David Cameron has announced that Ucas will make university applications ¡°name-blind¡± from 2017, to tackle the risk of unconscious bias against black applicants.

The prime minister, making the announcement , said that the move was part of a key set of goals for ¡°a modern, compassionate Conservative party that wants to extend social mobility¡±.

Jo Johnson, the universities and science minister, said in his speech to the Universities UK conference last month that the government wants to see a 20 per cent increase ¡°in the number of black and minority ethnic students going to university by 2020¡±.

Mr Cameron writes in his article that the government has ¡°managed to get some of the biggest graduate employers to pledge to anonymise their job applications ¨C in other words, make them name-blind.

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¡°That means those assessing applications will not be able to see the person¡¯s name, so the ethnic or religious background it might imply cannot influence their prospects.¡±

He adds: ¡°The civil service, BBC, NHS, local government, HSBC, Deloitte, KPMG, Virgin Money, learndirect ¨C all these and more will now recruit people solely on merit.¡±?

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And the prime minister continues: ¡°Some research has shown that top universities make offers to 55 per cent of white applicants, but only to 23 per cent of black ones.

¡°The reasons are complex, but unconscious bias is clearly a risk. So we have agreed with Ucas that it will make its applications name-blind, too, from 2017.¡±

Mary Curnock Cook, the Ucas chief executive, said: ¡°We¡¯ll be consulting with universities and colleges on name-blind applications, as well as a wider range of changes which could impact applications from BME students. This is a good time to consider such changes as part of the wider redevelopment of our application management service.¡±

She added: ¡°One of the benefits of our unique national admissions service means that it is possible both to identify and address issues of under-representation. Ucas is deeply committed to increasing participation from disadvantaged groups.

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¡°°¿³Ü°ù??shows that entry rates to higher education for young students from black and ethnic minority groups have increased since 2006. The entry rate for English 18-year-old state school students recorded in the black ethnic group has increased from 20.9 per cent in 2006 to 34.3 per cent in 2014, a proportional increase of 64 per cent.¡±

john.morgan@tesglobal.com