Keynote - The degree awarding gaps at the OU

I was invited recently to deliver a keynote for the school of Education, Youth, Childhood and Sport (EYCS) AL staff development event. A big deal for ‘someone like me’, someone who’s only been an academic for two years. The ever-pervasive imposter monster (possibly quite rightly) reared its head and made me question why I had been asked. You may recall from my earlier blogs that I’ve worked for the OU for thirteen years and started out life in a regional centre, (for those of you who remember those!). I’ve also been an Associate Lecturer (AL) for thirteen years, I tutored on Openings and then Access and now tutor on DD102 Introducing the Social Sciences. I started my doctoral research into the degree awarding gap at the OU last year, and I am now Co-Chair of the OUs BME staff network, which is a huge honour and responsibility. I had to remind myself of these things (as well as receive a high pass mark in my first-year doctoral studies) before accepting the invitation. I do wonder if White colleagues go through this same process (women yes, but men….?).

It was a privilege to be the keynote, sharing some the findings of my early research about the complexities with the degree awarding gaps for Black and Brown students at the OU. Before I started my formal talk, I shared my ‘why’ with AL colleagues (including my doctoral supervisor who was in the audience) – why have I chosen to research the Black and Brown awarding gap at the OU? On a societal level, it’s about wanting to make a difference but on a personal level it’s about unpicking my own journey, lived experiences and past and drawing on these to help me to understand myself and others better. Ultimately however, I want to impact policy and change practice.

I then went on to talk about what I had found out about terminology and how important language is and because terminology is always evolving. The term awarding gap itself has changed. It applies to the likelihood of obtaining a ‘good’ degree which is classed as a First or Higher Second. Previously this was called the attainment gap and it’s still referred to this in some publications. The literature suggests ‘attainment gap’ favours a deficit model; a model which looks to blame the individual for academic weakness, students making the wrong course choices or having a lack of ability. Awarding gap removes the onus from the individual and places responsibility with the awarding bodies. At the OU we need to use the right term, awarding gap.

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) (used by the sector currently) are broad terms that are used to classify a range of ethnic minority groups living in the UK. These terms have become politicised because they are said to be reductionist. The grouping together of a diverse range of people homogenises these groups. Minority Ethnic or Ethnic Minority suggests they are ‘marginal’ or less important. Having said this, it’s difficult to find an appropriate term to describe diverse groups of people when what brings them together is their experiences of racism. Marcia Wilson, Dean of EDI at the OU, recently wrote in the BME network newsletter her preferred term: ‘global majority’. Although I don’t have a preferred term (and perhaps I should?), I do have those I don’t like and because we use White, I will use Black and Brown, unless I’m referring to literature and the way it’s been written.

The next part of my keynote went on to talk about the context and background of the awarding gaps in the sector. Here I explained how, in the UK, inequality in education has been widely reported in relation to socio-economic status, gender, and race, which reflects the broader disparities that exist. Recent social changes and influences like the tragic death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement have served to further increase the national and international focus on race and equality. However, racial inequality in UK Higher Education continues in the differences pertaining to access, representation, and degree awarding gaps. The Office for Students (OfS) reported in 2019 a disparity in the awarding of ‘good’ degrees between White and Black students of 22pp and 10.5pp between White and Asian students.

I referred to Singh’s (2011) three phases:

· Phase 1 (pre-1990) where ignorance and apathy existed with low levels of awareness.

· Phase 2 (1990s) research into diversity started to take place and identify good practice (post Dearings and Kennedy reports).

· Phase 3 (2000s) amendment to the Race Relations Act (post McPherson report) which imposed a statutory duty on public bodies to promote racial equality and the Equality Act in 2010 but with universities in denial still and using the deficit model.

I added another phase, a 4th one, as there’s now greater cognizance of the gap because of the impetus for change (in England) generated by the OfS, and the threat of withdrawing a university’s ability to award degrees. The OfS has set targets for institutions to address and close gaps by 2025.

(I didn’t expand on the data too much as I knew a colleague from the Access, Participation and Success team would be doing this in her presentation).

I then went on to share what access and participation in HE looks like and how the characteristics of a HE student, according to HESA is majority female (57%) with a larger proportion of part-time students being female. 17.7% of university students in 2018-19 were from Black, Asian, or mixed backgrounds. Black and Brown people are are more likely to attend HE than their counterparts, but Black and Asian students are less inclined to study at a traditional university (which you’d think might be a win for the OU, but bear with me).

Something else that I felt was important to share related to the number of Black Professors in the UK which is only 1%. Black and Brown people are generally underrepresented in senior and/or managerial positions in both academic and professional services. This statistic is particularly relevant because of my own lived experience. I had tried to secure a permanent grade 8 post (Senior Manager) at the OU for several years. When I first applied for a Staff Tutor role in the region, I was told I needed to go and get a Masters (yet was appointed to the role on a sessional contract). So, I did what I was told and went and studied a Masters (as a single parent, with two children aged six and four, whilst working part-time). It took me another ten years before I secured a permanent grade 8 job – yet others were being promoted to positions without Masters. How is this equality?

This led me into talking about the awarding gaps at the OU for Black and Brown students. Despite the OUs’ mission to be ‘Open to people, places, methods and ideas’, its policy of open access and our commitment to social justice, the OU is not representative of the UK, or the sector for students or staff.

· In 2019/20, less than 10.31% of the OU student population came from a Minority Ethnic background in comparison to the overall Ethnic Minority population in the UK which is approximately 13%.

· This lack of representation persists across the institution including central academics who write the learning materials, to the Associate Lecturers who are approximately 97% White who deliver the materials as well as the staff in support functions. In Access I made up less than 1% of ALs who were from Black and Brown backgrounds.

· When looking at the awarding gap at the OU, the data shows a difference in good passes of 32pp between Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic students and White students. Significantly higher than the sector average (which when we don’t see students f2f all that much is an interesting statistic).

· The failure to achieve the Race Equality Charter’s bronze award is an indictment of the lack of diversity and underrepresentation of staff and students at the OU; albeit also demonstrating a commitment to change.

I went on to explain some of the underlying reasons for the awarding gap which are a combination of complex factors with implicit and explicit causes. The causes can be categorised into curricula and learning (including teaching and assessment practices), relationships between staff and students and among students, psychosocial and identity factors, and social, cultural, and economic capital. What this means is the following:

· Some of the gap can be attributed to lower entry qualifications caused by a legacy of underachievement from secondary school but the reasons for underachievement must not be laid at the door of the learner (the deficit model again). Also, what is important to know is that the gap persists in HE even when all other variables such as age, gender and prior attainment are controlled for.

· Subtle and exclusionary attitudes and behaviours (unconscious and conscious biases) on the part of teachers and students can impact on teacher and student expectations and thus outcomes. Expectations that academics may have about their individual students or student groups also needs to be considered. Learning at the OU has limited face-to-face interactions between students and teachers, but a high dependence on written (English) communication. This means that the awarding gaps at the OU can’t only be attributed to teacher and student expectations.

· Students have low expectations of themselves. Students in one study felt a vulnerability when studying in English if it wasn’t their first language, a lack of contact time with tutors also meant they felt they were less supported.

· Online identities can be problematic and can create anxiety for students as they can be constructed differently when students and tutors interact online. The transactional distance which exists in distance learning in asynchronous forums or synchronous tutorials may heighten something called identity anxiety. This means our Black and Brown students may feel less comfortable online and find it more intimidating due to the lack of visibility of their peers and a fear of being the only Black or Brown person present. This can have a negative affect because of stereotype threat (when students feel they will be stereotyped). Black and Brown students can feel excluded, marginalised and othered.

· How we create a sense of belonging for students is important because isolation and feeling alone impacts on attainment. This is particularly relevant to a distance learning organisation.

· Black and Brown students are less likely to use help-seeking strategies and are more likely to avoid formal teaching because they have less social capital. They’re more likely to be working and therefore have less economic capital and they don’t know how to navigate the hidden curriculum.

· The curriculum is Eurocentric which means Black and Brown students can’t see themselves reflected in it.

· Discriminatory assessment practices (for example writing in English, assumptions of previous educational experiences) can favour some groups of students over others.

This next part of the keynote was the key part: what is it that ALs can do to start to dismantle institutional and structural racism? It’s important to know that the gaps at the OU are said to be accumulative from module level. Black and Brown students do less well on each module they study, so that by the time they come to having their degree awarded, they are out of the running for a ‘good’ degree. I’m not suggesting student grades should be inflated but there are some things that can be addressed at module level to start to close the awarding gaps:

· Avoid using the deficit model and use a framework of ‘Possible selves’ which explores students’ ‘hoped for’ or ‘ought to be self’ – get students to reflect at the start of their module about why they’re studying, what they hope to achieve and where they want to end up. Getting to know students’ personal stories and personal histories so that we can get a better understanding of where they’re coming from, their history and journey can impact on how we may interact with the student and the way we approach the delivery of materials. Some modules do this, on Access there is a learning plan which students fill in at the start of the module as part of their first Tutor Marked Assignment. I know ALs on other modules who do this as part of their dummy TMA or others who ask students to respond to their welcome letter with a personal history. This can all help students to create a positive identity one where they can see themselves as a student. This will in turn help them to seek out support when they need it because they themselves as a learner succeeding.

· Support students transitioning to university with an induction model which is a process not event can help students integrate and feel as though they belong. This can be at university, module, and tutor group level too – think about how students are welcomed to the module, to the tutor group and help them to feel like they’re a student who belongs at the OU.

· Teach students how to tackle assessment to reduce anxiety which can result in something called stereotype threat. This is often exacerbated by over-efforting. What this means is that Black students work twice as hard as other students, based on their belief system that they need to do this to succeed and to negate the stereotype of a lack of academic ability. (I was told by my mum that I’d have to work twice as hard as everyone else because I was Brown and a woman). Raising awareness among our students of the gaps and the support available can all help close the gaps.

· A globalized or internationalised curriculum recognizes different experiences and allows for a diverse range of peoples to be reflected. Co-creation of the curriculum and its delivery can be a powerful way of involving learners in what they’re learning and support a sense of belonging and affinity with what is being learnt. Although ALs aren’t in control of the curriculum, they can choose examples that are meaningful to all students and challenge module teams to ensure their module design is inclusive and anti-racist.

What does the OU as an institution need to do:

· Adopt an institutional-wide approach, engaging stakeholders including staff and students.

· Improve the quality of data collated for monitoring of the gaps in progression, retention, degree outcomes (better analytics).

· Invest in staff development for those designing and delivering the curriculum.

· Diversify the workforce to increase representation of Black and South Asian staff in leadership positions (HEPI, 2020). This will help Black and Brown students to identify with staff, see role models and aspire for their possible self (and create future academics by feeding the leaky pipeline).

And therein ended my keynote.

I received some positive feedback from respected AL and central colleagues, which I’m incredibly thankful for. I am also grateful for having been given the opportunity to share what I’ve learnt over the last year. One of the key takeaways for me was prompted by a comment in the chat box which said how all marginalised groups need to be considered. My response to that question was that intersectionality is key. Upon reflection, I wish I’d said that we all have a responsibility to change things at the OU and in society. It’s not a matter of pitching one marginalised group against another, but about recognising how intersectionality might compound the awarding gaps further by dealing with one of the deepest and most ingrained inequalities in society first - racism.