Investigating the Relationship between Ethnicity and Degree Attainment

In January 2008, the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) presented their ‘Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment Project’ report (HEA, 2008). Whilst the report does not locate clear causes for difference in degree attainment that can be directly linked to ethnicity and gender, it describes concerns from higher education institutions’ (HEIs) staff and students that black and minority ethnic (BME) groups are marginalised. While the HEA/ECU suggest that ‘[t]he causes of degree attainment variation with respect to gender and ethnicity were found to be unlikely to be reducible to single, knowable factors’ (2008, p.2), they do note that ‘even after controlling for the majority of contributory factors, being from a minority ethnic group…was still found to have a statistically significant and negative effect on degree attainment’ (ibid., p.2). The relationship between ethnicity, gender and degree attainment remains both troubling and uncertain.