Tuesday 24 March 2009

Sounds fair…

My first university was overwhelmingly white - but Bangor University is in North Wales, which has virtually no ethnic minorities other than English. Still there was a fairly substantial non-white cohort. My current employer, Wolverhampton Uni, must have one of the most diverse student populations in the country, both from British-born students and international ones - it's one of the institution's strengths, though I'm never quite sure how well the different groups mix.

In any case, we're much more welcoming than certain universities - these figures are so shocking that it can't simply be written off as a problem with school-level education of black children:
Across all years and subjects, Oxford's student population of 20,000 has around 380 students from a black background, including mixed race, of whom just 175 out of 11,900 are undergraduates.
Cambridge is no better. Perhaps it's partly explained by the greater poverty in minority groups: 40% of Cambridge and Oxford students went to private schools, despite only 7% of children attending such schools. Mmmm…egalitarian

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's easy. immigrants are relative newcomers to the country and so the majority haven't had a long time to become established and make the sort of money needed for private education. therefore the majority of people able to pay for private and better education are white. it's not rocket science, it's not a conspiracy, it's just the way it is.

The Plashing Vole said...

It's not easy or rocket science, you utter moron. Who mentioned immigrants? I didn't, and nor did the article I referred to. The UK has had a black population since at least the 18th century and possibly earlier. Can't you compute native black people? You clearly have racist tendencies. Get off my blog.

Anonymous said...

also by saying there should be more blacks in oxbridge, this is insulting - they should only be allowed in on their intellectual strength not because of the colour of their skin. utterly drivel once again.

The Plashing Vole said...

Firstly, I didn't propose that people be admitted 'because of the colour of their skin': I inferred that the reason the numbers are low is at least in part a matter of skin colour. But this is a distinction too subtle for you, obviously.

On historical terms: I assume you prefer not to bother thinking about the Somali population of Cardiff, for instance, or Liverpool's fairly substantial African population? Sailors settled in ports and there was a fashion for black servants in the 1780s on.

I assume too that you meant 'utter drivel'.
Explain pseudo-leftie? I'm actually a proper leftie.

The Plashing Vole said...

Oh yes, are you really suggesting that there are only 175 black (undergraduates) students capable of an Oxford education? That's about 1.5% of the undergraduate intake.

Anonymous said...

Calm down. You shouldn't get so angry when people do not agree with you! There is room for all points of view.

The Plashing Vole said...

Not on my blog there isn't. Especially when you're wrong!