Sonita Alleyne, who graduated from the university in 1988, was elected Master of Jesus College in May 2019. 

She wants students of all backgrounds to have the confidence to apply for Cambridge rather than lowering BAME grades.

Sonita, 52, said: “I think there’s a conversation to be had around the fact Cambridge is a bastion of excellence – and actually people can meet that level.” 

Asked if grades should be reduced, she said: “No, because when I think about the people I went through Cambridge with, they are brilliant. They’re intellectually capable. 

“We need to get more people to apply, we need to get more people to think, ‘I deserve that, that’s what I should be doing’.” 

She tells BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs today some of the misconceptions around the university needed to be dispelled. 

She said pupils wrongly felt if they did not get nine A grades at GCSE they had ruled themselves out. 

Sonita, chair of the British Board of Film Classification, said: “If you begin to keep absorbing the stories from the past which say ‘You’re not there’, that is a self-perpetuating thing.” 

She added that Britons should be positive about Cambridge and the academic world after Brexit. 

Sonia said: “It has 500 years of prestige, it’s going to be OK. You have to build a community from a position of positivity. It’s happening. Let’s just get on with it.” 

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