This chapter will examine inequalities in higher education. Recent UK data suggests that the numbers of black and minority ethnic groups who attend university have increased, yet their access to elite Russell Group universities remains low. This chapter will explore why black and minority ethnic groups remain under-represented in elite Russell Group universities and suggest that processes of exclusionary practices in these universities based on white privilege exclude those from non-white backgrounds. In this chapter I suggest that processes of racial exclusion are used to maintain the elite position of universities which are based on white middle-class acceptance. As a result, such universities are able to maintain their positions of privilege. This chapter will primarily focus on the UK followed by a brief discussion of the US experience.

Ethnicity and student data

There is recent evidence to suggest that the numbers of black and minority ethnic students have shown a year on year increase, from 14.9% in 2003/4 to 20.2% a decade later. Despite this increase in the overall number of black and minority ethnic undergraduate students, when their experiences are compared against standard measures of success (such as degree class attained, employment after university or progression to postgraduate study), such students do not do as well as white students.

Higher proportions of white students successfully completed their degrees in 2014-2015 (91.8%) compared with 87.9% of black and minority ethnic students. In all of the UK, the number of black students who received a first-class or 2:1 degree was lower than all other ethnic groups. White students (75.6%) are more likely to receive a first-class or 2:1 degree compared with black and minority ethnic students (60.4%). The gap is largest in England, with 76.3% of white students receiving a first or 2:1 compared with 60.3% of black and minority ethnic students. The destination of leavers survey suggests that black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be unemployed six months after graduating with 61.5% of white leavers in full-time work compared with 53.9% of black and minority ethnic leavers. A total of 50.0% of Asian Indian leavers were in professional full-time work, which was higher than the proportions of all other black and minority ethnic groups.

The data suggests that black and minority ethnic students have a younger profile than white students: 71.8% aged 25 and under compared with 69.2% of white students.