David Cameron has announced that Ucas will make university applications 鈥渘ame-blind鈥� 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 鈥渁 modern, compassionate Conservative party that wants to extend social mobility鈥�.

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 鈥渋n the number of black and minority ethnic students going to university by 2020鈥�.

Mr Cameron writes in his article that the government has 鈥渕anaged to get some of the biggest graduate employers to pledge to anonymise their job applications 鈥� in other words, make them name-blind.

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鈥淭hat means those assessing applications will not be able to see the person鈥檚 name, so the ethnic or religious background it might imply cannot influence their prospects.鈥�

He adds: 鈥淭he civil service, BBC, NHS, local government, HSBC, Deloitte, KPMG, Virgin Money, learndirect 鈥� all these and more will now recruit people solely on merit.鈥澛�

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

鈥淭he 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.鈥�

Mary Curnock Cook, the Ucas chief executive, said: 鈥淲e鈥檒l 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.鈥�

She added: 鈥淥ne 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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鈥淥耻谤听聽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.鈥�

john.morgan@tesglobal.com