UK: Non-white students get less places in PhD programs

LONDON

White students are offered more places for PhD programs across the UK universities than black, Asian and ethnic minority candidates, according to the data gathered by BBC’s flagship program BBC Newsnight.

The program sent freedom of information requests for the academic years between 2015 and 2020 to 133 UK universities.

The 61 universities that responded to the request said they had a higher acceptance rate for white applicants.

The data gathered by the program shows that “black applicants had the lowest proportion of successful offer rates at 33 of these universities.”

The PhD degree is the highest academic qualification, which follows master’s degree.

"I think your research on PhDs is important and ground-breaking,” former Education Secretary Damien Hinds told the program.

He said: “What we were absolutely aware of was this gap in attainment. The Office for Students is focused on this, trying to identify what the blockage is.”