How to shrink the gap that holds black scientists back

As universities in the United Kingdom prepare to welcome new undergraduates, a study from University College London suggests ways to level the playing field between white and minority-ethnic science students, writes Ingrid Torjesen for Nature.

Black students face barriers progressing to PhD programmes, and experience other career setbacks, because they are more likely to receive lower undergraduate degree classifications than their white peers, the study, published in the journal eLife has found. Differences in academic performance between white students and those from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities persist, despite students from both groups having similar grades, on average, in their A-levels, the exams used by UK universities to select students for admission to undergraduate courses. Similar award gaps have been reported in other countries, the paper notes, including the Netherlands, the United States and Australia.

Kingston University in London, the University of Brighton and the University of the Arts London have introduced measures to reduce the undergraduate award gap. They include taking steps to ‘decolonise’ curricula, by making the educational practice more inclusive; increasing training in unconscious bias; the blind marking of papers; giving students more feedback; and trying to nurture students’ feeling of belonging, the study by Louise Cramer says.
Full report on the Nature site