According to the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, progress in tackling inequality and disadvantage is still slow. Despite admitting record numbers of women, state-educated pupils, and students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds last year, wide variations among the university’s colleges were highlighted in the review. The proportion of UK state school students was more than 60% for the first time, while a record number of disabled undergraduates joined Oxford. However, Balliol College was shown to admit nearly double the number of men as women, while only 48% of Trinity’s students come from state schools.
Louise Richardson, the vice-chancellor, recognizes the slow pace of progress and the university’s inequality, which mirrors society’s socio-economic, regional and ethnic barriers. This led to the development of policies to increase the number of successful applications from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds. These policies include a foundation year for talented students without the necessary grades, along with extra support for those from less privileged backgrounds. The university also identified a rise in the number of applicants from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds, which doubled the number of admissions. However, it also revealed a significant variation among individual courses, with no offers made to black students in biological sciences, biomedical sciences and earth sciences, among others.
Additionally, while the proportion of students from outside the EU continues to rise, those from the UK were 77.7% of the total intake in 2018, the lowest on record. Meanwhile, international students paid roughly £25,000 annually compared to £9,250 for their UK counterparts.
