New analysis confirms existence of attainment gap for BME students at UCL

Analysis of UCL data shows that there is a discrepancy in the rate of good degrees achieved by black and minory ethnic (BME) students, compared with white students.

While UCL students, whether white or BME, tend to perform well above national benchmarks, this discrepancy, known an ‘attainment gap’ has persisted for the past few years.

In 2016-17, 94.2% of white students and 88.4% of BME students achieved a good degree (either a First or 2:1). So at the overall level there is a gap of 5.8%. Given the relative population sizes this is likely to be statistically significant. There was a gap of 5.3% in 2015/16 and 5.3% in 2014/15 and 3.9% the year before*.

A project team has been assembled to address the attainment gap at UCL. Dr Julie Evans, Faculty Tutor in Brain Sciences, has undertaken part-time secondment to work alongside Paulette Williams, Head of Student Success Projects in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Education and Student Affairs).

The project receives financial support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). UCL is part of a consortium of six higher education institutions and one college of further education that secured the maximum amount of funding available from HEFCE’s £7.5m Catalyst Fund, launched by the Government as part of a programme addressing barriers to student success.

The team will explore the potential of a number of initiatives developed by Kingston University, the lead institution in the consortium, and pilot interventions appropriate to UCL. These include developing a student-centred framework for building inclusivity into curricula and providing data to monitor achievement within courses.

In January, the team will go out to UCL faculties to recruit BME attainment champions to lead on improvements within their area.  The team will work with Deans to analyse faculty-specific data and introduce a toolkit of interventions, as part of a broader initiative preparing UCL’s application to renew our Race Charter status.

Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience and Provost’s Envoy for Race Equality, said:

"This is a crucial project for UCL. Any discrepancy, however small, between the achievements of our white and BME students, is unacceptable and flies in the face of our core values.  I’m really glad to see that UCL is taking this issue extremely seriously, and I know that there is great appetite for resources and support in this area among colleagues who teach or supporting teaching.

'This project is one of a range of activities going on across UCL that promote and facilitate inclusion and diversity in research and education and our community generally. For example, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team have trained more than 70 Fair Recruitment Specialists who will sit on recruitment panels to ensure that implicit racial bias plays no role in our quest for talent.  Additionally, in 2018 we will be pioneering an ‘Inclusive Advocacy’ scheme for BME staff to ensure that they are promoted at the same rate as white staff."

 * Due to data discrepancies, this was figure was changed on 13 May 2019.

Conference 2018

A one-day conference on supporting BME student success will be held on Tuesday 10 April. The conference will be attended by the Provost and Vice-Provost for Education and Student Affairs, and will focus on developing staff, students and resources.

Register your interest for the BME Attainment conference 2018