2. The RAF is trying to be and recruit more diverse people. This is nothing to do with quotas, but is about ensuring that we get to choose the best people from as wide a sphere as possible.
Thread drift, if I may.
The above is interesting.
What is the RAF requirement for selection as aircrew, for example, as far as academic qualifications are concerned? Quite high I would expect. So those who don't make the cut, are weeded out before any aptitude for flying, is considered. This doesn't fit with your comment above.
Dragged up in a poor family I left school at 15, knowing up to 12 x table. I went the self improver route, and was flying professionally at 20. UK ATPL 1978, at 26. I classed myself as an aviator, not a mathematician. I'm not implying I would have made it into the RAF on flying ability. However I would not even qualify to enroll at a ATO now.