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The ethnicity degree awarding gap at universities means that white students are more likely to be awarded top grades in their degrees than Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students.
Our 2019 Closing the gap report urged universities to do more to close the awarding gap between white and BAME students.
We’ve worked with students’ union representatives and staff to take a look at the awarding gap, three years on.
The gap is a key indicator of racial inequality in the university sector that we must address. It’s an issue that needs long-term solutions and collaboration between people across universities.
In 2019, we called for universities to tackle inequality between students of different ethnicities in the awarding of degrees.
While progress has been made since 2019, there is still a substantial gap between the likelihood of white and BAME students awarded a First or 2:1 in their degree. It’s clear that a student’s ethnicity can significantly affect their degree outcome, even when other factors such as prior attainment are taken into consideration.
For me it is important for everybody to realise that there is a problem. There is a situation, and even if those conversations are very uncomfortable, you have to face them, because without facing them, you're ignoring them, and there's no change.
Denise Morrison
Full-time Officer for School of Social Sciences & Social Professions and incoming President, London Met Students’ Union
We worked with senior university leaders, as well as university staff and students’ unions, to find out what has been successful since 2019, what’s been less successful, and what more needs to be done.
We did this through:
We also asked some of these staff, students’ union representatives and students about their personal experiences.
These accounts show how the problem personally affects BAME students and staff, and how staff can work with students to close the gap.
University leaders have already committed to removing ethnicity degree-awarding gaps, particularly since we published our original Closing the gap report in 2019.
But universities now need to:
Our monthly updates are a great way for you to stay up to date with our work, events, and higher education news.