WHITE STUDENTS MISS OXBRIDGE BURSARIES – Questions raised over ethnicity-based funding schemes
A growing debate has emerged over university access after analysis found that a number of scholarships and bursaries at Oxford and Cambridge are reserved for applicants from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The review identified more than a dozen funding schemes across the two universities that specifically target students from underrepresented ethnic groups, offering financial support, mentoring and outreach opportunities designed to increase diversity within higher education.
Critics argue that the programmes exclude white working-class students, who remain among the most underrepresented groups at many of Britain’s leading universities. They say support should be based primarily on socio-economic disadvantage rather than ethnicity.
Supporters of the schemes contend that they are intended to address historic barriers and improve representation in subjects and institutions where some ethnic minority groups remain disproportionately absent.
