New measures to tackle university disparity announced
Universities will have to publish information on what they are doing to tackle ethnic disparity, the Government has announced.
They will also be held to account on how they improve outcomes for under-represented students, including those from ethnic minorities.
This will be done through the Office for Students (OfS), which will examine the access and participation plans of institutions.
As part of a string of measures announced on Friday, universities will be required to publish data on admissions and attainment, broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, David Lidington, and the Universities Minister Chris Skidmore, also announced that league table providers would be encouraged to take into account performance on addressing inequalities between ethnic groups in university rankings.
Figures from the Race Disparity Audit and OfS show that although record numbers of ethnic minorities are attending university, only 56% of black students achieved a First or 2:1 compared with 80% of their white peers in 2016/2017.
The data also suggests black students are the most likely to drop out of university.
Holding universities to account through their Access and Participation plans
Putting pressure on university league tables to include progress in tackling access and attainment disparities
Providing better information for students
Reducing ethnic disparities in research and innovation funding
Encouraging institutions to address race disparities in their workforce
Gathering evidence on what works to improve ethnic minority access and success
Mr Lidington said: “I am determined that nobody experiences a worse outcome solely on the grounds of their ethnicity, which is why the Government is making a clear and concerted effort, alongside higher education partners, to tackle these injustices.
“These ethnic disparities in higher education cannot be tackled overnight, but I look forward to seeing meaningful and sustained progress in the higher education sector in the next few years.”
Mr Skidmore said: “I fully expect access and participation plans, which universities will be drawing up this year for implementation in 2020-21, to contain ambitious and significant actions to make sure we are seeing material progress in this space in the next few years.
“It is one of my key priorities as the universities minister to ensure that I work with universities to highlight examples of best practice in widening not only access, but also we redouble our efforts to tackle student dropout rates.
“It cannot be right that ethnic minority students are disproportionately dropping out of university and I want to do more to focus on student experience to help ethnic minority students succeed at university.”
