The ethnicity and attainment gap in the UK HE sector Chris Brill Senior Policy Adviser Equality Challenge Unit The Open University

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The ethnicity and attainment gap in the UK HE
sectorChris BrillSenior Policy
AdviserEquality Challenge UnitThe Open
University Access and Success for All23 June
2011
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A role of higher education in UK

• To play a major role in shaping a democratic,
  civilised, inclusive society
• (Dearing report, 1997)
• Increase in participation from non traditional
  groups
• But historic inequalities exist

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Equality Challenge Unit

• ECU works to further and support equality and
  diversity for staff and students in higher
  education and seeks to ensure that staff and
  students are not unfairly excluded, marginalised
  or disadvantaged because of age, disability,
  gender identity, marital or civil partnership
  status, pregnancy or maternity status, race,
  religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, or
  through any combination of these characteristics
  or other unfair treatment.

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Equality Challenge Unit

• Projects research and investigation
• Publications guidance and support
• Advice line
• Bespoke services
• Equalitylink
• Networks
• Conferences
• Good practice

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Background and context to degree attainment work

• Long-standing recognition of differential
  achievement across ethnic groups
• Broecke and Nicholls
• Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment Project
  (EGDA)
• No simple answer but unlikely to be reducible to
  single knowable factors
• Sector response variable

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Source ECU publication Equality in higher
education Statistical report 2010.
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HEA and ECU Summit Programme overview

• 15 HEIs over 12 months to plan, develop and/or
  pilot initiatives
• share practice designed to address differential
  degree attainment from across the sector
• focus on, and progress institutional work to
  address, an issue(s) relating to the success of
  BME students
• reflect on progress and outcomes and plan for
  future activity.
• 3 events, commencing March 2009

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Source ECU and HEA publication Improving the
degree attainment of black and minority ethnic
students.
Institutional strategy and action plans
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Source ECU and HEA publication Improving the
degree attainment of black and minority ethnic
students.
Institutional activity
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Enabling factors (1)

• Win argument at institutional level
• Position initiatives within institutional mission
• Alignment with key national and sector policy
  agendas
• Policy commitments influence the allocation of
  resources
• Student retention and support
• Widening participation
• Equality and diversity
• Learning and teaching strategies
• Internationalisation

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Enabling factors (2)

• Using existing infrastructure
• Established committees with responsibilities for
  issues associated with student learning
  experience
• Revising curriculum
• Pre-existing interventions
• Staff capacity and safe environments
• Student engagement
• Financial resources
• Dedicated internal teaching and learning budgets
  and external

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Recommendations (1)

• Embedding change
• embed key performance indicators into all
  relevant institutional strategies
• build degree attainment into quality assurance
  and enhancement processes
• use equality impact assessment to examine
  policies and practices impacting on student
  attainment
• use promotion criteria and performance management
  frameworks as a means of driving changes

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Recommendations (2)

• Monitoring and reporting
• Leadership and responsibility
• assign a lead
• avoid over-reliance
• consider using and/or support the development of
  champions
• identify or establish an appropriate committee
• distribute responsibility across committee
  structures
• engage active senior management support at
  institutional, faculty and service level.

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Recommendations (3)

• Relationship building
• build a critical mass of support
• involve the Students Union
• foster a partnership approach
• Develop expertise and share practice
• disseminate learning
• use continuing professional development and other
  training opportunities to raise staff awareness
• Evaluation

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Contact details

• Higher Education Academy
• Jane Berry, Adviser
• Jane.Berry_at_HEAcademy.ac.uk
• Equality Challenge Unit
• Gary Loke, Head of Policy
• gary.loke_at_ecu.ac.uk
• Chris Brill, Senior Policy Adviser
• chris.brill_at_ecu.ac.uk