Impact
Barriers to Success

  • 1

    Structural, organisational and cultural challenges and the time-lag involved in bringing about organisational change

  • 2

    Obtaining a shared understanding of the objectives of the project

  • 3

    Institutional buy-in across all partners

  • 4

    Academic staff questioning the reliability, credibility, suitability and robustness of both institutional and sector-wide data

  • 5

    A reluctance to accept race (racial prejudice) as an explanation for attainment gaps, with class and ‘student deficit’ being posited more strongly as acceptable explanations

  • 6

    Sensitivity around the topic – ranging from a lack of knowledge on how to address the attainment gap, to academic dissidence, to ‘white fragility’ and the ‘Psychosis of Whiteness’

  • 7

    Re-conceptualising what we mean by ‘student-led’, coupled with recruiting, retaining and engaging students across the student lifecycle and life of the project

  • 8

    The paucity of BAME academics, meaning BAME students not seeing themselves reflected in the teaching staff, which limits aspirations

  • 9

    Eurocentric curriculums resulting in materials that predominantly use a Euro-centric lens and narrative to examine issues that do not reflect the students’ experience

  • 10

    Resources to finance BAME disparity work, along with the need for greater human time and fiscal resources, are required for staff to be able to fully engage with this work