Closing the gap: How can university leaders take action on ethnicity degree awarding gaps?

Universities UK’s #ClosingTheGap report identifies the role that strong leadership plays in addressing ethnicity awarding gaps. It outlines key areas where progress is essential if we are to eliminate gaps, and includes clear recommendations. It feels tempting to point at the report and simply say, 'There you are, do that!’

But leadership, of course, is not that simple. My own doctorate identified the role of knowledge, structures and resources in leadership practice. University leaders must use #ClosingTheGap as a starting point for their own action.

Identifying the problem is vital. The extent of ethnicity awarding gaps, in individual institutions and sector-wide, is shocking. However, understanding means not only acknowledging the data, but engaging with the lived experience of students and the colleagues teaching them.

All university leaders have a duty to know the data and to listen actively to their communities. They should set up situations in which others can learn too, through workshops and honest, challenging conversations.

But knowledge is important in other ways too. ‘Knowing what is going on’ is a critical part of leadership. Leaders will be very familiar with the top-down initiatives in their institution, and may well have instigated some. But they should also make it their responsibility to get to know grassroots initiatives and the people working on them, including student leaders, to make connections and to empower.

Communications gaps in universities are common. It's a leader’s role to seek to close them, working in partnership with colleagues and students.

Structures are important, too. Governance, policies, committees and working groups can drive or impede progress. Institutional leaders and senior managers can ensure that awarding gaps are reported and discussed at every level so that goals are set, actions planned, initiatives are evaluated, and progress is made.

And who sits on those bodies – whose voice is in the room, who is called to account for outcomes – determines whose expertise and priorities shape institutional strategies and goals. Planning and forming committees may not be exciting, but it is critical.

Finally, resources matter. Ensuring that sufficient time and money is invested in research, scholarship, interventions, and evaluations is vital. Funding student champions, inclusion co-ordinators or co-creation projects will build needed partnership with students. It is senior leaders who can unlock those resources.

But there are other resources than money to attend to. Staff and students at every level working for change need access to the right information, data and people – and these are resources too. Knowledge is power, and senior university leaders are often gatekeepers. Opening up access to these resources is sometimes something only leaders can do.

The data on awarding gaps is shocking. To eliminate them, everyone in higher education needs to make a personal commitment to action. The nature of their roles means that senior leaders have significant space in which to act.

There is so much work ongoing, but also so much to do, and by using knowledge, structures and resources, university leaders can have real impact.