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.