Despite record numbers of applications and better predicted grades, only 70% of black applicants received offers, says Ucas

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Black students continue to struggle to win undergraduate places at UK universities, despite applying in record numbers and equipped with stronger qualifications than previous years.

The figures released by the Ucas university admissions clearing house show that last year black school-leavers failed to be offered places at the rates their qualifications and subject choices would suggest.

Despite record numbers of applications and better predicted A-level grades and equivalent qualifications, only 70% of black applicants received offers of places, compared with 78% of white applicants and 73% of students from Asian backgrounds.

According to Ucas’s predictions, 73% of black applications should have been successful.

Black and Asian students under-represented in university offers Read more

Prof Les Ebdon, director of the office of fair access to higher education, said while the admissions data “cannot provide conclusive proof that offer-making is biased, it should certainly prompt universities to investigate their admissions policies and practices if the data suggests that certain groups of students receive unusually low offers”.

The success rate of black students applying to more selective universities – such as the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, including Manchester and Edinburgh – also deteriorated despite a sharp rise in applications from qualified students.

While 61% of black applications were awarded places, a slight improvement over 2015 entry, according to Ucas’s calculations, 64% could have done so.

The mixed picture suggests that while universities are becoming more successful in outreach and in terms of encouraging black students to apply, the greater numbers of applications are not translating into offers compared with rising numbers of those from Asian, mixed and white ethnic backgrounds.

Ebdon said the data would “enable individual universities to identify cold spots in their student population” and help target their efforts towards the most underrepresented groups.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prof Les Ebdon. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

“I strongly encourage universities to make use of this data when planning their strategies to improve access. An evidence-based approach is crucial if we are to make further, faster progress in opening higher education to everyone with the talent to benefit from it,” Ebdon said.

Wendy Piatt, director of the Russell Group, said: “The root causes of underrepresentation are complex and a wide range of factors need to be taken into account to fully understand them.

“However, we must remember that this data does not take into account some important aspects of the application such as subject choice and relevance to degree course, the exact profile of the predicted grades, or other factors such as the personal statement, teacher references or interviews.”

Piatt said next year Russell Group universities planned to spend £250m on scholarships, bursaries and outreach activities.

Among the leading universities, the London School of Economics stood out with above-average offer rates to applicants from neighbourhoods with historically low rates of university education, and with increasing rates of offers to black students despite high levels of competition for places.

LSE offered places to 95 out of 255 applications from black students last year, out of 1,500 undergraduate offers. In contrast, the University of Oxford offered places to just 45 black students – five fewer than 2015 – out of 270 applications, as part of a university-wide total of 2,500 undergraduate offers.

Oxford University accused of failing to deal with admissions racism Read more

Oxford’s offer rate for black students slipped to its lowest level since 2013, with just one in six winning places.

However, Oxford experienced an increase in the number of students from Asian backgrounds winning places, from 145 in 2015 to 200 in 2016.

The number of white students was largely unchanged at 2,090, representing more than one in four applicants.