White working-class students excluded from almost all Oxbridge diversity scholarships

It turns out white working-class students are barred from applying for almost all diversity scholarships at Oxbridge.

More than a dozen financial aid programs for underrepresented groups at Oxford and Cambridge prioritize ethnicity over socio-economic background.

This means that although those from ethnic minorities can access all programs, almost all programs exclude white working-class students.

This is despite the fact that this group is one of the least likely to attend college.

It comes after an independent investigation found this week that the education system was not set up to serve white working-class young people, who have the poorest educational outcomes of any major ethnic group in England.

The report, led by former education secretary Baroness Morris of Yardley, said only a third of white working-class teenagers managed to pass at least their English and maths GCSEs.

Earlier this week Education Minister Bridget Phillipson said the group was not ‘short of talent’ but had been ‘written off’ and ‘deprived of opportunity’.

Today, Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said of Oxbridge plans X: ‘It’s time to move beyond identity-based preferences.

‘Support should be targeted at the most disadvantaged, regardless of their race or ethnicity, not to meet diversity, equality and inclusion targets or quotas.’

There are at least 15 bursaries or bursaries at Oxford and Cambridge for undergraduate, masters and PhD students from ethnic minority backgrounds.

This includes the Stormzy Scholarship at Cambridge, which was launched by the rapper in 2018 and provides £20,000 per year to 10 black students for the duration of their course.

There is also a Formula 1 scholarship at Cambridge which provides £20,000 a year to engineering students from female or ethnic minority backgrounds.

The university also has six programs for doctoral and master’s students from ethnic minorities.

Meanwhile, at Oxford, among the many programs for ethnic minorities is the Black Academic Futures Scholarship, which can cover the full cost of a course and some living expenses.

Across all Oxbridge diversity programmes, working-class white women appear to have only two rights, while working-class white men have only one.

These include at least 15 outreach programs for ethnic minority students at universities, including taster days and webinars.

In 2019, a report from the National Educational Opportunity Network found that less than 3 percent of students enrolled at Oxford and Cambridge were disadvantaged and white.

An Oxford spokesman said the university was running another non-diversity program to award non-refundable annual scholarships of up to £6,150 to full-time UK undergraduates from low-income families.

They added: ‘Our undergraduate financial support package is based on household income, regardless of ethnicity.

‘We have expanded our programs in recent years so that nearly a quarter of our undergraduate students in the UK, including many students from white working-class backgrounds, now receive university financial support, providing a total of £10.4 million in 2025-26.’

A Cambridge spokesman said: ‘Cambridge provides one of the most generous scholarship support packages in the UK. More than £10 million in funding is provided each year to all students from low-income families through the Cambridge Bursary Scheme. ‘The University complies with the provisions of the Equality Act 2010.’