They'll get slaughtered for calling it as they see it !!

Black applicants make up half of cheats, says UCAS

UCAS said it had examined three million applications from British candidates made over the past five years

More than half of students submitting fraudulent applications for degree courses are black, the university admissions body said yesterday.

Black candidates make up 52 per cent of all applications flagged despite comprising only 9 per cent of applicants, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said. The figures triggered a race row with politicians and student leaders who said Ucas should offer a better explanation for the findings. Applications can be considered fraudulent for several reasons, including plagiarism of the personal statement, falsifying exam results, sending false documents, using fake identities, or making multiple applications at once.

Ucas defended its systems from accusations of bias, saying the software that flagged questionable applications did not see the candidate’s ethnicity, and neither did university staff who raised queries. It said the proportion of flagged, or suspicious, applications from black students turned out to be almost identical to the proportion later confirmed as fraudulent. It analysed three million applications from British candidates over the past five years.


David Lammy, a former minister for higher education, said: “It is simply not good enough for Ucas to say that they do not know why black applicants are so much more likely to be flagged up by its admissions systems . . . Ucas needs to be able to explain this huge disproportionality and satisfy students from ethnic minorities that their applications will be looked upon fairly.”

Earlier this year, a freedom of information request by The Independent showed that black students who applied for courses starting in 2017 were 21 times more likely than white candidates to have their applications investigated. That prompted Ucas to analyse five years of data going back to 2013 that had been flagged for investigation for potential fraudulent activity. This included suspicion of plagiarism and submitting more than one application.

It analysed which applications had been flagged for investigation, and subsequently cleared, cancelled, or withdrawn, by ethnic group. Only a small number of applications were flagged — 5,160 (0.18 per cent) and about 40 per cent of those — 2,085 (or 0.07 per cent of all applications) had their applications cancelled. The percentages cancelled, by ethnic group, were broadly proportionate to the percentages flagged in each ethnic group.

Black candidates made up 9 per cent of the total, but 52 per cent of those flagged overall; 53 per cent of those flagged by software that analysed whether personal statements were original; 37 per cent of alerts raised by universities; and 53 per cent of those whose applications were subsequently cancelled or withdrawn. Alerts to Ucas were made by 67 universities and colleges, with only one or two from each institution. Those with a high number of black applicants were over-represented. The Ucas report said: “This suggests that the verification activities undertaken by Ucas are generally robust and fair.” It reviewed all cancelled applications from the past two years, and said it found they were genuine.

Ucas said it would publish annual figures on the verification process and would contact representative organisations to “strengthen the voices of black, Asian and minority ethnic students in our decision-making and processes”.