Author Archive

Joshua Oware

osh is a London-based researcher, writer and pro bono consultant. A geography student, he gained the highest First in his year at Oxford, graduating as the Gibbs Scholar. He currently splits his time between reading for a Masters in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and his position as Rare Recruitment’s Research and Community Affairs Coordinator. While at Oxford, Josh chaired campaigns, wrote articles, published poetry and completed a book. He was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Civic Award in 2013 and has since been elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Arts. He sits on the Amos Bursary Learning and Development Committee, and is an advisor for various UK universities and the Ubuntu Education Fund in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

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In the national and international imagination, Oxbridge is the ideal type of British higher education. ‘What it does is amplified, domestically and internationally. “That’s unfair, says Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, speaking at the Race Equality Question Time held at Oxford University. ‘It’s unjust that the world’s eyes are focused on Oxford…but that’s the price to pay for being at such a good university.” For issues like race, this is especially acute. But Oxford’s ‘image problem’, and how this image may embody inaccessibility is not just a ‘black issue’, it’s a social issue. It is unacceptable that out of c. 3000 new undergraduates this year, only 32 will be of black or mixed-race origin. But this does not mean …