For 25 years US higher education (HE) institutions have been grappling with their admissions policies in relation to equal opportunity and race following the ambiguities of the Bakke decision of 1978.1 The Bakke decision allowed for the lawful consideration of race and ethnic origin in university admissions but left the frameworks for achieving this unclear. The lower courts in the USA have been split on their interpretation of Bakke and have made subsequent findings, ranging from race-based admissions being legal, to being illegal or being uncertain. University admissions offices, in particular, have been left to determine the degree of emphasis they apply to race. In 2003, the US Supreme Court braced itself to reconsider this issue, with 2 cases brought against Michigan University by white students who had been denied entry, one in law and one in literature, science and arts.