UK Edition
Anger at Shami Chakrabarti's £500,000 fund to help girls get into university – as boys lag behind
Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti has been criticised for establishing a £500,000 bursary fund to help girls get into university despite it being boys who are lagging behind.
The baroness launched the bursary at Essex University, where she is the Chancellor, despite there already being more female than male students.
This year, 36.8 per cent of female 18-year-olds went to university – compared with 27.2 per cent of males of that age. This equates to 37,000 fewer men than if the entry rates were the same for both sexes.
At Essex University, 54 per cent of students are female according to the Complete University Guide.
Lady Chakrabarti, who sends her son to an £18,000-a-year private school, said: "Gender injustice is so embedded in our society and our world, that sometimes we stop seeing it.
"We accept the rows of men sitting in parliaments or the latest gender health, education or pay gap figures with a shrug and a sigh.
"It’s time to wake up, give ourselves a shake and confront those content with the status quo."
The bursary will enable 25 women to study for Master’s degrees and it has been funded by donations from people who wanted to back its aspirations.
Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons women and equalities committee, said Lady Chakrabarti's claim about what the fund would achieve was a "sham".
He told the Daily Mail: "If she was properly committed to closing the education gap – which is a noble aim – this fund would focus almost entirely on helping white working-class boys.
"The fact it is not raises the question about whether she is genuinely interested in closing the gap or just wants to hand out another politically correct dollop of money.
"If she wants to have a fund dedicated to helping promote females, then she’s within her rights to do so, but she should be honest about it … don’t pretend it’s about closing some imaginary gap.
"If Shami Chakrabarti is really interested in increasing equality in education then she needs to go and do some proper research to find out what the problem is and then focus her efforts on helping white working-class boys."
A spokesman for Essex University said: "This is a university fundraising appeal launched and led by Shami which has received support from across the political spectrum and throughout the Essex community.
"We address the issues surrounding access to higher education within the UK through lots of other work including a £5.8million collaboration with universities in Essex and East London launching this month targeted at young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to progress into higher education – particularly young white males and ethnic minority groups."