When Oxford University released its 2023–2024 Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) report in March 2025, the headlines were positive: 80% of Britons reportedly support diversity initiatives. On paper, it seemed like the nation was continuing to embrace inclusion, equity, and justice. But for Black and brown people those these initiatives are supposed to serve the reality is far more complex. Public support is not enough; meaningful change requires institutions to act, measure outcomes, and hold themselves accountable.
The report, co-led by Oxford University alongside UCL Policy Lab and More in Common, surveyed over 4,000 individuals across Britain. Its findings seemed encouraging: most respondents expressed favourable attitudes toward EDI initiatives, with only a minority advocating for cuts to these programs. But here’s the catch: the 80% figure is a measure of attitude, not outcomes. Support in a survey doesn’t necessarily mean active engagement, personal sacrifice, or structural change. People can nod in favour of diversity while benefiting from, or remaining complicit in, the very systems that exclude Black and brown people. Survey numbers rarely tell us how inclusion is actually experienced in classrooms, boardrooms, or workplaces. And that is the gap we need to focus on: the difference between rhetoric and reality.
Who Really Benefits?
Oxford University’s report highlights several initiatives aimed at improving inclusion: the expansion of the Harassment Advisor Network, the launch of the Report+Support tool for staff harassment, bystander intervention training, and an analysis of the university’s gender pay gap. These are commendable steps, certainly. But commendable steps are not synonymous with effective outcomes.
Take admissions, for example. While Oxford University has increased the proportion of UK undergraduates from state schools 61% in 2019 offers continue to skew heavily toward students from the top two socio-economic groups. Data from 2015 shows that 82% of offers went to these groups. Even if the absolute number of Black and brown students increases, the systemic advantage afforded to wealthier, often white students persists. Inclusion on paper can exist alongside exclusion in practice.
The same applies to employment and promotions. Training programs and policy statements are important, but do they translate into more equitable hiring, mentorship, and leadership opportunities? If Black and brown staff remain underrepresented in senior roles, or if their career progression is slower than peers, then institutional support is performing more as symbolism than as a catalyst for real change.
Interestingly, the report notes that 37% of the public support cuts to EDI initiatives in public bodies, and 23% in the private sector. This dissenting minority is often portrayed as resistant or backward-looking, but a closer look can reveal legitimate critiques. Some fear reverse discrimination or question whether symbolic gestures truly address systemic inequities. Others perceive EDI initiatives as divisive, implemented without accountability, or disproportionately benefiting certain groups over others.
While not all opposition is grounded in concern for fairness or equity, the skepticism exposes a key truth: support alone, without transparency and measurable results, is fragile. When public approval is high but outcomes are uneven, even those who champion EDI may question its efficacy. This tension underlines the need to move beyond surveys and statements toward actual structural reform.
Oxford University, despite its global prestige, is not immune to criticism. The EDI report cites numerous positive initiatives, but when measured against actual representation and inclusion, gaps remain stark.
For instance, harassment policies and advisor networks are vital, but they only reach those who know how to access them and who feel safe doing so. Bystander training is useful, but does it address deeper cultural norms that allow microaggressions or subtle exclusion to persist? Gender pay gap analyses are essential, yet intersecting inequalities such as race combined with gender are often overlooked, leaving Black and brown women particularly vulnerable to compounded disadvantage.
Even in student admissions, structural inequities persist. The disproportionate favouring of higher socio-economic groups, despite outreach programs, suggests that symbolic gestures and public-facing initiatives can coexist with entrenched exclusionary practices. Oxford University may be improving its statistics in some areas, but the lived experiences of marginalized students and staff may remain unchanged.
Here lies the heart of the issue: EDI is widely supported in principle but inconsistently implemented in practice. Black and brown individuals often encounter a paradoxical environment where policies exist, but their effects are uneven, and the culture often lags behind the rhetoric.
It is easy to “support” DEI in a survey or a headline. It is harder to dismantle centuries of structural inequality embedded in admissions, hiring, promotion, and social networks. Oxford University’s report, while well-intentioned, illustrates this tension. Public support and institutional proclamations may make leaders feel secure, but they do not automatically improve the day-to-day realities of the people these programs are designed to serve.
To bridge the gap between support and impact, institutions must embrace accountability. Transparency alone is not enough; there must be measurable outcomes:
Are Black and brown students proportionally represented in admissions, scholarships, and honours programs?
Are employees from marginalized backgrounds advancing at rates comparable to their peers?
Are harassment and discrimination complaints resolved effectively, and are cultural norms evolving alongside policies?
Without grappling with questions like these or developing a broader framework that digs even deeper EDI risks becoming a performative exercise, a checkbox on a report rather than a transformative commitment. Real change demands not only answers but a willingness to rethink the very structures and assumptions that shape equality work. Change is not only possible; it is essential.
A Call to Action
The Oxford University report reminds us that public support is encouraging but insufficient. Real change requires vigilance, structural reform, and the courage to challenge symbolic gestures when they fail to translate into meaningful outcomes. For Black and brown people, the question is simple: are these initiatives genuinely improving opportunities, access, and equity or are they primarily for optics, brand management, and public approval?
Institutions like Oxford University wield immense cultural authority. Their policies and reports are read, cited, and emulated globally. That influence carries responsibility. Support is easy. Real change is hard. Until Oxford University and other institutions move beyond symbolic gestures, Black and brown individuals will continue to face invisible barriers, even in spaces that claim to champion inclusion.
Oxford University’s 2023–2024 EDI report, published in March 2025, offers a snapshot of public sentiment and institutional efforts. It is encouraging to see high levels of support for diversity initiatives, but public approval cannot substitute for action. Without transparency, accountability, and measurable outcomes, EDI risks being a symbol rather than a solution.
For those genuinely invested in equality, the challenge is clear: ensure that policies translate into tangible benefits for Black and brown students and staff, and confront the uncomfortable truths about who continues to be left behind. Only then can support for DEI evolve from a survey statistic into a lived reality.
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