Supporting underrepresented students in Higher Education: Student Success Series (online)

Focusing on supporting and/or working with underrepresented students in Higher Education (HE), the Student Success Staff Speaker series will run between October to March on a bi-monthly basis. This will feature Higher Education practitioners to help raise awareness of issues that students face within HE as well as helping to build an understanding of how to best support these students in our day to day work. 

For any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Student Success team at smss.studentsuccess@ucl.ac.uk.

Wednesday 9 October (2-3.15pm)

Join us for our event on the 9 October 2024 at 2-3.15pm, where we will be joined by:

Dr. Gurnam Singh, Associate Honorary Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, is a highly respected activist researcher, writer, educator and broadcast journalist who is dedicated to exposing and challenging systems of power, privilege, and violence that perpetuate human suffering and inequality. 

Gurnam Singh's contributions to pedagogy and higher education have earned him numerous accolades throughout his career. In 2009, he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship from the UK Higher Education Academy, a prestigious annual prize given to the top 50 academics in all UK universities. And in 2018 Dr Singh was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA). He has published numerous research reports, conference papers, blogs, and newspaper articles on a wide range of issues related to social justice and anti-racism in health, social care, and education.

Title: Race Equity, Higher Education and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Possibilities

Summary:  The widening of participation in higher education has led to the development of new, creative, and inclusive pedagogies. However, this expansion has also revealed deep-rooted inequities affecting both faculty and students from non-traditional backgrounds. These inequities have prompted the implementation of institutional and sector-wide strategies to address issues such as disparities in degree awarding, the underrepresentation of global majority faculty—particularly in senior positions—and the ongoing efforts to decolonize the curriculum.

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and Bard, has introduced new dimensions to these discussions, raising questions about how these technologies may influence the pursuit of race equity in higher education. By reflecting on the historical relationship between science, technology and the development of racist ideologies and practices, we will explore both the potential opportunities and the significant risks that AI presents in the ongoing struggle for racial equality.

You can sign up here.

Please sign up if you are unable to attend but would like access to the recording.

Register now

Wednesday 20 November (2-3pm)

Join us for our event on the 20 November 2024 at 2-3pm, where we will be joined by:

We will be joined by:

Britain’s first Professor of Social Mobility, Lee Elliot-Major OBE.

Title: Developing an equity approach to social mobility - How can universities level up the education playing field?

In this talk Lee will outline what more universities can do to improve prospects for students from under-resourced backgrounds amid increasing material and cultural divides in society.

Social mobility is both a personal and professional passion for Lee. Having lived independently from the age of 15, he became the first in his family to go to university. He now advises education, corporate and government leaders across the world on how to enable children and people from all socio-economic backgrounds to succeed in life.

Lee previously served as the Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust and was a founding trustee of the Education Endowment Foundation. He played a key role in developing its toolkit of evidence-informed best practices, widely utilised by teachers globally.

An accomplished writer and author, Lee regularly contributes to international and national newspapers and has published several books, including his latest, Equity in Education. His popular 2019 TEDx argues for ‘levelling the playing field of life’. More of Lee’s work can be found below:

Confronting higher education’s class divide

Fixing a broken tongue – Why is the language we use in education important?

Levelling the playing field of learning

Warning over unconscious bias against working-class pupils in English schools

You can sign up here.

Please sign up and accept the meeting request if you are unable to attend but would like access to the recording via Teams.

Register now

Wednesday 26 February (1.30-3pm)

Join us for our next session of the 2024/2025 Student Success Staff Speaker Series on the 26 February 2025 at 1.30-3pm to examine where undergraduate success meets postgraduate access and careers in innovation.

There has long been an undergraduate awarding gap for Black and other racially minortised students, that is they are awarded lower marks in their final degree result than white students. This affects how they progress, and especially whether they are accepted into postgraduate study which requires a ‘good’ degree result. However, in 2019-2021, due to changes put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic for how work was assessed and with allowances made for late submissions, the awarding gap narrowed considerably. This meant more Black and other racially minoritised students gained the highest marks. But what difference did this make to Black and other racially minoritised graduates? Did the closing of the awarding gap open new career pathways in research and innovation? And does this story of COVID’s positive impact on awarding gaps obscure its other impacts on racially minoritised graduates? In this talk, Dr Kamna Patel and Paulette Williams (UCL), share the findings of a new research project examining these questions. In conversation with Suzanne Carrie (Office for Students) and Dr Catriona Firth (Research England), they discuss the role, responsibility and accountability of national institutions in relation to the awarding gap, and the implications of the research findings for policy and operational agenda so focused on narrowing the gap.

Speakers:

Dr Kamna Patel is an Associate Professor in the Bartlett Development Planning Unit and has a scholarly and practice-based focus on racial equity in higher education. She was the architect of several antiracist initiatives at the Bartlett including its ‘Race and Space’ curriculum, use of positive action in academic hires, and co-founded the Bartlett Promise, a 100% equity based scholarship for underrepresented groups.

Paulette Williams is the Head of Student Success at UCL and is the Founder and Director of Leading Routes, a Black-led initiative that aims to prepare the next generation of Black academics.

Suzanne Carrie is the Head of Student Equality and Welfare at the Office for Students (OfS). She leads the ‘Equality of Opportunity’ and ‘Student Engagement’ regulatory functions which oversees the OfS’ regulatory approach to access, success and progression for under-represented and marginalised groups and enables students’ experiences and views to inform the work of the OfS.

Dr Catriona Firth is the Associate Director for Research Environment at Research England (RE) and leads their People, Culture and Environment team, providing strategic leadership of RE’s work to support a thriving, dynamic, diverse and inclusive research environment.

You can sign up here.

Please sign up if you are unable to attend but would like access to the recording.

We look forward to seeing you there and do share with colleagues who may be interested.

Wednesday 14 May (2-3pm)

Join us for our next session of the 2024/2025 Student Success Staff Speaker Series on the 14 May 2025 at 2-3pm, which will have a spotlight on Student Belonging.

We will be joined by Jennie Blake who is the Academic Theme Lead for Student Success at the University of Manchester and Head of Teaching and Learning Development for the University of Manchester Library.

Her remit includes student support, induction, transition and a variety of university-wide initiatives and policy. She founded the University of Manchester Belonging Network and the University of Manchester Library Student Team. She also looks after all Library teaching, both credit bearing and extracurricular, including the award-winning My Learning Essentials.

She researches on areas including inclusive practice, student co-creation of learning and models for student support. She holds her Principal Fellowship of the HEA and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2018 and a CATE in 2024, all three awards recognise her sector-leading practice and expertise in student support and partnership.

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jnyrose
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1553-4737

In this session, Jennie will share her insights on fostering student belonging, offering both her personal perspective and practical strategies to support it. This session will be valuable for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of student belonging in higher education and explore how other institutions are addressing this important issue.

You can sign up here.

Please sign up if you are unable to attend but would like access to the recording.

We look forward to seeing you there and do share with colleagues who may be interested.