Description
Chair of panel discussion, live streaming: Higher Education, Equality & Ethnicity: The Attainment Gap – What should we be doing? Despite the fact that anomalies in degree attainment between White and BME students were first identified in the late 1990’s by Bhattacharyya et al. (2003), the issue remains largely outside the public consciousness (Law et al., 2004; Deem et al., 2005) with the majority of the population unaware that an ‘attainment gap’ exists. Indeed within many institutions the existence of a ‘gap’ in the attainment of White and BME students is a taboo subject, with colleagues often afraid to acknowledge, let alone discuss, the potential underlying causes or long term impact. In looking at the situation holistically, it is evident that whilst disparities in degree attainment may be statistically significant, they are exceptionally difficult to explain (Turney et al., 2002; Back, 2004). Building on the findings of the HEA SDG BME Project in which eight HEIs have put into place positive interventions with which to identify, evaluate and address the issues at an institutional level, this Panel Discussion will seek to unpack the issues behind the ‘BME-White Student Attainment Gap’. The first part of the panel-led discussion will comprise three short ‘5’ minute ‘problem-to-solution’ discussions from partner HEIs. This will be followed by a ‘10’ minute project overview from the Panel Chairs which will focus upon two areas that have emerged from an initial meta-analysis of the whole project; Institutional Support, and Issues of Language. A number of key questions will be asked before the discussion is opened up to the audience who will be encouraged to participant in what is anticipated will be a lively debate about how we, as a Sector, can best enhance the student experience so as to enhance the learning and in doing so address the attainment gap.| Period | 1 Jun 2014 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Newport, United KingdomShow on map |