Project | The impact of curriculum reform on the ethnicity degree awarding gap

About the project

We worked with the University of Kent and the University of Leicester to establish whether reforming the curriculum to make it more diverse would reduce the ethnicity degree awarding gap. We also sought to understand whether reforming the curriculum improves the experience of students from marginalised ethnic backgrounds in terms of their engagement with module content and satisfaction with the module.

Background

Among the inequalities in higher education in the UK, the degree awarding gap between students from marginalised ethnic backgrounds and their white peers is one of the most persistent and longstanding. Addressing it has become an increasingly important aim for the higher education sector, and the Office for Students has a key performance measure to address it. 

Over the last decade, interventions across the sector have sought to tackle inequalities with respect to race or ethnicity. However, the persistence of the degree awarding gap has revealed a myriad of complexities and challenges for higher education providers, and so the pace of change has been slow.