Britain's top two universities were accused of entrenched discrimination yesterday after it was revealed that 21 Oxbridge colleges took no British black students last year.
Admission figures for Oxford showed that one black Briton of Caribbean descent out of 35 applicants was accepted as an undergraduate in 2009.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Labour MP David Lammy also highlight that Oxford’s Merton College has not taken a single UK domiciled black student for five years and just three in the past decade. Six black British Caribbean undergraduates were accepted by Cambridge last autumn.
Eleven of Oxford’s 38 colleges and 10 out of Cambridge’s 31 colleges made no offers to British black students last year. Of the 1,500 academic and lab staff at Cambridge, none is of British black origin. Mr Lammy accused Oxbridge of “entrenching inequality instead of addressing it”.
Former Commission for Racial Equality chairman Lord Herman Ouseley said: “It’s a disgrace it still goes on in the 21st century. It’s a waste of talent and a denial of opportunity.”
Both universities denied any discrimination.
The Express
