Roehampton University - Improving the degree attainment of Black and minority ethnic students

The team aims to gather narrative and visual accounts from Black and Minority Ethnic students across 4 academic programmes to gain a better understanding of those factors which have contributed to their success. Results will feed into changes in teaching, student support arrangements and assessment.

Using an appreciative enquiry approach, a team representing academic staff, central services and the students’ union will gather narrative  and visual accounts from those Black and Minority Ethnic students who have done particularly well academically across undergraduate programmes in computing, history, psychology and education. Action research will also review good practice from the school and FE sector, analyse university data and will result in joint work with students and programme leaders to celebrate and highlight achievement and key issues during the life of the project. The project builds upon a year of collaborative projects between the Learning Teaching and Enhancement Unit and students.
At Roehampton University, BME students make up over 30% of the student population yet these students are less likely to get a first or 2:1. The project aims to understand why this might be so and feed findings into a teaching enhancement project linked to the University’s new Learning Teaching and Assessment Strategy.
An alumnus of the University, Sandra Craig, has been appointed as project officer to coordinate this work.
The project will report to the University Learning Teaching Quality committee and Student Experience Committee in February 2010 and will contribute to activities planned during Black History Month with the Roehampton University Students' Union.

Team Members
Julie Hall Head of Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit Julie.hall@roehampton.ac.uk
Jo Peat Senior Lecturer Learning and Teaching in HE j.peat@roehampton.ac.uk
Lourdes Melcion Assistant Dean School of Arts l.melcion@roehampton.ac.uk
Gemma Kelly Roehampton Students Union g.kelly@roehampton.ac.uk
Sandra Craig Project Officer s.craig@roehampton.ac.uk