Significant gains in access for BAME and other less well represented groups have been made across UK HE, with UoN now having the 4th highest proportion of BAME applicants in the English HE sector, and 46.9% BAME students compared to the sector figure of 31.2% (UoN APP 2020-25). However, notable gaps between white and BAME students exist in attainment and continuation, and UoN is no exception. In terms of the latter, in 2016/17 UoN had 86.4% BAME students continuing compared to the sector figure of 88.1%, with the proportion of BAME students continuing decreasing faster than in the sector. In terms of the former, in 2017/18 63.3% of full-time BAME students at UoN achieved a good degree, compared to the sector figure of 68.8%, with the gap between BAME and white students remaining above sector average.

Research investigating both staff and student views has revealed a range of potential reasons behind the sector-wide attainment and continuation gaps, with the implications and recommendations for HE institutions, academics, and professional services now relatively well-established (Akel 2019; Bunce et al. 2021; Universities UK & NUS 2019; Wong et al. 2021). Locally at UoN, a previous Learning Enhancement and Innovation project focused on ‘exploring the factors that impact on low grades of BAME students’ and made a number of key recommendations from ‘having conversations about race though formal & informal settings’ and ‘changing the culture of the institution’, to ‘More staff training and reflection around race, equality, justice, inclusion, diversity, understanding of microaggressions and bias/unconscious bias’ (Dodso, Seuwou and Perrott 2021). 

However, much less research has been conducted about the implementation and adoption of such recommendations by institutions, departments, professional services staff, and academics. Some notable exceptions include studies focusing on specific projects at individual HE institutions, whereas studies engaging academic staff have tended to focus on the ‘usual suspects’, i.e. staff already involved in inclusive and/or anti-racist pedagogical projects (Jankowski 2020; McDuff et al. 2018; Mercer-Mapstone et al. 2021; Mountford-Zimdars et al. 2015). Indeed, at UoN and at other HE institutions a range of relevant training opportunities are offered as part of staff development, but often they are optional and additionally their impact on staff behaviour and practice is perhaps not as well understood. 

This project aims to fill this gap in research by conducting a scoping questionnaire with both academic and professional services staff at UoN to investigate levels of adoption and take-up of ‘good practice’ recommendations for improving BAME student attainment and continuation. The questionnaire aims to understand factors and barriers influencing adoption and take-up, both internal (staff attitudes, views, fears and resistance, capacity, gaps in knowledge and experience, etc.) and external (training and information, departmental and institutional cultures, etc.), and to investigate whether changes to staff teaching and assessment practices, and/or departmental practice have taken place as a result. 

Based on the findings, a workshop will then be developed to explore potential solutions and address some of the barriers identified in the questionnaire, as well as making wider recommendations.