Some Cambridge University colleges have admitted no black students or have accepted as few as one a year between 2012 and 2016, according to newly obtained figures.
The details of Cambridge’s stunted progress in attracting more students from diverse backgrounds came after Oxford was heavily criticised following the release of statistics showing that more than one in four of its colleges failed to admit a single black British student each year between 2015 and 2017.
In a statement released after it had provided the admission figures in response to a freedom of information request by the Financial Times, Cambridge said it had admitted a “record number” last year of comprehensive school students who identified as black following a 62% rise in applications from 2016.
“Statistics published two weeks ago show 22% of UK students admitted as part of the 2017 admissions cycle identify themselves as having a black or ethnic minority background. This is a record high,” said a spokesman.
“The total number of students specifically describing themselves as being black admitted in the same year was also at a record high. While progress is being made, we recognise more needs to be done which is why we have significantly increased the funding we contribute to programmes like Target Oxbridge, which helps to prepare high-achieving black students for applications to Cambridge and Oxford.”
Figures showed that six of Cambridge’s 31 colleges had admitted fewer than 10 black or mixed race students during the period between 2012 and 2016. In order to prevent individuals from being identified, a range rather than exact figures was provided by the university for when colleges had between one to three applications or admissions.
They showed that while Corpus Christi and Magdalene received 40 applications each in the period 2012 and 2016, both colleges only made between three and nine offers. Between eight and 12 offers were made by Downing College, despite it being the third most popular college and receiving 95 applications from 2012 to 2016. It received 37 applications between 2014 and 2015 but made no offers.
St Edmund’s College did not make a single offer to its 31 to 35 black applicants in the five-year period while Hughes Hall received 74 applications but only made between five and seven offers.
David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, who has led on calls for elite universities to make more of an effort to increase diversity among their student intake, said that Cambridge, and every university in the country, should be publishing all their access and admissions data every year.
He told the FT: “We need transparency if we are going to have progress on access to our elite institutions for students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds,” he said.
It emerged last month that several of the most prestigious Oxford colleges, including Balliol, University and Magdalen, each admitted two black British students as undergraduates during the three-year period.
The worst figures belonged to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which admitted a single black British student in those three years and attracted a dozen such applications.
Overall, white British applicants were twice as likely to be admitted to undergraduate courses as their black British peers – 24% of the former gained entry and 12% of the latter.
