Doubts have emerged over Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch's assertion that she was offered a place and partial scholarship to study medicine at Stanford University at the age of 16, with admissions staff and academic experts questioning the plausibility of the claim.
Badenoch has stated in multiple interviews that she received a place on a pre-med course and a partial scholarship from the prestigious US university, but Stanford does not offer an undergraduate pre-med degree; medicine is a graduate programme only. The Conservatives later clarified that she had not applied but was approached by several US universities, including Stanford, based on her strong SAT scores.
Jon Reider, Stanford's admissions officer responsible for international students and bursaries at the time, said he would have handled such an offer and did not. 'I would definitely remember if we had admitted a Nigerian student with any financial aid. The answer is that we did not do so,' he told the Guardian. He added that O-levels would not have been sufficient and that Stanford would not admit a 16-year-old based solely on test scores.
Reider also noted it was implausible to offer a partial scholarship: 'If an applicant needed, say, $30,000 a year to attend Stanford, we would offer them the full amount. There was no point in offering them less because they would not have been able to attend.'
Ivy League admissions experts and senior academics consulted by the Guardian said proactive offers based solely on exam results were unheard of. One described it as not plausible even for child prodigies or royalty. The controversy follows Badenoch's repeated mentions of the Stanford offer since 2017, including in the Spectator and a biography by Lord Ashcroft.
