White working-class students are excluded from almost all Oxbridge diversity scholarships, with more than a dozen financial aid schemes prioritising non-white ethnicity over socio-economic background. The Telegraph has the story.
More than a dozen scholarships, bursaries and financial aid schemes are available to Oxford and Cambridge university students, prioritising their ethnicity over their socio-economic backgrounds.
While all the schemes can be used by students from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, they almost entirely exclude white working-class students, who are one of the most under-represented groups in higher education.
The universities have been accused of having a “two-tier academic society” after an inquiry report, published on Monday, found that white working-class children were some of the most disadvantaged and underachieving in English schools.
Suella Braverman, Reform UK’s education spokesman, said: “Because of the Equality Act, white working-class families have been betrayed by a system that is designed to work against them, and this is yet another example of two-tier academic society that punishes white working class boys and girls because of who they are.
“If Oxford and Cambridge want to live up to their proud history of meritocracy, they should end these racially discriminatory programmes immediately and judge people on their talents, not their skin colour.”
The revelation is the latest case of companies and public bodies running diversity schemes that exclude white people.
Recent examples include internships run by Britain’s intelligence services and the Bank of England, as well as taxpayer-funded employment schemes.
Under the Equality Act 2010, companies and public bodies are permitted to take “positive action” to “address disadvantage or under-representation”.
Writing for the Telegraph, a 20 year-old white student from a working-class family said such schemes had left him disadvantaged in both his education and employment, and feeling like a “second-class citizen”.
The student, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was forced to turn down a place at a leading university because he was excluded “on grounds of ethnicity” from financial schemes that would have supported his accommodation and living costs.
He said the “discrimination continues” with BAME-targeted training schemes, internships and placements run by GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, the Big Four accounting firms – Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC – the Bar Council, the Greater London Authority and the Royal Society.
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Our white grandson whose parents are both employed, just qualified for a full scholarship at Oxford. He is white, highly intelligent and focused. The last place I would want any young person to work is MI5 or MI6. The large accounting firms are also considered slave factories, 12 hr days. So to be honest we have witnessed our two grandsons excel at top universities (Durham, Oxford and Cambridge) without a soupçon of discrimination. Perhaps the politicians should worry a bit more about the job market and attracting international companies to the UK, so that these kids can GET a decent job when they finish their education. Discrimination will sort itself out when the failure of discrimination becomes apparent.
Not really supprised anymore.
Why am I not surprised.
fifteen years ago, the conservatives refused to back the proposal of affirmative action, rightly saying that colour blindness and meritocracy was the way to go.
somehow, over the last fifteen years, the conservatives are not only supporting it, but promoting this none sense.
UN Agenda 2030