Abstract
It is well known that universities award fewer “high class” degrees to students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. This issue has been recognised for years, but progress on closing these awarding gaps has been slow. As universities are increasingly driven by quantitative metrics and league tables, in this chapter Hubbard argues that institutional awarding gaps should become a key performance metric in their own right. She discusses the merits of making live awarding gap data available at the disciplinary level, and the statistical limitations of such data, particularly when considering intersections of disadvantage. Hubbard also call on the sector to adopt awarding gap metrics in national league tables and quality assurance exercises, so that institutions can be transparently judged on their efforts to reduce educational inequality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“Attainment gap” is the more commonly used term, but I use the phrase ‘awarding gap’ here to avoid deficit language. This language shifts the primary responsibility towards the institution to award degrees equitably, rather than on students from minority groups to attain equally.
References
Berry, J., & Loke, G. (2011). Improving the degree attainment of Black and minority ethnic students. Equality Challenge Unit, Higher Education Academy. Available at: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/ecu/improving-degree-attainment-bme_1578655185.pdf
Connor, H. et al. (1996). Ethnic minority graduates: Differences by degrees (Report No. 309). Institute for Employment Studies, University of Sussex. Available at: https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/309.pdf
Connor, H. et al. (2004). Why the difference? A closer look at higher education minority ethnic students and graduates (Research Report RR552). Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Available at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/ethnicity/migrated/documents/educationreport.pdf
Cousin, G., & Cureton, D. (2012). Disparities in Student Attainment (DISA). Higher Education Academy. Available at: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/staff/media/departments/college-of-learning-and-teaching-/documents/learning-and-teaching-projects-/disa/worlverhampton_2010_disa_final_report.pdf
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 8.
Equality Challenge Unit and The Higher Education Academy. (2008). Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment Project. Equality Challenge Unit, The Higher Education Academy. Available at: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/ecu/ethnicity-gender-and-degree-attainment-project-final-report_1571753634.pdf
Hazelkorn, E. (2007). The impact of league tables and ranking systems on higher education decision making. Higher Education Management and Policy. OECD, 19(2), 1–24.
Hazelkorn, E. (2009). Rankings and the battle for world-class excellence. Higher Education Management and Policy, 21(1), 1–22.
HESA. (2020a). Table 5 – UK domiciled HE student enrolments by HE provider and ethnicity marker 2014/15 to 2018/19 | HESA, HESA. Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-5. Accessed 17 Feb 2020.
HESA. (2020b). Widening participation: UK Performance Indicators 2018/19 | HESA, HESA. Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/widening-participation. Accessed 18 Feb 2020.
Higher Education Funding Council for England. (2018). TEF Year Two – Higher Education Funding Council for England, HEFCE. Higher Education Funding Council for England. Available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20180319122726/http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef/participants/tef2/. Accessed 16 Feb 2020.
Locke, W. et al. (2008). Counting what is measured or measuring what counts? League tables and their impact on Higher Education Institutions in England. Bristol: HEFCE. Available at: http://oro.open.ac.uk/11799/. Accessed 16 Feb 2020.
Lynch, K. (2015). Control by numbers: New managerialism and ranking in higher education. Critical Studies in Education. Routledge, 56(2), 190–207.
Martin, I. (2018). Benchmarking widening participation: How should we measure and report progress? HEPI. Available at: https://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/HEPI-Policy-Note-6-Benchmarking-widening-participation-FINAL.pdf
McDuff, N., et al. (2018). Closing the attainment gap for students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds through institutional change. Widening Participation & Lifelong Learning. Open University, Centre for Widening Participation, 20(1), 79–101.
Mountford-Zimdars, A. et al. (2015). Causes of differences in student outcomes. King’s College London, ARC Network and University of Manchester. Available at: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/23653/1/HEFCE2015_diffout.pdf
Office for Students. (2018a). Access and participation plans – Office for Students, Office for Students. Office for Students. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/promoting-equal-opportunities/access-and-participation-plans/. Accessed 16 Feb 2020.
Office for Students. (2018b). Differences in student outcomes – Office for Students, Office for Students. Office for Students. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/differences-in-student-outcomes/. Accessed 11 Feb 2020.
Office for Students. (2018c). Initial and general ongoing conditions of registration – Office for Students. Office for Students. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/regulation/conditions-of-registration/initial-and-general-ongoing-conditions-of-registration/. Accessed 9 Aug 2019.
Richardson, J. T. E. (2015). The under-attainment of ethnic minority students in UK higher education: What we know and what we don’t know. Journal of Further and Higher Education. Routledge, 39(2), 278–291.
Ross, F. M., et al. (2018). “The great unspoken shame of UK Higher Education”: Addressing inequalities of attainment. African Journal of Business Ethics. Stellenbosch Univ Lib & Information Serv, Private Bag X5036, Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa: Sunjournals, 12(1), 104–115.
Smit, R. (2012). Towards a clearer understanding of student disadvantage in higher education: Problematising deficit thinking. Higher Education Research & Development. Routledge, 31(3), 369–380.
Universities UK and National Union of Students. (2019). Black, Asian and minority ethnic student attainment at UK universities: #closingthegap. Universities UK, National Union of Students. Available at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2019/bame-student-attainment-uk-universities-closing-the-gap.pdf
University of Hull. (2019). University of Hull Access and participation plan, Office for Students. Available at: https://apis.officeforstudents.org.uk/accessplansdownloads/2024/UniversityofHull_APP_2020-21_V1_10007149.pdf. Accessed 2020.
Woodfield, R. (2014). Undergraduate retention and attainment across the disciplines. Higher Education Academy. Available at: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/resources/undergraduate_retention_and_attainment_across_the_disciplines_1568037254.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hubbard, K. (2021). Using Data-Driven Approaches to Address Systematic Awarding Gaps. In: Thomas, D.S.P., Arday, J. (eds) Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education. Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65668-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65668-3_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65667-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65668-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)