ePolitix.com speaks to Dr Ruth Farwell, vice-chairman of GuildHE and vice chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University, about the Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment project

Question: What is the Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment project and why was it necessary?
 
Dr Ruth Farwell: About a year ago, the former Department for Education and Skills' Commission for Research carried out research looking at degree attainment by different groups of students.

The research showed a difference in degree attainment from certain minority ethnic groups, as well as a difference in terms of gender. Controls for different contributory factors were put in place, things like social class and age; social factors that might affect degree attainment were controlled for in the research. So broadly speaking, it tried to compare like with like, with the exception of the ethnicity of the students. 

The results showed what we call the degree attainment gap; a difference in performance by different minority ethnic groups. It also showed a difference between men and women. Women did better than men, except for the percentage of first class honours achieved by women, which was lower than the percentage achieved by men.

The Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment project has picked up where that research left off and has engaged with different universities within the sector to talk about their perceptions of the degree attainment gap, and also the practical things that they might be doing to address the situation.

Question: What action needs to be taken now?

Dr Ruth Farwell: It is important that something happens. It is the collective responsibility of both institutions and sector organisations.

As far as the institutions are concerned, I think it is about making sure that we look at the evidence in front of us, it is important that we look at our own data in terms of the performance of different groups of students. We then need to think about the information in the data and reflect on our own practices in relation to the way in which we approach teaching and assessment.

We need to look at ourselves critically and look at how we can do things differently. Different institutions all tackle this in different ways because we all have different kinds of circumstances and it may be that in some institutions the attainment gap doesn't exist.

It may be that when we look at our own data we can't do what the initial research project did and control for the same factors because we only have a relatively small number of students in some of these groups. Above all, we need to reflect on our own circumstances.

Question: The project also revealed differences in results between male and female students, why do you think this is?

Dr Ruth Farwell: It is a complex picture and I don't think there is a simple answer. What the research has done is speculate on a number of possible causes, and in reality, it is probably a complex mix of a number of these.

With regards to research that has been done, not one thing has been particularly conclusive. It may be to do with subjects traditionally studied by men and women, for example, it is a statement of fact that there are fewer women who tend to study science and engineering.

It may also be to do with the different types of assessment in different institutions and different subject areas. So there is a whole host of factors but the important thing is that they signal a need for action in our own institutions, often at course level. 

Question: Are some institutions better disposed than others to support the needs of students from minority groups, if so why?

Dr Ruth Farwell: There are certainly different pictures in different institutions and institutions' missions, their main priorities in terms of their role as a university, are different.

GuildHE is a representative body of what tends to be smaller institutions and one of the things we pride ourselves on is supporting students generally. Our mission is to do with providing a good student experience and being teaching-led rather than research-dominated.

It is often a case of 'horses for courses'. Things are different in different institutions but this is in keeping with the different things universities set out to try and achieve, and some do actually put supporting the needs of all students as their top priority.
 
Question: How can learning and assessment practices be more inclusive?

Dr Ruth Farwell: We can all have more inclusive teaching and assessment irrespective of what our priorities are as an institution. Teaching-led institutions, which value the students experience above other things, tend to want to make sure this happens as a chief objective of their organisation.

However, an inclusive approach isn't just for the teaching-led institution. I think the teaching-led can probably lead the way on this but it is definitely something all institutions can embrace if they chose to do so.

Question: Is it the responsibility of the educational institutions to make the changes, or does support need to come from elsewhere?

Dr Ruth Farwell: One of the things that we felt it was important to stress following the project is the fact that this is a collective responsibility.

It is the responsibility of individual staff members within the universities, the institutions themselves, and also some of the sector organisations, including the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

It is a collective thing, the things institutions should be thinking about in terms of learning and teaching will obviously need to be adopted by individual members of staff.

However, there is support that can come from some of the sector organisations in terms of guidance about what inclusive learning and teaching might look like and the kinds of way in which we might engage with the data.

I think sometimes there is a reluctance within institutions to burrow down into the data because they are concerned about drawing conclusions about ethnic minority groups.

However, they need to have the confidence that singling out a particular group is exactly the sort of thing they need to do. We need to think about the impact that certain things have on certain groups of students, which is not singling them out in a negative way but an extremely positive one.

I think help from organisations like the Equality Challenge Unit and the Higher Education Academy is going to be very important and more work needs to be done around defining good practice in the sector, and funding from the Department would be very helpful in that respect.

Question: Finally, would you like to see more encouragement from the government for minority ethnic groups to enter into higher education?

Dr Ruth Farwell: There is always more that we can do. There have been significant initiatives to widen participation through the Excellence Challenge Initiative, now called Aim Higher, which has been around since 2001, and prior to that, in other guises.

The initiative to raise awareness about higher education and participation of under-represented groups has done extremely well in terms of actually enabling different groups of students to enter higher education. Therefore, now that these groups are participating in larger numbers, we need to be thinking about their achievements and retention rates.

That is not to say we don't want to widen participation further but the focus at the moment should be on what happens to these students when they go to university.

Question: Do you have any final message for ePolitix.com readers?

Dr Ruth Farwell: The higher education sector is a diverse sector and GuildHE institutions are a good example of that. Some GuildHE institutions are more specialist, others are smaller and more general, and compared with larger universities we are relatively small.

I think there are certain preconceived ideas about what a university looks like, which is often dictated by league tables. However, it is important to remember it is a diverse sector. Different institutions are doing good things and they have different missions, so trying to judge us all by a particular notion of what a university is like is not useful way to move forward.

We all have our place and we all excel at different things, at my institution and other GuildHE institutions it is about the student experience and making sure we support students well to achieve.