Cameron
in row with Oxford over black students
By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
David
Cameron was embroiled in a race row with Oxford University
yesterday after claiming that only one black student had
started studying at the university last year.
The
Prime Minister made his comments while defending the Government's
controversial tuition fees policy at an event in Harrogate,
North Yorkshire.
Asked
whether tuition fees of £9,000 a year would put off
students from poorer backgrounds, he said top universities
needed to attract those students. "I saw figures the
other day that showed only one black person went to Oxford
last year," he added. "I think that is disgraceful.
We have got to do better than that."
However,
Oxford University immediately issued a statement saying
that the figure was "highly misleading". It referred
only to UK undergraduates from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds
in a single year 2009/10. In fact, it said, in that
year 41 undergraduates with black backgrounds were admitted
to the university. In addition, 22 per cent of Oxford's
total student population came from ethnic minority groups.
"The
figure quoted by the Prime Minister is incorrect and highly
misleading," said a spokeswoman for the university.
"It
refers to UK undergraduates of black Caribbean origin for
a single year of entry, when in fact that year Oxford admitted
41 UK undergraduates with black backgrounds."
The
figure first emerged last October (2010) when Mike Nicholson,
Oxford's director of admissions, said: "What is worrying
is that only 71 black Caribbean students in all of the UK
achieved three grade As [at A-level] out of nearly 36,000
overall."
Commentary
***
There
is a detail in the plot. I didn't go to Oxford, so I can
only guess it's not their fault how many black students
they have, and if there really was only one b black British
Caribbean student admitted last year, we are sitting in
the middle of a national catastrophe that blaming each other
is not going to help.
Proceeding
scientifically, you make a hypothesis: Oxford is racist.
Now you have to question what you would expect to see if
that were the case, and obviously the least number of black
students possible. But this is not what you find because
they seem happily willing to accept black and Asian students,
and it is only black British students who can't get in.
So if not racist, what?
We
made a fundamental mistake in our hypothesis, that we predicated
our research on its own conclusion and fell among tautology.
We know Oxford does not admit, except very rarely, black
British students, but we forgot to ask if black students
are first of all meeting the academic standard. If not,
and it does seem not, then we need a new hypothesis.
So
the question I will leave to the logic of your method: Why
do black children fail at school?
***
Low academic achievement is not a racial issue, it's much
more associated with socioeconomic class. Poorly educated,
inadequately mentored, low achievers of all races perpetuate
their lack of ambition. The stunning success of the immigrant
South Asian and Chinese ethnics in both British school and
higher education speaks volumes for the critical role of
the family in nurturing ambition and providing motivation.
***
Quote
- "The most important reason why too few poorer students
even apply to leading universities is that they are not
achieving the required grades at school."
Why
do politicians and people in the media assume that if you
are black you are poor?
Not
all black people are poor and not all white people are rich.
This belief might be due to the representation of sad black
faces that feature on charity leaflets. It is infuriating,
because it seems to be a way of perpetuating an air of superiority
that if you are white you are rich and if you are black
you are poor. I remember being asked by someone, if I was
poor growing up. The only reason I was asked this was the
colour of my skin. I believe this person had that idea in
his head because he had been brainwashed into thinking that
all black people are poor. It is time for the media and
politicians to stop equating the two and for charity organisations
to continue to feature all black faces on leaflets pleading
for handouts.
***
If
they aren't good enough, then they aren't good enough. What
is the story here? I remember when I was in university (not
a top one like Ox-bridge) and for some reason, the number
of black students in my class falls as time goes on. By
the time our class got to graduation, there was non left.
***
The whole point of a university like Oxford is that it takes
the best. If there are quotas, or weighted application procedures,
the atmosphere of excellence will be diluted.
Any
student who is accepted onto an Oxbridge course based on
ethnicity, or gender, or some other criteria, rather than
academic excellence, risks being found out at their first
tutorial that they are not up to it.
***
Let us not forget that not many years ago bribes were being
paid by the wealthy parents of teenagers at fee-paying schools
in order that their offspring could be "awarded"
places at Oxbridge colleges. The only action taken was mild
disciplinary measures against the individuals who were receiving
the bribes.
***
Thus ensuring the privately educated stay at the head of
the queue ad infinitum - such is their excellence we continue
down the ever increasing slope of the like minded.
***
There was a 2001 movie call HOW HIGH starring the Black
Rappers Method Men and Redman about two GANGSTERS from the
HOOD getting into Harvard University in the United States
which is the equivalent to Oxford University in England!
This movie is supposed to be a satire about elite education
in America but shows the pluralism of the system to allow
marginalized people to enter elite institutions! If Prime
Minister David Cameron says that HE wants more Blacks at
Oxford and Cambridge, then these Universities should comply
because a movie like HOW HIGH(2001) shows that America is
a more inclusive society than Britain!!!
***
I remember this story when it came out- it was a single
Oxford College that admitted only 1 black kid, not the whole
university.
I
find it hard to believe that any university discriminates
in terms of race. The fact is that fewer black youngsters
go to the kind of schools that Oxbridge loves to admit from.
Oxbridge discriminates in terms of privilege and background
in terms of class and wealth.
I
went to a very bad rural comprehensive school but there
were exceptional students there with top grades that never
seemed to get into Oxbridge. My boyfriend went to Dulwich
College however, and most of his friends went to Oxbridge,
he was considered a failure for going to Sussex. Faced with
numerous students with straight A's, Oxbridge sticks with
what it knows, confident, privately educated upper middle
class young people.
***
Comprehensives, bad or not, tend not to breed the atmosphere
of academic excellence that Grammar and Independent Schools
can achieve. Able students, particularly in rural areas,
often have low aspirations, and apply to the less prestigious
universities as a result.
Oxbridge
does indeed stick with the confident and academically gifted.
It's just that there tend to be fewer such candidates in
the State Sector! Those who do apply (as you correctly point
out) are poorly prepared for their interview, and cannot
assert themselves in the same way as their independently
educated colleagues.
***
I don't know why nobody has suggested this maybe it is too
radical? But the simplest and fairest way to allocate places
to students would be on the subjects they chose to study
at A level and the grades awarded.
If
universities were not given any other information except
this simple facts, how could they be accused of bias or
being unfair? They will have no idea until after a place
had been offered, whether the student was black, white or
even green with purple spots?
This
may be too simplistic, I don't know, but the current UCAS
system where a student has to write a personal statement
hinders those from poorer backgrounds from the get go as
they will not have had the opportunity to get involved in
the many extra-curricular activities that those from more
affluent backgrounds do.
***
11
places for an English undergraduate degree course. 300 applicants,
all of whom have 4 A grades. How would you choose?
It
has to go on personal statements and references from schools.
A candidate won't bother applying if they aren't already
getting the grades needed.
You
are correct in your suspicion that some candidates are disadvantaged
when they prepare their personal statement. Not only do
they have a much reduced extra curriculare experience to
draw on (even less so now that Sixth Forms' funding is being
reduced), but they also do not necessarily have teachers
who are expert in preparing students for the UCAS application
process.
***
Surely
you must realise that this statement supports what I have
to say about change? Surely the young student who obtains
4 A*s in their A levels from Tower Hamlets is a far more
able student, given the economic and social problems they
face, than the student who achieve's 4 A*s in a private
school, whose class had a maximum of ten in it?
While
I know my suggestion does not take this into account, it
is only a suggestion, but to continue to support the status
quo is tantamount to endorsing the continued segregation
of our youth. And while I still think that Cameron is a
buffoon and is trying to play to the masses with this, I
agree with the sentiment, but with one adaptation; the university
needs to look at its selection system and change it to become
a lot more open FOR ALL, be they black or white or brown
or pink!
***
You may well be able to change the system to allow a greater
number of students from "non-traditional" backgrounds
access to the top Universities.
You
would not be able to change their sense of betrayal when
they found that you'd had to relax the admissions standards
to allow them in, and now they couldn't cope with the degree
course.
Remember,
too, that universities are penalised for every student who
doesn't complete their course.
***
They came from abroad (International Students) there are
more Nigerians that have graduated from Oxbridge than Black
british and why is that, black british people want to play
football and win X factor show because that is what they
are encouraged to do at the secondary school level. The
same problem is in Harvard where there are more Black African
international students than African-American.
***
Sadly, 3 A grades at A-Level does not guarantee you a place
at Oxbridge or any other good university.
Source:
The independent (Commentary taken from readers of the Independent)