Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, is under scrutiny over claims that she once received an offer to study medicine at Stanford University, after a former admissions officer at the institution disputed her account.
Badenoch has frequently stated that she was admitted into a pre-med programme at Stanford at the age of 16, portraying the claim as part of her personal journey of resilience in the face of financial hardship. In a 2017 interview with the Huffington Post, she said her ambition to become a doctor was cut short when she moved to Britain from Nigeria, explaining: “I had actually got admission into medical school in the US, I got into Stanford pre-med, and I got into medical school in Nigeria, but I came here because being a citizen, it was just a lot cheaper.”
The claim has resurfaced in various outlets, including a profile in The Times last year, which reported: “At 16, her US SAT scores won her a partial pre-med scholarship to Stanford, but her family still couldn’t afford the place.”
However, Stanford does not offer a pre-med degree. According to the university’s website, “pre-med” is not a standalone programme; students preparing for careers in health can major in any discipline.
Jon Reider, who served as Stanford’s admissions officer for international students during the period of Badenoch’s alleged application, has publicly cast doubt on her version of events. “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,” he told The Guardian.
Reider added that Stanford did not issue offers based solely on test scores and that a 16-year-old applicant with only O-levels would have been unlikely to qualify. “She would have had to have an extraordinary record,” he said, noting the university’s caution in admitting students at such a young age.
He also dismissed the idea of a partial scholarship being offered to an international student unable to cover the rest of the fees. “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. If we admitted them, we wanted them to enrol.”
The row comes as Badenoch faces mounting pressure from within her party, with rivals seeking opportunities to question her leadership. Doubts over the accuracy of her personal story could add further strain at a time of growing Conservative Party tensions.
