Oxford University has launched a scholarship scheme exclusively for black students.

It’s called ‘The Black Academic Futures’programme, and will provide up to 10 new scholarships to UK research students starting studies next year.

Around 1.5 of graduate students at Oxford are black, and the university admits that this is gross under-representation, especially when compared to the four per cent across other universities.

Professor Martin Williams, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Oxford University, said this is a move for the university to address that.

“The University has made important steps in recognising and addressing the issue of graduate access and specifically the under-representation of Black students in academia in recent years, with a broad range of divisional, departmental and college initiatives, including scholarships.”

President of the Oxford University Student’s Union Nikita Ma, said they are happy with the initiative. “Access and diversity has always been one of the key themes of the Student Union’s lobbying work.”

“It is very encouraging to see the university taking steps to widen access, and we are pleased to welcome this initiative to increase black representation at the graduate level,” she said.