Transcript BME student attainment Claire Herbert Equality Challenge

BME student attainment
Claire Herbert
Equality Challenge Unit
16 February 2012
Our work
= Established in 2001 to promote equality for staff in
higher education in the UK
= Remit extended in 2006 to include students
= Funded by the 4 UK higher education funding
Councils, Universities UK and GuildHE
= 18 staff, covering 9 protected characteristics
= From August 2011 working with colleges in
Scotland
Source: ECU publication ‘Equality in higher education: Statistical report 2010.’
Complexity
Summit programme
= 15 institutions in 2008-09
=Purpose was to explore the approaches taken by
institutions to tackle attainment differentials
=Number of BME students did not seem to impact on
attainment rates
=Need to shift away from a legislative approach (Singh)
=Work is at an early stage (Action on Access)
=The most popular type of intervention seems to be
mentoring and creation of a role model
Policy focus
Individual
Organisational
•Raising BME student
aspirations
•Supporting BME
students to succeed
•Inclusive learning and
teaching
•Internationalisation of
the curriculum
Moving the work forward
=Symposium and research with HE Academy
=Systemic change project
=Unconscious bias
What is culture change?
•I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race
most of the time.
•I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper
and see people of my race widely represented. (and positively
represented)
•When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I
am shown that people of my colour made it what it is.
What is culture change?
•I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I
am the only member of my race.
•I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will
tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief
worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their
race.
•I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that
testify to the existence of their race.
What is culture change?
•I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit
to my race.
•I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards,
dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
•I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or
self-seeking.
•If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each
negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
History of higher education
Who was the monarch when King’s College,
Cambridge was founded?
50:50
A: Edward II
C: William II
(1307 – 1327)
(1087 – 1100)
B: Henry VI
D: Charles II
(1422 – 1461)
(1660 – 1685)
Oldest universities in the world.....
2). University of Al Karouine,
Fes, Morocco: 859
3). Al-Azhar University, Cairo,
Egypt: 970-972
4). Nizamiyya, Iran: 1065
Nalanda University: 2000 year old
Buddhist University near Rajgir, northern
India (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/oldest-university-onearth-is-reborn-after-800-years-2042518.html)
5). University of Bologna,
Italy: 1088
www.collegestats.org
ECU contact details and any questions?
7th Floor Queens House
55/56 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3LJ
Tel: 0207 438 1010
Fax: 0207 438 1011
[email protected]
www.ecu.ac.uk
[email protected] 020 7438 1016