Black male concern

A Government minister has expressed concerns over the proportion of black male students attending university.

David Lammy, the new Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, has called for more work to be done to increase the number of black students in response to figures showing the proportion of black Caribbean male students has remained at one per cent for three years.

Deborah Fowler, Head of the University’s Outreach and Access Section, said: "We would like to increase diversity generally, and the work that my team undertakes aims to encourage students with the potential to succeed on our degree programmes from all backgrounds to consider the University of Sheffield as an option."

The latest figures show there was a total of 2,317 male and 1,950 female ethnic minority students at the University of Sheffield in the 2006/07 academic year. Overall, ethnic minority students account for approximately 20 per cent of the student population at the University.

Ross Turner