Emy Onuora

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Emy Onuora

• Aimhigher Greater Merseyside
• Widening BME Participation in HE
• A Partnership Approach

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WIDENING BME PARTICIPATION IN HE A PARTNERSHIP
APPROACH

• BME Attainment
• BME Progression to HE
• Characteristics of BME participation to HE
• What are the opportunities?
• How can we make progress?
• What needs to be done?
• Conclusion

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PATTERNS OF BME ATTAINMENT IN GREATER MERSEYSIDE
Attainment Levels (KS4 5 A-Cs 2003) on Greater
Merseyside Bangladeshi 42 Black Caribbean
33 Black African 34 Chinese 75 Indian
62 Pakistani 46 Roma Gypsy 35 Somali
22 White British 51 (Source Ethnicity and
Education DfES Jan 2005)
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BME PROGRESSION TO HE

• 75,056 pupils in Liverpool, 6 137 are non white
  (8.2)
• Of 6,137 non white pupils 84 are in Year 13
• Of 84 Year 13s, only 16 were intending to go
• to university
• Greater Merseyside Connexions/Liverpool LEA (May
  2004)

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• CHARACTERISTICS OF BME PARTICIPATION IN HE
• - BME females participate more than males
• Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean, Somali have low
• participation rates
• Black groups are older on entry to HE
• UCAS data (2005) shows White applicants
  acceptances
• (83) is higher than Black groups (70)
• More likely to enter HE via a vocational/Access
  route
• Unemployment rates are higher for BME graduates
  than for
• white graduates

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WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES?
There is clearly no shortage of good intentions
in high level policy and strategy relating to the
creation of an inclusive culture based on
equality of opportunity for all sections of
society A Review of Black and Minority Ethnic
Participation in HE (2006).
DfES Education for All, (Swann Report, 1985)
highlighted the need for urgent action to address
chronic levels of underachievement and low HE
participation of Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi
young people.
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Need for greater conviction and belief amongst
all sectors and partners Need to translate
strategies and policies into co-ordinated action
and practical solutions
Need to embed Aimhigher into Race Equality and
other key strategies
Review of policies recognises barriers and
problems and gives green light to make real
progress in respect of BME participation in HE.
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SCHOOLS SECTOR
SIPs will be able to identify patterns in
performance and challenge schools on progress of
different groups of children, for example the
lowest or highest achieving 20, or children from
particular ethnic minorities, on the basis of
high quality benchmarked information 14-19
Education and Skills White Paper, DfES, 2005
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FE SECTOR
FE attracts higher proportion of BME learners
(14) than in general population (8)
Demographic changes and an increase in local
diversity will mean that the number of learners
from under-represented groups is set to increase
and colleges will need to adapt to their changing
requirements. Foster Report (2005)
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WORK BASED LEARNING
Among young people from ethnic minorities,
participation in many apprenticeships frameworks
also remains very low. Stereotyping helps to
exacerbate sector skills shortages. Care must be
taken not to perpetuate these perverse outcomes
within the new framework 14-19 Reform
(Tomlinson Report) 2004
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HE SECTOR
Monitoring and evaluation of the new Foundation
Degree qualification should include racial
equality Why the Difference? A Closer Look at
Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and
Graduates, DfES, 2004
It is for an institution to decide, dependent on
its access needs and priorities, what proportion
of additional fee income it assigns to bursaries
and/or outreach Office for Fair Access (OFFA)
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14-19 DEVELOPMENTS
.particular care will be needed to ensure that
we raise the disproportionately low participation
and attainment of some minority ethnic
groups 14-19 Reform (Tomlinson Report) 2004

• All 14-19 plans have equality statements and/or
  targets
• Lack of rigorous impact measures

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EVERY CHILD MATTERS

• Healthy
• Stay safe
• Enjoy and achieve
• Make a positive contribution to society
• Achieve economic well-being

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STARTING POINT FOR MAKING PROGRESS

• Key Principles
• The AHGTM partnership will provide a culture
  where
• progression to post 16 learning and higher
  education is
• seen as the norm.
• Diversity, equality and the promotion of social
  justice are
• cross-cutting themes that underpin all AHGTM
  activities.
• The (AHGTM strategic) plan will identify
  opportunities for
• integrated and partnership working with allied
  strategies.

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Strong Partnership and excellent infrastructure
co-ordinators in all key sectors and partner
institutions
BME strategy linked to overall equality agenda
and resources committed to this area of work.
Require partnership approach to address issues of
BME participation to HE.
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WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

• Need to develop activities that raise
  aspirations and
• expectations (teachers, parents, practitioners)
• More effective targeting of BME young people
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• HE Admissions
• Utilise resources and expertise that exists
  within partnership
• (BME Development Officer/Working Group)
• What can partners do to liaise with key
  strategies and
• policies within their organisations e.g.
  promote more rigorous
• impact measures and monitoring and evaluation
  frameworks
• What else?

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AND FINALLY?
Bold commitments to race equality appear in all
policies and strategies. How can we turn good
intentions into real action and progress?