Scholarships should be awarded entirely on academic merit. To make race a factor is plain stupid.

It's definitely a failing in the English education system (note I said English - Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland have separate ways of dealing with education) in that Universities get money for meeting a sort of "race quota", if you will. Each University has a certain number of scholarships and places they can award for each course. They could award them all to British students, and not receive as much money in the form of government funding, or they can award a small number to foreign students and get more money.

I've got friends who have had their applications declined simply because the University in question needed to fill their race quota. It's something that a lot of teachers get angry about, and something that you see discussed with a lot of venom on forums for Universities.

Education as a whole should not take race into account. If someone has the ability to earn places at top Universities through academic achievement, then they deserve to get in... not because the Government says every Johnny Foreigner accepted = cash.