Oxford Uni admits only one black Caribbean student
(Daily Mail): Oxford University has come under fire after it was revealed that it only admitted one black Caribbean student last year. The elite university recruited more than 3,000 students last year and almost 90 per cent of them were white. Trevor Philips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission described the record of recruiting ethnic students to the country’s top universities as ‘dire.’ Suggestions have now been made that ethnic quotas should be introduced to insure more black and Pakistani students are given the chance to attend some of the best universities in the country. But Oxford have dismissed the idea and said they would continue to work to recruit more undergraduates from diverse backgrounds.
Category: World News
Firstly, we cannot dispute potentially inaccurate statistics that were not described in context. The Equality and Diversity survey published by Oxford University indicates a total of 6 black Caribbean students admitted for the 2009-2010 academic year. Among this cohort of 3,000 pupils, there were 42 students representing China- a country with a population of 1 billion. Proportionately, the fact that the English-speaking Caribbean with its relatively minute population of roughly 10 million persons has been able to muster 1/7 of the Chinese Oxford student intake for 2009 must be recognised. In light of such statistics, this is hardly an issue of being black or Caribbean.
It would appear as if there has been some factual or contextual inaccuracy in the article. Is this one British black Caribbean national, or one black native Caribbean individual, or one of the thousands of other foreign nationals who claim black Caribbean heritage? The context of such comments must be appropriately construed to even be worth debating.
Finally, amidst talk of a black and Pakistani quota at leading institutions, we as black Caribbean nationals must aim to not lend support to such suggestion. We are a proud people who have achieved a myriad of successes internationally and are poised to continue. We must aim to uplift and encourage the youth of our communities to be inspired to apply to leading institutions, to command the respect deserved from their peers, and enter such institutions with dignity and resolve. Hundreds of black Caribbean Oxford graduates have attained acceptance by achievement and diligence. With such character, there can be no question of "token" or "quota" and I hope we will not allow such labels tobe placed on ourselves in future.
And for everyone screaming reverse discrimination please shut up, I dont see too many whites being whipped and lynched around here, so I dont think you have much of a case. Also, you all seem to be in control of the wealth as well, so the alleged reverse discrimination doesnt seem to be having much of an impact now is it?
I’m a white British person and a few years ago I applied to study at three of the top Universities in the UK. One of them was the London School of Economics. As I had a bit of time to kill before the admissions exam, I went to the University’s canteen for a coffee. I can honestly say I was about the only white, English speaking person in there. Needless to say, despite having the qualifications and doing well in the test, I was unsuccessful in winning a place at that University (or the other two for that matter). Not many "Government funded" Brits are successful in getting a place at these top Universities. However, if you’re willing to pay top dollar, you will stand a good chance, no matter what colour you are or what country you are from.
Can you taste the sour grapes?
LSE is famous for the very high percentage of foreign students who go there.
But the overwhelming majority of students at Oxbridge undergraduate courses are "government funded Brits". Just accept it, you weren’t good enough to get in.
I bet they call him (or her) Token.
This is utter nonsense!! I am aware of several Caribbean graduates of Oxford (some of whom are Caymanian) who are currently living and working in Cayman. In addition the ‘Students of Oxford Caribbean Association’ is a thriving and vibrant organisation. Not to mention that the 2009 ‘Oxford Race Equality’ show this alleged finding as completely faulse. see: http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/raceq/racereport2009.pdf
We need to forget about these institutions and support our own, we should have done that long ago, but to many from this part of the world the University Of The West Indies is not good enough. Why didnt we focus on making it better then instead of directing tuition payments to an obviously culturally biased institution that does not want us there?
To say that the school will be forced to accept people based on skin colour is ridiculous! The argument is that we are sure you can find West Indians who qualify. Are they saying that throughout all the Caribbean population only one person had the grades to get in ? That is just a slap in the face, and anyone who cannot see the truth obviously shares the sentiment that we are sub-standard and cannot make the cut.
Ya see Devils advocate we have several secret members of the Bnp or Dnp (Dumb not please) amongst us and you can expect a whole lot more than 28 using history and statistics to justify their level of thought. Sad thing about it there here and these same thoughts extend to the coloured native. Who the cap fit let them wear it. Thank you Robert Nester Marley for the wisdom and the message in your songs they still haven’t got "Bob" and we still have dem stiff neck fools believing they are righteous and preaching the devil’s philosophy. But heathen back de pan de wall now!
The "Oxbridge" crowd has been in control of the UK for the past century and beyond – but look at the state of the country today.
1/6 of its children now grow up in a "work-less home" – meaning they are dependent on government handouts.
Of all the industrialized nations the UK came dead last in regards to the welfare of children.
1/8 of British households are unemployed – this is the worst of all the "biggest" European countries.
According to a recent national survey the main concern of Brits today is not terrorism, "climate change", or even the economy … no – it is CRIME!
And not crime by way of some random religious extremist but crime by way of little 14 year old quintessentially British "Nigel" from across the street.
Nigel and his gang of yob cultured friends are running wild in the neighborhood, threatening the public, fearless of the police, beating up elderly people, drinking on the corner, smoking "skunk", sexing the girls in the area, becoming teenage dads – basically on a guaranteed path to add to the ever increasing burden of the nations already over-filled prisons.
Britain has lost control of its youth ad will be facing a serious dilemma with its adult population in the coming years – this is undeniable.
My point is – what good is an excellent education if the system and environment in which one lives is broken beyond repair. Furthermore, how did the "Oxbridge" crowd with its sharpest and brightest minds manage to fumble to this degree where they have now created the mess in which they find themselves?
Britain has got to be the greatest master of smoke and mirrors on the planet, for the way in which it officially represents itself to the world one would believe that they have not a care in the world.
There is such a massive disconnect between the true average on-the-ground Brit and the likes of David Cameron (Oxford) and Nick Clegg (Cambridge).
As for racial inequality in the UK – I won’t even go there today, that horse has been beaten to death and by now we all know what is what in that regard.
Regardless, the UK has far bigger fish to fry and they better get to work pronto as their future is not very bright – not very "Orange" at all.
In reply to 3:20.
Sounds like Cayman.
Only because you haven’t experienced it
The problem with the UK is thirteen years of corrupt socialist government. However, it must be said that the majority of the offending ministers have been Oxford graduates.
Also, it’s not Nigel who is the problem but Wayne and Liam.
Sounds like heaven compared to Cayman for domestic helpers
This is ridiculous. Oxford is a prestigious university and not any numbskull regardless of their colour should go there. If they meet the criteria whether black, white , orange or purple, they get admitted but that’s ridiculous to say that just because someone is black they should be allowed to attend the university.
I’m white and I don’t think that just because I’m white that I should be admitted there. I’m smart but not Oxford smart.
Affirmative action is necessary to ensure equal opportunity
Afirmative action is only needed to re-balance racial inequality, if it exists. If you are not smart enough to go to the top schools, you don’t belong there no matter what shade of human you are.
It’s the same as this: If you can’t handle flying an airplane, you don’t get air force jets just because you are red/brown/yellow/whatever-other-colour-you-are-trying-to-get-a-softer-deal-from. Leave that to the real pilots.
Earnwhat you want on merit, not skin tone.
So say we all.
Not at the university level – quite frankly it’s too late at that point to make a enough positive difference to overcome the negative impact upon higher qualified, non-minority applicants who are denied admissions because of some ranking system based on skin colour. If affirmative action programs are to be of any societal use, they need to start much sooner (early primary school funding distribution, for example) and be based on socio-economic status rather than something as silly as melanin concentration. Whether a child/student is a poor white one with little opportunity or a poor black/brown one with little opportunity doesn’t matter – what matters is that both are given the same opportunity to succeed as their richer white/blac/brown peers in superior school systems. That will only be accomplished by leveling the playing field at the outset, rather than waiting until tertiary education or employment.
That’s the role Affirmative Action plays
It LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD! for everyone.
I wound not send my dog there if he could talk. Come Cesar M!!
‘wound’ – wish dogs could talk.
What a joke, imagine that one black caribbean student!! It’s oxford, it’s in England, it’s expensive!!! Can you imagine how many white english kids are enrolled in University in the Caribbean? How about you get in with grades and work ethic, not where you are from….
Same falls in North America where whites are starting to be "discriminated" against in favor of minorities for business’ and especially government agencies to look more equal opprotunity. Hire the right one for the job, let the right student in based on passion and grades.
Expensive? The tutition fees for an ENTIRE DEGREE from Oxford are approximately $22,000. That is about the cost of ONE YEAR at that academic powerhouse, the University of Tampa.
University of Tampa?! An academic POWERHOUSE?!! LOLOLOL!!!! You have GOT to be joking!
I believe the poster was making a comment about the relative costs of tertiary education in the UK and US by comparing a prestigious university in the UK to a certainly less than stellar university in the US. That being said, the costs of university in the US is misleading because very few students actually pay the full cost of tuition, room and board, etc. The majority of it, at least for American students, is defrayed by grants from the gov’t,the school itself and third-party scholarship, while the rest is either paid by their families or via gov’t-backed and guaranteed low-interest loans.
When I obtained my degree from a university in the states, its total costs came to over $160,000. However, I was obligated to pay, or obtain student loans to pay, only $25,000 of that amount. That would put me at about the same level as Oxford costs, at a school that is much at the same tier of selectivity.
"That would put me at about the same level as Oxford costs, at a school that is much at the same tier of selectivity." So you went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford?
Sorry I did not use the sarcasm font.
I am an Oxford graduate from many years ago. In my day, there was a very large number of black, Asian, Chinese, Singaporean, etc undergraduates there. They were all very impressive academic students and two of them with whom I have maintained contact are prominent in their countries. None of them was there because they were black, asian etc; they were there because they were so bloody bright they deserved to be there and I would bet they would be incensed at the idea that it should be put about that people like them were there primarily because of their colour etc.
But perhaps I should not let my blood pressure rise. Trevor Philips is one of these Al Sharpton-and sadly, Jesse Jackson – types whose time has passed and for whom there is no career except to blather on about issues that they no longer really relate to.
‘None of them was there..’ – very Oxford!
Do you know Trevor Philips? I worked with him some years ago in television and he is not how you have described him.
Anon Mon 9:05: "None of them was there" is in fact correct English. "None" is a contraction of "not one"; now read the sentence and you will see "was" is the correct verb. In your reading I suppose you want to say "none of them were there" with the "them" governing the plural "were". Incorrect, my friend. And you shouldn’t needed to have gone to Oxford to know that!
I will bow to you on Trevor Philips, though. I have not worked with him. I have, however, read a great deal of what he has written over the years. Perhaps I have formed an inaccurate picture of him.
Rather condescending of you darling.
‘And you shouldn’t needed to have gone….’, my friend.
‘….that they no longer really relate to.’
The previous comments on this news item are interesting in that they seem to ignore the past and present discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin perpetrated by various types of institutions in the United Kingdom.
Affirmative action, provided that the beneficiaries of such a set of policies are required to have equivalent qualifications to the 90% majority would only benefit UK society as a whole.
But then again most minorities that live in the UK are well aware of the institutional racism that is still so pervasive in the UK.
The concept of an "ethnic quota" doesn’t make sense. That means that the school could be accepting a student with sub-par grades, but because they’re from Pakistan, they’re guaranteed to get in. Not fair to those who have the grades to qualify. It should also be noted that it’s also not fair if someone gets in just because their family is rich (as in the case in many elite schools).
Everyone fights for such big names like Oxford, Yale, and Harvard… What’s the big deal? Knowledge is everywhere! And what University bestows WISDOM? You can have all the head knowledge in the world, but if you don’t have wisdom, you are a big fool.
Alot of fools graduated from Oxford, Yale, and Harvard!
Oxford is 90% white? The English population is 90% white. What’s the problem?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_England#Ethnicity
So does that mean they are ‘entitled’ to the benefits of being a native ‘white’ Englishman? try applying that logic in Cayman without calling us racists. We are the only people not expected to be entitled, even when based on merit.
Can understand how the English must feel…opening the doors and now being forced to address the fact that immigrants are now legally entitled to their so called birthright.
But it is still a fact that without quotas some hardworking, intelligent people would never be given a chance. No matter how patient some people may be, waiting for certain people NOT to show superiority and a sense of entitlement may simply be a waste of time.
This global level of greed and entitlement to what another country has to offer needs a serious review.
Maybe foreigners could start by respecting the need for control here in Cayman in order to appreciate the same action in their home country, and spend less time creating division for their short term goals (ie massive financial gains at the cost of social problems). Otherwise why destroy somewhere that could potentially be great for your future when you really don’t know what you’ll be going back to anyway.
Wow…I digress, the support of continued segregation masked as freedom of the majority to be entitled made me think of home.
Obviously you did not graduate from Oxford (or maybe you did) which is why you would realize that 1 black student out of 3000 (accepted last year) does not equate to 90% white/10% black. As a matter of fact it is 0.0333% Black and 99.9666% white.
I am astonished that the majority of the comments made have completely ignored the blatant discrimination that is obviously conducted in the admissions process at Oxford. I have a very difficult time believing that there was only 1 qualified black applicant.
For clarity, please note that I am not Black. I believe that skin colour alone does not make ANY race better than the other.
What is just as upsetting to me is that we seem to have so many "closet predjudiced" persons residing on our shores.
Maybe you need to read the article again; actually reading it once would be a good idea before posting here. It clearly states that nearly 90% of the entrants are white, which means that slightly over 10% of the entrants are not white. It also states that there was one black entrant from the Caribbean ie a specific region; it does not comment on black entrants from, for example, Africa.
Maybe you should hold your indignation until you understand what you are being told.
I guess you did not graduate from there either. The article states that "only one black CARIBBEAN student" was admitted out of 3000. According to their website, in 2009, 2653 students were accepted of which 237 were "non-white", of that 27 were listed as "black" mostly from Africa. That would make the percentage of "black" students accepted as just over 10%.
I am Caymanian and I am not being racist here by any means, but lets use the Carbbean as an example here.
Have you seen the GCSE grades for public / government schools across the Caribbean? Have you seen the A-Levels grades for public / governemnt schools across the Caribbean?
Do you understand that you must qualify with certain grades to attend such institutions, usuaully no less than A’s and A*’s.
Now ask yourself it is any wonder that none of them can get into Oxford?
Nuff said.
And with your percentage calculation, the remaining 10% could be made up of Indian, Spanish, Asian etc….duh.