Oxbridge threatened with fines over student diversity failures

UNIVERSITIES that fail to improve diversity will have their tuition fees slashed by a third, the regulator has warned.

Sir Michael Barber, the chairman of the Office for Students, said he was “interested in results, not just plans” in a clear warning to Oxford and Cambridge and other institutions that they must back up words with action.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Sir Michael said he would reduce the tuition fees cap from £9,000 to £6,000 if a university did not “keep its promises” to improve diversity, and also threatened to fine universities as he insisted: “We will act.”

It came as the vice-chancellor of Cambridge defiantly insisted the university would not give “special treatment” to black and minority ethnic applicants as he hit back at criticism by Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, of its alleged failure to admit enough

black students. Prof Graham Virgo said “students want to feel they have secured their place on merit rather than … special treatment”.

In an open letter published on Cambridge University’s website last night, co-signed by the university’s admissions directors, Prof Virgo suggested that criticism from Mr Gyimah and other MPS was “not only wrong, but potentially damaging”.

Writing today, Sir Michael says: “It is simply not acceptable for anyone’s background to be a barrier … and we will not hesitate to use our powers when necessary to improve access and participation. We’re interested in results, not just plans. If a university does not keep the promises in its plan, if it does not improve enough … we will act.”

Prof Virgo said Cambridge would not “waver” in its pursuit of “academic excellence”, adding that the current debate risked undermining “progress”.

A senior source at Oxford said they believed that the university should do more to look at ways of bringing underprivileged students “up to speed”, while a well-known academic at Cambridge said they had previously offered applicants reduced offers but were now unable to do so.

Meanwhile, Mary Curnock Cook, the former head of the university admissions service Ucas, supported Mr Gyimah, saying not enough offers were being made to students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Last night Prof Virgo insisted that Cambridge had made “significant progress” and was “far from complacent”.

A spokesman for Oxford said they agreed with Mr Gyimah that there was “more work to do” and added that it was “making rapid progress”, both in offers to black ethnic minority and state-educated applicants.