Black students are more likely to have their university applications flagged for potential fraud or errors than any other ethnic group, according to data from the Ucas admissions service.
Of the 5,160 forms flagged between 2013 and 2017, 52% were from black students. Ucas said it was unclear why this is the case and it would work with organisations representing ethnic minority groups to examine the issue. White students - 73% of all applicants - had 19% of flagged applications. About 16% of flagged applications were from Asian students, who made up 11% of applicants, Ucas said.
Black applicants made up around 9% of all university undergraduate applicants in the period.
Ucas released the figures after an investigation by the Independent last month brought the issue to light. The details come amid increasing focus on black and minority ethnic students in higher education, and their experiences at universities and colleges.
Ucas said a student's ethnicity was not used in any of the processes that can lead to an application being flagged. It said it would now be "reaching out to representative organisations to strengthen the voices of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic students in our decision-making and processes".
Ucas says its verification service aims to prevent students from gaining an unfair advantage, or a higher education place, through deception.
As well as using fraud detection software, there are systems for detecting similarities and duplicates between applications, and an alerts process for universities and colleges who believe an application warrants further investigation. Overall, there were 2.9m university applications over the last five years. Of these, 5,160 (0.18%) had applications flagged and 2,085 (0.07%) were cancelled.
