The Degree-Award Gap in UK Higher Education: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Racially Minoritized Students

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Interrogations of Equity and Racial Justice in K–12 and Higher Education (Table 9)

Abstract

UK-based research continues to show differences in the academic outcomes of racially-minoritized university students and their White peers. This ‘ethnic penalty’ has enduring implications, and is discernible in degree attainment, employment patterns and pay. It contributes to the ‘leaky pipeline’ to postgraduate study. University datasets show those disparities to be persistent. When seeking explanations for those differences, the views of racially minoritized university students are overlooked. Instead, universities favour institutionally-focused ‘solutions’ that are drawn from the perspectives of (non-racialized) university boards. This paper reports findings from my PhD, which explores racially-minoritized students’ accounts of university. I show how those lived-experiences interact with institutional structures to contribute to the formation and persistence of the UK degree-award gap experienced by racially-minoritized students.

Author

• Ratha Perumal, King's College London