US civil rights activist the Rev Jesse Jackson today challenged Oxford University to help more black people into the university as part of a visit to the UK this week to promote racial justice.

Rev Jackson took part in the launch of the new ASPIRE initiative by the Regent's Park College, which will conduct research into the reasons behind the low numbers of young black people entering into higher education in the UK, as well as the steps that can be taken to raise aspirations and expectations of the benefits of further education.

Earlier in the week, Rev Jackson told Christian Today that the small percentage of black students applying to Oxford University was "embarrassing". Out of the almost 10,000 applications to Oxford University from within the UK last year, just 31 were black Caribbean applicants. Across 123 of the UK's universities, meanwhile, black Caribbean people make up less than one per cent of the total student population.

Speaking at the launch of ASPIRE, Rev Jackson said that the responsibility of reversing the statistics lay with the universities as well as students.

Black students at university had an obligation to do well and help bring more black students into higher education, Rev Jackson said.

Turning to the universities, he said that it was in their interest to improve access to black and minority ethnic people.

"God made a diverse world. If the university is not diverse, it is theologically challenged," he said. "It's in the university's interest to lend a hand...it's credibility is on the line."

Rev Jackson continued by urging universities to extend their support for their black students beyond graduation and into the job market.

"What are their options when they get out?" he challenged. "The real fight [for black students] is once you get out of Oxford, out of Harvard."

The not-for-profit Rainbow/PUSH coalition, set up and led by Rev Jackson, is contemplating a new scheme involving the purchase of shares to allow black people access to shareholders' meetings in an effort to increase racial diversity within large corporations.

Rev Jackson also called for 'positive inclusion' to replace 'positive discrimination' as a means "to offset years of race discrimination and, for too long, negative gender discrimination".



Referring to the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade this year, Rev Jackson concluded, "We are free but we are unequal. This generation has to close the gap."

Suke Wolton, lecturer in politics at Regent's Park College, founded by Baptists 250 years ago, welcomed the ASPIRE research initiative, saying, "Only 31 black people apply to Oxford in a year. That's simply not good enough."

She also assured that Oxford University was making efforts to reach out to potential black applicants by encouraging them to visit the university, and meet staff and black students.

At the end of the month, Wolton will take part in a meeting with black church leaders in London to address what she called the "hidden under-representation" of black people at Oxford and the UK's other leading universities.

Wolton also said that Oxford was in the process of setting up a system of support to help black students settle in at the university after gaining entry.

Among those present at the launch was Michael Isola, a black 19-year-old Oxford student from south east London who is currently reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was initially reluctant to apply to Oxford because of his perception that the students there were "posh", largely white and Eton-educated, but was swung after a visit to the university.

"After visiting, I decided to take the risk, putting myself where I could be challenged," he said.

Isola said ASPIRE would be important in awakening black people to the realisation that they too could study at Oxford.

"There is a place for black people [at the university]. There's a place for you to be an individual," he said.

In an address later on Wednesday, Rev Jackson told students and lecturers at Regent's Park that the denial of access to education was "one of the most devastating legacies" of the slave trade.

He called on universities to work more closely with parents and teachers by helping them to spot black students with potential, and make efforts to raise aspirations and expectations among young black people.

Rev Jackson was later made an honorary fellow of Regent's Park College by Principal Dr Robert Ellis.

His visit to the UK has been hosted by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.