UK to prevent discrimination against NRI students

Top education authorities have recommended that to avoid bias, application forms should be made anonymous.

British students from Asian and Afro-Caribbean ethnicities have a lower chance of being offered a place to study at universities than their white colleagues, a new study reveals.

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To prevent discrimination against students from these backgrounds, top education authorities have recommended that university application forms should be made anonymous - that is, the student's name should not be mentioned during the application process.

The recommendation has been made by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) after a new study revealed that Pakistani students are two percentage points less likely to be offered a place at university compared with their white peers.

The disparity is particularly revealed in the case of applications to study law at university. Ethnic minority applicants - including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Afro-Caribbean - have a significantly lower chance of receiving an offer when applying to study law compared with their white peers.

The latest study is based on a re-analysis of the 2002 research that caused a scandal about bias in applications.

Howard Newby, chief executive of HEFCE, said: "It is clear from this analysis that prospective students from ethnic minorities should not be put off from applying to study at the most highly selective universities.

A spokeswoman for the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service - the central organisation that processes applications for full-time undergraduate courses at British universities and colleges - said it would consider any change to make the system fairer, but any reforms would follow intense consultation with the sector.

"We would consult if there was a groundswell of opinion pushing for this," she said, adding that institutions did need to use the name of applicants for mailing processes.