Oxbridge in fury at PM’s race claim
OXFORD and Cambridge hit out at David Cameron last night for claiming there was racism in top universities that ‘should shame our nation’.
The Prime Minister said universities would be made to disclose the proportion of ethnic minority applicants that get places.
Mr Cameron also accused the Armed Forces, big business and universities of ‘ingrained, institutional and insidious’ attitudes that held people back.
He said it was ‘striking’ that Oxford’s 2014 intake of more than 2,500 included only 27 black students.
But Oxford University accused Mr Cameron of jeopardising applications from black students.
A spokesman said: ‘We are deeply concerned that continued allegations of institutional racism or “failure” will adversely affect our efforts to encourage talented [black and minority ethnic] students to apply.’
Cambridge said the issue was ‘deeprooted’ and ‘cultural’.
The PM said Oxford, which he attended, was ‘not doing enough to attract talent from across our country’.
Writing in The Sunday Times, he added: ‘There are no black generals in our Armed Forces and just 4 per cent of chief executives in the FTSE 100 are from ethnic minorities.
‘Are these just the symptoms of class divisions or a lack of equal opportunity? Or is it something more i ngrained, i nsti t uti onal and insidious?’