A NEW mentoring scheme will be launched at the Imperial College London to tackle the under-representation of black students.

The scheme will offer a £5m scholarship to offer to a new intake of students as part of a wider £20m diversity scheme.

Figures show that out of more than 10,000 undergraduates at Imperial, only 235 are black. The university, one of the world’s top science institutions, says that it wants to at least double that number.

Imperial’s president, Alice Gast, said: “We are missing contributions from large segments of the population. The plan to recruit more black students at the college also shows how multi-layered the figures can be for BAME students (Black, Asian and minority ethnic)”

BAME students at Imperial College are predominantly from Asian communities, including from China.

Black students from the UK are still under-represented and only account for 235 out of more than 5,000 BAME undergraduates at Imperial. A total of 15 students are on record as being from a “black British Caribbean” background, which is half the number of a decade ago. The majority of black students are now from black African families.

University President, Prof Gast praised the ambition for a more diverse intake that, adding that it “will strengthen and enrich our community and make us more competitive.”