Bristol University launches website to measure UK school diversity

A website that will track various statistics related to the ethnic makeup of the UK's student population was launched this week by Bristol University's Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO).

The university says that the site - titled Measuring Diversity - is the first resource of its kind in England, offering extensive data relating to what it calls the "ethnic segregation" present in many parts of the country. Statistics from the site suggest that Oldham has a high "dissimilarity index of segregation", among other insights. All of those statistics were calculated by the CMPO, which is an independent research center at the university.

The co-creator of the site, university professor Simon Burgess, said that "one of the biggest questions of our times is how well individuals from different ethnic groups get along together. Schools are an important place where this interaction takes place".

Academic research is frequently stored and accessed online - indeed, academic institutions were among the first organizations to use the web - but their databases are frequently subject either to substantial subscription fees or arcane user interfaces, information experts say.