Stanford University has rejected Kemi Badenoch’s claim that she was offered a pre-medicine scholarship at age 16, with its former admissions officer stating no record exists and that such offers would never be made based solely on test scores or in partial form.
Stanford University has formally denied that it offered Kemi Badenoch—now leader of the UK Conservative Party—a scholarship or place to study pre-medicine at the age of 16, contradicting long-standing claims from Badenoch and her party .
According to Jon Reider, the admissions officer responsible at the time, he “would have been responsible for offering Badenoch a place but had not done so.” He said emphatically, “Although 30 years have passed, I would definitely remember if we had admitted a Nigerian student with any financial aid. The answer is that we did not do so” .
Reider also dismissed the notion that offers could be based on test scores alone: “I assure you that we would not have admitted a student based on test scores alone, nor would we have mailed an invitation to apply to any overseas students based on test scores.” He added that partial scholarships were not the norm: “If an applicant needed, say, $30,000 a year to attend Stanford, we would offer them the full amount.