About the University

Undergraduate admissions statistics: Ethnic origin

The University seeks to attract applicants of the highest quality and potential, regardless of background. Decisions on the admission of students will be based solely on the individual merits of each candidate and the application of selection criteria appropriate to the course of study.

The University’s equality policy can be found here:

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/eop/missionstatement/integratedequalitypolicy/

Context for these figures

All UK undergraduate applicants are invited to declare their ethnicity when making a university application via UCAS. UCAS does not release this data to universities until after decisions on admissions have been taken. Around 6.5% of UK applicants to Oxford do not declare their ethnic origin.

The percentage of all Oxford students of known ethnicity who are BME (black and minority ethnic) is 22%. This includes undergraduates and postgraduates, across all years, of all nationalities. The proportion of UK undergraduate students of known ethnicity who are BME is 13%.

These figures show the ethnic origin of UK undergraduate students who disclosed their ethnicity at application for the 2012 entry cycle.

Applications, acceptances and success rate of home students by ethnic origin, 2012 entry

	Applications		Acceptances		Success rate
	No	%	No	%	(%)
White	9098	82.2	2349	88.6	25.8
Gypsy or Traveller	2	0.0	1	0.0	50.0
Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi	64	0.6	7	0.3	10.9
Asian or Asian British - Indian	485	4.4	71	2.7	14.6
Asian or Asian British - Pakistani	160	1.4	21	0.8	13.1
Other Asian background	169	1.5	17	0.6	10.1
Black or Black British - African	180	1.6	19	0.7	10.6
Black or Black British - Caribbean	22	0.2	1	0.0	4.5
Other Black background	13	0.1	2	0.1	15.4
Mixed - White & Asian	298	2.7	68	2.6	22.8
Mixed - White & Black African	65	0.6	20	0.8	30.8
Mixed - White & Black Caribbean	61	0.6	8	0.3	13.1
Other mixed background	145	1.3	27	1.0	18.6
Chinese	207	1.9	33	1.2	15.9
Arab	33	0.3		0.0	0.0
Other ethnic background	63	0.6	7	0.3	11.1
Non White	1967	17.8	302	11.4	15.4
Total declared ethnicity	11065	100	2651	100.0	24.0
Information refused / Not known	767		44		5.7
Total	11832		2695		22.8

2011 data for comparison:

	Applications		Acceptances		Success rate
	No	%	No	%	(%)
White	9417	82	2269	87.3	24.1
Gypsy or Traveller		0.0		0.0
Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi	71	0.6	7	0.3	9.9
Asian or Asian British - Indian	479	4.2	69	2.7	14.4
Asian or Asian British - Pakistani	142	1.2	7	0.3	4.9
Other Asian background	195	1.7	28	1.1	14.4
Black or Black British - African	187	1.6	24	0.9	12.8
Black or Black British - Caribbean	37	0.3	7	0.3	18.9
Other Black background	4	0.0	1	0.0	25.0
Mixed - White & Asian	301	2.6	64	2.5	21.3
Mixed - White & Black African	34	0.3	10	0.4	29.4
Mixed - White & Black Caribbean	73	0.6	21	0.8	28.8
Other mixed background	177	1.5	43	1.7	24.3
Chinese	243	2.1	33	1.3	13.6
Arab	7	0.1		0.0	0.0
Other ethnic background	116	1.0	16	0.6	13.8
Non White	2066	18.0	330	12.7	16
Total declared ethnicity	11483	100.0	2599	100.0	22.6
Information refused / Not known	624		66		10.6
Total	12107		2665		22.0

The national picture for school attainment

In 2012, around 15% of white students taking A levels and applying to university through UCAS gained AAA or higher, and a similar proportion of BME students overall gained AAA or higher. Among Black students, 6% gained AAA or higher.

In numbers: more than 34,000 white students got three As or better at A-level in 2012, compared to nearly 7,100 BME students, of whom 946 were Black.
[Source: UCAS data]

The national picture for applications to Oxford

Of the more than 34,000 white students who got three As or better at A-level and applied to university through UCAS in 2012, around 26% applied to Oxford. Of the nearly 7,100 BME students who got three As or better at A level and applied to university through UCAS, around 27% applied to Oxford; 946 Black students got three As or better at A level and applied to university through UCAS, and 36% of them applied to Oxford.

Success rate

As the table above shows, some ethnic groups had a lower success rate in the 2012 entry cycle than the average.

The University continues to explore possible reasons for the disparity in success rates. One contributory factor that has been explored is subject choice.

Reflecting a national pattern of university applications, BME students tend to apply disproportionately for many of the most oversubscribed courses. This contributes to (though does not wholly explain) the lower success rates for the group as a whole.