Universities that fail to promote student diversity risk having their tuition fees slashed by a third, according to the new university regulator, after the admissions scandals at Oxford and Cambridge.
Sir Michael Barber, head of the Office for Students, said that he is “interested in results, not just plans” when it comes to increasing student diversity at the UK’s most prestigious universities.
His remarks follow the revelation of admissions data from the two prominent institutions, which revealed that certain Oxbridge colleges have accepted no black British students in recent years.
According to daily telegram, Sir Michael Gove warned that he would use his powers to reduce tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 if a university did not increase its intake of students from diverse backgrounds. He stated that it is unacceptable for anyone’s background to be a barrier to accessing the rewarding opportunities that world-class universities offer. Cambridge has responded to criticism by admitting a third of all male UK black students who achieved its A level entry criteria, a total of 58 black students.
Senior leaders at the University of Cambridge said they cannot single-handedly fix the endemic problem of academic attainment, which afflicts all levels of education and society as a whole, reflecting deeper-seated inequalities across the country. Universities Minister Sam Gyimah criticized Oxford and Cambridge’s failure to take in more students who are black or from less privileged backgrounds as “staggering.” He warned elite institutions for not doing enough and warned them could be fined by the new higher education regulator if they do not meet admission targets. Speaking at the annual conference of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), Gyimah said that there is more to universities than admissions and more to the sector than Oxbridge.
this post credit (independent.co.uk)
