Ethnicity and differential degree attainment

HEA/ECU BME summit - participant universities’ 2007/8 data (Berry and Loke 2011)

Aston; Bedfordshire; Bradford; Coventry; Greenwich; Hertfordshire; Leeds Metropolitan; London Metropolitan; Northampton; OU; Portsmouth; Roehampton ; Teeside; University of the Arts

• Research undertaken for the then DfES on Ethnicity and Degree Attainment in 2007 by Broecke and Nicholls... found that even controlling for a wide range of factors thought likely to contribute, coming from a minority ethnic community had a statistically significant and negative effect on degree attainment.

• Findings from the 2008 ECU/HEA project ...highlighted once again the somewhat confusing and complex picture regarding degree attainment, ethnicity and the mitigating effects of socio-economic, educational and institutional factors for individual attainment.

Improving the degree attainment of Black and minority ethnic students (Berry and Loke 2011)

UH: Percentage of ‘Good degrees’ by Ethnicity 2009/10

Overall White Mixed Asian Black Chinese0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Developing an Inclusive Culture project

Inclusive teaching strand of

curriculum design toolkit

Case studies

Communication(eg. social media/web

2.0)

Teaching practice:• Teaching environment - free from prejudice, discrimination

and harassment?• Teaching style – does it take account of students’

backgrounds, language needs and varied learning styles?• Eurocentric curriculum? examples from different cultural

backgrounds• Encouragement of students to be globally and culturally

aware• Is race equality built into our

teaching?

Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University TEACHING IN RACIALLY DIVERSE COLLEGE CLASSROOMS

Case StudiesHumanities:Identified paid work experience specifically for black candidates within discipline (eg diversity summer internship scheme; diversity funds and the diversity trust)Invites BME external speakers Stimulated dialogue about mixed group and benefits to learning

Education:5 Stage plan to eliminate any possible discriminationApplication, Induction, Learning and Teaching activities, placements, assessment (anonymous marking where possible)

Business School:Following up work in the Business School initiated by the BME summit programmeDiscussion with staff to ensure inclusive seminars Agenda item on each FLTAG

Pharmacy:Dissertation – analysis of performance of Pharmacy students and Bioscience students on same module to determine any differentials between coursework performance and exam performance plus consideration of cultural difference within the two schools

UHSU Societies

• 48 societies listed on the UHSU website• 9 associated with ethnicity/cultural

background (e.g. Afro-Caribbean, Nigerian, Tamil, Greek, Kurdish)

• 11 associated with religious belief

Individual change:

Shifting purpose for engaging staff in equality

Aiming to increase

awareness

Aiming to increase

understanding

Aiming to take action

May and Bridger (2010) p. 86

References: • May, H and Bridger, K (2010) Developing and embedding inclusive

policy and practice in higher education. York: Higher Education Academy.

• May (2010) Towards an Inclusive Culture: Engaging Students in Institutional Enhancement. Presentation accessed via www.heacademy.ac.uk Dec 2010

• Summit Programme to promote student success: ‘Improving the degree attainment of Black and Minority Ethnic Students’. Accessed via http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/ourwork/inclusion/Coventryethnicitysummit Dec 2010

• Teaching in Racially Diverse College Classrooms. Accessed via http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58474/TFTrace.html Dec 2010

• Thornton (2009) BME workshop. University of Hertfordshire.