Universities bid to recruit new minority... white men

UNIVERSITIES are trying to boost the number of white British male students amid fears they have fallen so low they are in a minority.

Aston and Essex universities are the first to include white men in plans to boost under-represented groups.

White British students are now in a minority at about 10 per cent of universities, according to Higher Education Statistics Agency figures. Just 27 per cent of new students in 2016 were white males, down from 30 per cent in 2007.

More than 70 per cent of students on some courses, such as business, pharmacy and some sciences, are from ethnic minorities.

And the gender gap is growing, with 123 of the 149 institutions having more female students, figures show.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, which has studied young men and under-achievement, said: “We were shocked to find so few higher education institutions had these sorts of targets. The problem is so evident and we’ve continued to go backwards.

“Some people oppose this whole agenda. We were told we were wrong to look at gender and should care only about class.

“Tackling access to university needs a focus on gender, disadvantage and ethnicity and it is possible to care about all three.”

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “It is a form of racism to be uncomfortable in tackling white male under-representation.”

Essex University wants to boost the number of white males joining by two per cent, while Aston wants to boost numbers by 2020. It is also focusing on black British students and women studying subjects such as engineering and science.

A study led by King’s College London found: “People were quite uncomfortable with the idea of running a targeted activity with this group, in a way that we’ve not encountered.

“We had quite a lot of people saying, ‘This isn’t going to be a white-only event, is it?’”