8th January 2020 14:59
By Blue Tutors
Dulwich and Winchester Colleges have rejected the offer from a benefactor to provide means tested scholarships for white boys. Reported on the BBC, the offer was from an ex pupil who identified disadvantaged white boys as in need of the extra help, but the schools have both stated that they do not want bursaries to be restrictive in terms of ethnicity.
The offer has been made by Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites and is believed to be for around £1m. Thwaites is 96 and will leave the funds to a school in his will. He attended Dulwich until 1939 before moving to Winchester and he says he could not have afforded to attend either college without the aid of scholarships.
Sir Bryan added that his decision to offer the scholarship purely for white boys is because, within the disadvantaged group he has looked at, white students do significantly worse than other ethnic groups, and he would like to help to change that. He is now looking for state schools to accept his offer.
A spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said that the Equality Act of 2010 is designed to ensure ethnic equality and not favour people of colour. The rapper Stormzy recently offered help for two black students to attend the University of Cambridge to encourage attendance for an identified disadvantaged group. Sir Bryan feels that his offer is along similar lines.
Both Dulwich and Winchester are committed to increasing the financial help available for disadvantaged students so that passing the entrance exams is the main criteria to attend the institutions where a full time boarder pays £13k - £14k per term. However, both schools said that the offer of an ethnically tested bursary is against their values and objectives.