Discrimination within the dreaming spires?

Application statistics from 2010 and 2011 show lower success rates of ethnic minority applicants.


It isn’t a rare thing for Oxford University to be accused of racism (or sexism, elitism and anything else ending in ‘ism’) but statistics from applications in 2010 and 2011 obtained by the Guardian appear to prove that, for popular subjects such a medicine, ‘white applicants’ are twice as likely to receive an offer than applicants from ethnic minorities.

Overall, the figures show that 25.7% of white applicants were offered a place, compared with just 17.2% of ethnic minority candidates.

Obligatory picture of the Radcam…

 

The article claims that the disparity in success rates has ‘often been explained as being due in large part to the fact that students from ethnic minorities are more likely to apply for the most competitive courses, such as medicine’.

The new figures show that this is not necessarily the case- there was very little different between the number of offers awarded to white and non-white students to study Law.

However, concern has been raised over the statistics that have been used: it is stated that ‘43% of white students who went on to receive three or more A* grades at A-level got offers, compared with 22.1% of minority students’. No mention has been made of the fact that tutors do not have access to applicants’ A-level grades when making the decision- they rely on predicted grades only.

Furthermore, the data makes no reference to performance in interviews or admissions tests (although this may be because interview performance is a difficult factor to quantify.)

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, suggested that the figures suggested ‘institutional bias’ and were signs of an institutional failure.

May Anderson, a student at St Catz, said that ‘’I think its a bit rich of David Lammy to claim that there is institutional bias at Oxford from data. The stats seem actually to highlight a problem with the application system’s basis on predicted results.

Oxford is the last in a long chain and its far more useful to direct energy at seeing how black students are being failed at secondary and primary levels of education rather than the final hurdle.

One more for luck

The stats are worrying but Lammy seems, to me, to be perpetuating a problem with the perception of Oxford as ‘not a place’ for black students out of shaky evidence.’

 

A University spokesperson has also responded to the article: ‘We refute any allegation of discrimination or institutional bias in strong terms, and consider such allegations to be unsubstantiated and very serious.

 

Differences in success rates between ethnic groups are therefore something we are continuing to examine carefully for possible explanations. We do know that a tendency by students from certain ethnic groups to apply disproportionately for the most competitive subjects reduces the success rate of those ethnic groups overall. However, we have never claimed this was the only factor in success rate disparities between students with similar exam grades.

We do not know students’ A-level grades when selecting, as they have not yet taken their exams. Aptitude tests, GCSEs and interviews, which are used in our selection process, have not been explored in this analysis and are important in reaching reliable conclusions.’

Whilst the disparity is a cause for concern, is it really the result of discrimination or is it indicative of other flaws inherent in the current applications process?