Box of delight

As we engage in discourse that acknowledges the past and looks to the future, Black History Month offers a timely reminder of the interventions needed across higher education to tackle the Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) student attainment gap. In the HEPI report The white elephant in the room, the authors recommend that higher education institutions participate in the Race Equality Charter, do groundwork to facilitate conversations about race and avoid vague actions that are unlikely to effect change. These are excellent ideas for reducing racial inequalities in higher education, but another gap between Black and White graduates persists after they leave the institutions – an outcomes gap. As the first release of HESA’s Graduate Outcomes Survey has shown, fifteen months after graduating from university UK-domiciled graduates from BAME backgrounds are 8% less likely to be in full-time graduate employment than their White peers (54% versus 62%) and BAME graduates were also more likely to be unemployed than White graduates.

On Wednesday 29 November I will be hosting an LTHE-HEA Twitter chat about degree attainment gaps.  What are the obstacles and challenges that teaching staff face in addressing these gaps, and what things would help staff to make progress in closing statistically significant attainment gaps between different student groups? The Twitter chat will consider three broad areas where universities make efforts to address student attainment: data, practice, and leadership.