Emmanuel Law Fellow calls for more ethnic minority applicants

A specialist in cartel law, Dr Odudu was brought up in Blackburn in Lancashire and is the second of eight children born to British-Nigerian parents. At secondary school, his potential was spotted by teachers and he gained a place at Sidney Sussex College to study law.

Dr Odudu is concerned that although the number of ethnic minority applicants to Cambridge has risen in recent years, significant numbers of young black and Asian students are missing out on the opportunities and advantages that an education at a top university can bring.

“If I can make a difference, it is by standing up and telling young people that they achieve if they focus and go for it. I urge pupils not to think of places like Cambridge as out of reach or not for someone like them,” he says.

Dr Odudu is a frequent speaker at events, at Cambridge and out in schools, to raise pupils' aspirations.

“There's a tendency for pupils from schools and backgrounds without a strong history of Cambridge applications to think that you have to be an absolute genius to get a place, which is not the case,” he says.

Whenever he speaks to ethnic minority school pupils and their teachers, Dr Odudu is asked about fitting in — specifically within the largely white and middle class environment of a leading institution.

He says that at Cambridge fitting in has never been a problem. “The atmosphere of the University is tolerant and the student population is extremely diverse. I never encountered any discrimination,” he says.

“It's a place where, if you are judged, it's going to be on the basis of academic performance and not your background. Studying at Cambridge undoubtedly opened doors for me.”

After graduating from Cambridge, Dr Odudu went to Oxford University to do a PhD. He conducted research at Harvard University in the USA and taught at King's College London, before returning to Cambridge.