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Brunel’s ethnic diversity is almost four times higher than Oxford University

The percentage of ethnic minority students at Oxford University is almost four times lower than that of Brunel, IKB Insider can reveal.

Oxford University reported this weekend it has a rate of 18% ethnically diverse students.

Brunel University London, in comparison, had 63% Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic students (BAME) when it last published its figures in 2017.

Oxford University - only 43 miles from Brunel – now says it is aiming for a quarter of its UK students to come from disadvantaged backgrounds by 2023.

Louise Richardson, Vice chancellor of Oxford University, said: "The numbers are low, the pace is slow, but the trajectory is clear - the number of students admitted to Oxford from deprived backgrounds is steadily increasing."

Irish born Kenn Toft, 39, a lecturer at Brunel, said "In my second year class, out of the 20 students around 30% of them were white and the rest were from different background, but my last class was like the Eurovision, someone from everywhere."

He added: “Having worked at Brunel for almost 12 years now, I can say without any doubt that it is the most culturally diverse campus that I have ever worked on. Irrespective of who you are, what you are or where you are from, you will find a wide variety of people only too willing to integrate. Brunel offers even the most shy or outgoing student the opportunity to create a great circle of friends from other walks of life.”

Brunel University, joined by the Mayor of Hillingdon, spent this weekend celebrating Eid with students and members of the local community. The event came in addition to various multicultural celebrations from throughout the year including, Diwali, Yom Kippur, Easter, and Chinese New Year. All of these are organised to create an inclusive and diverse community on campus.

The figures emerging from Oxford show small steps of progress being made to create a similar community within the typically upper-class student body. However, Professor Richardson has recognised that, the progress is slow and continues to represent “the deep inequalities in our society along socio-economic, regional and ethnic lines”.

Across 12 of Oxford’s college’s, only five black students were admitted across the last four years. Meanwhile, the most recent figures from 2017 at Cambridge, show that the BAME figure is 22% with only 13% being domestic applicants.

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