Conference and seminar sessions in Attainment gaps
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Search for Work during the Early Stages of Students’ Higher Education Journey
Presentation at Exeter Pedagogy, Economics, Research, and Teaching seminars (ExPERTS),The effects of socioeconomic deprivation on academic outcomes
Presentation at DEE 2025,Assessing assessment: The role of institutional data in understanding awarding gaps
Presentation at DEE 2025,Women into Studying Economics (WiSE): Understanding gender imbalances in economics education
Presentation at DEE 2025,Academic mindset in Economics Degrees: An International Comparison
Presentation at DEE 2025,Economics for Everyone? Understanding Gender Barriers in Economics Education
Presentation at Northern Economics Network seminars,Do we have the right metrics to assess the ethnicity gaps in education?
Presentation at DEE 2021,What affects the attainment gaps among various demographic groups in Economics?
Presentation at DEE 2019,There is a lot of discussion on attainment gap in Economics and in particular on female’s performance being lower than male students. However, these are not the only observed gaps: national student surveys show that, compare to home students, international students are less likely to be very satisfied with their teaching and learning experiences. A lower performance with respect to their counterparts may partially explain this dissatisfaction. However, this lower performance may also be an outcome of the dissatisfaction (less engaged students work less and achieve lower marks). In this study, we analyse these differences for two UK institutions (one Russell Group, one non-Russell group). The aims of this research are two-fold. First, we aim to understand whether there are gaps in students’ attainment by demographic group, and where these gaps are. A quantitative approach will help us to analyse whether variables such as students’ background, demographic characteristics (including countries of origin) university policies, etc. affect students’ performance; a qualitative richer and deeper understanding of this phenomenon may be achieved by meeting directly with students. Therefore, we will carry out some focus groups and interviews with students. The focus groups are going to be focused around how students’ use teaching resources to prepare for assessments, final exams, etc. This will help us to understand whether ‘direct’ communication with students (through teaching material) has any effect on the attainment gaps, while the interviews will help us to shed light on what else from the students’ academic experience may affect their engagement with the subject. We also aim to expand the number of universities participating in this initiative, so that we can provide a more complete policy analysis for the whole sector.
How can we explain the BME attainment gap in university?
Presentation at DEE 2019,At UCL, students from a BME background currently lag behind their white counterparts in academic attainment both in terms of average marks as well as the probability of obtaining a “good” degree (II.1 or above). In this presentation, we will discuss the details behind this finding, including the variation of this gap across faculties and programmes, gender, specific ethnic background, and other individual characteristics. In our presentation, we will discuss our main finding that the gap in the probability of a good degree is mostly in the likelihood of getting a first, and a third. That is, the probability of getting a 2.1 is very similar for white and BME students. This means that on the one hand, BME students are less likely to achieve the requirements for further study, with implications for the pipeline of BME academics. On the other hand, they are more likely to get a 2.2 or a third, thereby jeopardizing the chances of acquiring a good job. In addition, different ethnicities within the broader BME group have very different degree distributions. We also condition on the usual determinants of academic achievement such as prior marks, gender, a measure of parental background, and find that only a small part of the BME attainment gap is explained by these factors. Based on these findings, we suggest some areas requiring further research, in addition to some initial policy recommendations.
