Oxbridge

Guardian claims Cambridge has no black academic staff. Why didn't they bother to check?

Over at the Guardian they reveal “a bleak picture of racial and social exclusion at Oxbridge colleges”. What happened is that David Lammy, the Labour MP, submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests concerning the social makeup of Oxford and Cambridge colleges. The breakdowns of admissions to various colleges certainly do show that Oxbridge colleges lack diversity. David Lammy writes a comment piece to go with it headed “The Oxbridge Whitewash”. And, further down, the Guardian reports:

The FoI data also shows that of more than 1,500 academic and lab staff at Cambridge, none are black.

Of all the claims in the report, this is the most startling. Except, as the blog FleetStreetBlues has discovered, it’s not true. A phone call or Google search could have established, as FleetStreetBlues has done, that Cambridge University has a Black and Minority Ethnic Staff Network, which would seem odd for an organisation that ought not to have any black members to represent. FleetStreetBlues goes on:

And then, looking at various faculties’ photo lists, well… there do actually seem to be some black staff members.

Not many, granted. Not enough, no doubt. But people like Dr Oke Odudu (pictured), who as far as we can Google appears to be very much still a law fellow at Emmanuel College, might beg to differ with the bald assertion that Cambridge University has no black academics. Dr Odudu was born in Blackburn to British-Nigerian parents, and asthis Lancashire Telegraph article shows, has made something of a point of showing that Cambridge is not out of reach for ethnic minority students, and encouraging them to apply and defy the odds. When he reads the Guardian we’re guessing he may not be thrilled…