‘Encourage more black students’

Only one per cent of students at the university are black, according to the Aspire programme, which aims to discover why so few apply in the first place.

The Rev Jackson, 66, from Chicago, visited Regent's Park College to launch the programme and to give a lecture entitled Freedom and Education, to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

He said: "Oxford has different standards and historically has not been sensitive to the needs of people of colour.

"But now, as the world changes, you look at the Caribbean, you look at Africa, you look at Asia - you cannot have a great university unless you have a significant number of students who are African, Caribbean, Asian.

"That is in fact the real world in which we live and to that extent, the absence of black students does not represent something that is natural, it represents something that is abnormal.

"Now we must challenge that and I'm convinced that if we work diligently we can do just that.

"The good news is that Oxford University is reaching out."

Last year, only 151 applicants to the university were black, with 26 of them going on to win a place.

Paul Clark, head of access at Oxford University, said out of 13,000 applications a year, only 2.2 per cent were black students, or students from a mixed black and white background.

Dr Nicholas Wood, Dean of Regent's Park College, welcomed Mr Jackson's endorsement of the Aspire programme, adding: "Oxford is a very diverse city so people from all backgrounds can find a way of fitting in."

Tosin Awoyinka, 19, a second-year economics and management student at Hertford College, said he had not suffered from discrimination since arriving at Oxford and urged more black students to apply for places. He added: "I admire what Rev Jackson is trying to achieve and if there are more mentoring programmes more black students will be encouraged to apply."

Nadine Simpson, 21, a theology graduate of Regent's Park College, said she had suffered discrimination.