Written evidence submitted by Mathematical Institute and the Department of Statistics (DIV0030)
This submission is by the Mathematical Institute and the Department of Statistics, the two mathematical sciences departments in Oxford University. The two departments together comprise around 130 faculty, 130 other post-doctoral researchers, 400 postgraduate students and 900 undergraduates.
The mathematical sciences are of fundamental importance to the UK: “We live in the era of mathematics. Its influence permeates economic and social activity and its influence and impact are profound.” 1 To maintain the health and vibrancy of our discipline, and also ensure that its benefits are shared by all, it is vital that we improve the diversity of our students and staff with respect to gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic background.
Note that all data on UK undergraduate admissions to our courses in Mathematics is taken from the University’s Annual Admissions Report 2.
Under-representation and actions being taken
Gender
in 2018-2020, 27% of our UK undergraduate admissions were female
this is in line with pre-pandemic data for 2018-19 showing that girls made up 28% of those taking Further Maths A-level and 25% of those getting an A* 3
consequently, our outreach effort is aimed at increasing the number of girls interested in studying A-level Maths and Further Maths through activities such as our “It All Adds Up” conferences for girls 4 as well as our more generic outreach activities such as the Oxford Online Maths Club 5
Ethnicity
in 2018-2020, 23% of our UK undergraduate admissions were BME (13% Asian, 1.5% Black, 8% Mixed)
for comparison, the 2011 census data for age group 10-14 is 9% Asian, 4.5% Black, 4.3% Mixed, 1% Other 6
for further comparison, in 2018-19, Black students were 1.8% of those who achieved A* in Mathematics 7
Oxford University is trying to improve the admission of Black and Mixed-Black students through the Target Oxbridge programme which aims to help students with
1Lord Stern’s preface to the Philip Bond report on The Era of Mathematics
https://epsrc.ukri.org/newsevents/pubs/era-of-maths/ 2https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/AnnualAdmissionsStatisticalReport2021.pdf 3https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2019-20
4https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate-study/outreach/it-all-adds 5https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate-study/outreach/oxford-online-maths-club
6https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/age-groups/latest#age-profile-by-ethnicity
7https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f29736c8982c82f61df71e0/t/60edd33a6f118478735acbbc/
1626198854176/THC+-+Accelerating+Change+-+July+2021.pdf
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black African and Caribbean heritage increase their chances of getting into Oxford and Cambridge, through regular contact with a black Oxbridge graduate, advice, seminars and mentoring 8
in the Mathematical Institute we are also concerned about the “leaky pipeline” with a drop-off in the number of Black and Mixed-Black students undertaking our MSc and DPhil (PhD) studies; the MSc issue is being addressed through new fully-funded (fees + stipend) MSc scholarships 9 generously funded by Jane Street, a financial trading company, and the DPhil level through the University’s fully-funded Black Academic Futures scholarships 10
Socioeconomic
ACORN 11 is widely regarded as being one of the most effective proxy measures for disadvantage, while POLAR 12 measures under-representation at university.
in 2018-2020, 78% of our UK undergraduate admissions were from state schools, but only 15% from ACORN 4 and 5 (which account for roughly 40% of the UK) and 16% from POLAR quintiles 1 and 2 (again 40% of the UK)
Oxford University’s Access and Participation Plan 13 gives more general university data: 5% admissions from ACORN 5 compared to 57% from category 1, and 3.7% from POLAR quintiles 1 compared to 57% from quintile 5
improvement in these numbers is being addressed through UNIQ summer schools which aim to inform and attract more applications from under-represented backgrounds 14 and the Opportunity Oxford programme which offers enhanced preparation to offer-holders from under-represented backgrounds; 15 in mathematics, the Oxford Online Maths Club, mentioned before, enables us to reach all parts of the UK unlike traditional school visits
UNIQ+, a programme of summer internships, 16 is encouraging similar applications at MSc level
The summary above touches only briefly on postgraduate research, and not at all on diversity amongst postdoctoral researchers and academics at all levels, where again there is significant room for improvement, primarily with respect to gender (approximately 16% of our faculty are female) and Black faculty (none at present), though faculty of Asian ethnicity are well represented at all levels.
Understanding the nature of the “leaky pipeline” and the reasons why different groups leave academia at different stages is very important to provide a basis for our efforts to
8https://targetoxbridge.co.uk/
9https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/postgraduate-study/jane-street-graduate-scholarships
10https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/access/academic-futures#content-tab–2
11http://doc.ukdataservice.ac.uk/doc/8196/mrdoc/pdf/8196_acorn_group_personas_2017.pdf
12https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/young-participation-by-area/
13https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/UniversityOfOxford_APP_2020-21.pdf 15https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/increasing-access/opportunity-oxford
16https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/access/uniq-plus
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change things in the future. In this context we look forward to seeing the outcome of the research being commissioned by the philanthropic arm of XTX Markets, a financial trading firm which supports our Public Engagement with Research activities, to understand the pipeline and the measures best suited to improving it. We have also provided all of this information to a Royal Society subcommittee looking at inequalities in Maths education.
Potential government actions
The call for submissions invited suggestions of measures which might be undertaken by government bodies to improve the current situation.
Colleagues in the Oxford University Dept. of Education would argue that to reduce inequalities in A-Level attainment it is necessary to begin at a much earlier stage, by improving foundational mathematics skills in primary school. To stimulate and improve the interest in maths from BME pupils, it might be very helpful at this stage to emphasise the global history of mathematics, correcting the euro-centric view of history many of us have grown up with, to include a stronger emphasis on the mathematics developed in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China and the Islamic empire with its House of Wisdom in Baghdad. 17 (One possible action is the commissioning of one or more history of maths/science books for late primary / early secondary school pupils to address this topic.)
At the secondary school stage, appropriate actions might include:
continued DfE funding for AMSP, the Advanced Maths Support Programme 18
funding for MESME (Mathematics Education for Social Mobility and Excellence), a new initiative which promotes Maths Circles for students aged 11-16 19
funding for the long-established UK Mathematics Trust 20 and other newer initiatives such as the Top Top SET Maths 21 aimed at the top 10% of pupils
At the university level, action is already being taken by individual institutions. However, it would help all institutions if:
OfS undertakes research on undergraduate admissions to look at intersectionality between ethnicity and POLAR/ACORN measures of disadvantage, to determine the extent to which the statistics on the former might be a consequence of the latter; this would then inform the actions best taken to address both
OfS further undertakes research to determine whether the cost of MSc studies (or the fourth year of a combined undergraduate MSc) is deterring under-represented BME students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds from continuing with their studies to MSc level; if it is, then thought should go into how best to address this issue
17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhava_of_Sangamagrama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi
https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/about-us/history/world-history-mathematics
18https://amsp.org.uk/
19https://mesme.org/
20https://www.ukmt.org.uk/
21https://goodthinkingsociety.org/mathematics-projects-by-good-thinking/top-top-set-maths/
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UKRT continues to give universities some discretion in spending studentship funding on EDT activities such as undergraduate summer internships to encourage women, under-represented BME students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds to go on to MSc and PhD programmes
HESA benchmark data is more easily available to universities, to be used both for EDT self-assessment and also as the basis for the Memoranda of Justification required for positive action
January 2022
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Prof. Mike Giles, head of Mathematical Institute
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Prof. Alison Etheridge FRS, head of Department of Statistics
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Prof. Sam Howison, head of Division of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences
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