Students from ethnic minorities are still under-represented at the UK's elite universities, research suggested today.

Both Oxford and Cambridge are still recruiting fewer black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) students than the average in other universities, according to a study by the Race for Opportunity campaign.

Just over one in 10 students at each of the two institutions (11.1% at Oxford and 10.5% at Cambridge) are from a BAME background, it says.

Across the country, almost one in six UK university students (16%) were BAME in 2007/08.

In order for Oxford to reach this average, it would have to recruit 44% more students from BAME backgrounds, the study concludes.

Students of Chinese or mixed ethnicity were well represented at both universities, the findings show, but fewer students were of Indian, African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage.

There are seven times fewer Black or Black British Caribbeans at Oxford than there are on average at other universities, the report shows.

The research is based on an analysis of the Higher Education Statistics Agency's (HESA) Student Record for 1995/96 and 2007/08 and the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey for the same years.