair system.
Reply 8
This topic is ludicriously funny. Intellect is independent of race. Are you trying to imply that Oxford is racist or discriminating?

Great, I'm going to be neg repped now...
Reply 9
I believe this is one of the symptoms of black peoples problems which are a lot deeper than a few university places.
TSR STAR's response is so ridiculously ignorant. :facepalm2:

When I saw the thread title, I thought, "Oh no, not this again". But it really is a problem that so many black students aren't performing as well as students of other ethnicities.
Original post by teadrinker

If it IS accurate, what do people make of it? Where does the fault lie? Is it a damning indictment of the low aspirations of British students of African heritage, or is it society wot is to blame?


Well, it is obviously not Oxford University's fault. I'd ascribe most of the blame in a number of directions: (a) the parents, for having low aspirations for their children and not providing a platform for good education; (b) the schools they went to; (c) the pupils themselves for getting sidetracked away from education and being, in many cases, too concerned with what their peers think and do.
Reply 12
It is a mixture.

But it is no ones fault per say. Therr are defining stats about over-achieving chinese peopoe, under-achieving pakistani people, and white people who cannot even spell their name. It is not Oxfords fault, the society we live in plays a small (but influential) role in the construct of academic success of various different races, but a lot (imo) has got to do with the way they have been brought up.

If your parents are educated/well off/cultured/academically pushy it will be naturally easier for you to do better at school.

Unfortunately not all people come from a background like that.
I'm white, my sister got pregnant in her last year of school and I have a brother who passed away in hospital after getting into gang fights. I came under a special scheme organised by the uni which frankly was there to help chavs and people from ****ty backgrounds achieve and get into Uni. It was not the Unia fault that no one in my family had got any form of higher education or that most of my family were on benefits etc. yet they made allowances to 'widen participation'

Cameron is a cock for even bring race into it. Yes more should be done to get under-achievers reaching their goals etc but it has nor much to do with colour explicitly. There are tonnes of brainy/well off black people but even more less fortunate black people without a stable household. There ought to be some way of bridging the gap and helping all student who aspire to go to uni but who are held back by the social dyna,ic of their household - be they white, black, yellow, orange w/e.

Don't blame Oxford, don't blame the government. Social equality is an issue for all of us and there is no way of fixing it unless we take serious steps in educating and providing for those who cannot themeselves. Our government gives financial aid to families without income so why do we not give academic help to those who cannot access it/have low academic prospects purely due to a factor OUT OF THEIR CONTROL?!?!?! It's not fair. It's not right.
Reply 13
Original post by JIRAIYA-ERO-SENNIN
i thought this was common knowledge for anyone who even thought about this issue. the reason why very few black people are at oxford is because black students have the lowest grades of any demographic at gcse and A-level; so why the hell do people blame oxford for this? having low grades and not applying=no oxford place. simples.


Stop talking out of your ass, thanks.
Original post by Dekota-XS
This topic is ludicriously funny. Intellect is independent of race. Are you trying to imply that Oxford is racist or discriminating?

Great, I'm going to be neg repped now...


Students from middle class backgrounds perform better academically. Proportionately there are more poor black students so they are disadvantaged thus resulting in worse exam results. So therefore academic performance in the UK is completely dependent on race due to social inequalities and other factors.
Original post by Dekota-XS
Intellect is independent of race.


:wink:
There aren't that many black people in the UK to start with, in the 2001 census it was 2% of the population. Oxford's stats show 1.5% of their students are black.

Yes half a percent lower but when you are dealing with small numbers that's a pretty good match!

And as other people have said, it's much more about social class than ethnicity. A higher % of black people are in the poorest households.
Reply 17
Its a cultural thing. Plenty of Asians come from deprived backgrounds too but their parents drive them to achieve at school.

Black inner city culture in this country has a lot to answer for in promoting an attitude of lack of respect for authority and this doom and gloom outlook of "why should we bother".

Too much obsession with trying to look cool and building up your muscles and trying to bed lots of women, which is fine but don't expect to do it on a Doctors salary.

By the way, there hasn't been an accurate census taken here for 10 years. How can there have been when the government freely admits that they don't have a clue who is here? Im betting that black people make up more like 8 or 10 percent of this nation.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 18
This is disgusting, it should go of the colour of skin not exam results .....
Reply 19
First of all, a recent report concluded that out of the 452 black students that achieved the AAA A'level grade, 49% of those applied to the most competitive courses at Oxford such as Medicine e.t.c. However 29,000 white students achieved this grade but only 28% applied to Oxford.

28% of black students applied for medicine while 7% white students applied for that same course.

Some reasons why this figure looks like this could be the reasons of cultural capital and cultural deprivation. More white middle/upper class students would have attended a private school hence boosting their application to Oxford. If only we could see the figures of how many of those black students attended private schools then we could make a valid conclusion.

I generally think it is down to the class system that causes all these inequality. White upper/middle class family can sometimes buy their way into education through private tuition, moving to expensive locations in order to get into the best school/s. The amount of black background that does the same will be really really low. Universities can also find out what location you live therefore they know if you live in deprived area or not.

It is simply unfair to reject a capable student just because they might have attended a comprehensive school instead of a private school.
(edited 12 years ago)

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