From being seen of marginal concern, over the past 10 years, the existence of a significant attainment gap between white and ‘Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) undergraduate students is now high on the agenda for most UK universities, but especially those institutions that have an ethnically diverse student body. As well as providing an overview of the nature and scale of ‘the problem’, this presentation will critically explore some of the ways in which BME attainment been theorised ranging from, student deficit, a product of unconscious bias, institutional/structural racism, and colonial curriculum. The presentation will end by offering a range of strategies for addressing the problem.

Speaker biography:

Gurnam Singh is currently principal lecturer in social work and lead for research degrees at Coventry University. He is also visiting Professor of social work at the University of Chester and visiting fellow in race and education at the University of Arts, London. In 2009, he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship from the UK Higher Education Academy. His teaching, research and activism centres on critical pedagogy, social inequalities, social justice, human rights and anti-oppression. He has published widely on all these and related issues in leading academic journals and has presented over 150 papers at national and international conferences, many as an invited keynote speaker.