The excellence and reputation of the UK higher education sector are recognised around the world. However, an attainment gap between students of different ethnicities exists at the vast majority of universities, and evidence suggests that these cannot be explained by a students’ background or prior qualifications.
Our 2019 report urged universities to do more to close ethnicity attainment gaps at UK universities. Working with the National Union of Students (NUS), we consulted with students, staff and vice-chancellors to identify the fundamental barriers to racial equality.
The report and its recommendations aimed to break down these barriers and accelerate sector-wide progress towards eliminating BAME attainment gaps.
In 2022, we built on this report, publishing Closing the gap: three years on.
We worked with students’ union representatives and staff to take a look at the progress universities have made so far on ethnicity degree awarding gaps, and what more they need to do.
Our original report first explains what the attainment gap looked like in UK universities in 2019, followed by a summary of feedback from students and staff to two online calls for evidence.
Information gathered through these surveys helped identify five steps to success. These are:
Subsequent chapters focus on each of these steps and the barriers that are preventing the sector from successfully closing the gap. They include recommendations for tackling the barriers to success.
Universities can work together to address the inequalities in attainment between White and Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students by sharing evidence of what works and what doesn't.
As a first step, we created this collection of case studies for university practitioners as a guide of what some universities are already doing to remove attainment gaps and improve BAME students’ university experiences.
