Conference sessions in Attainment gaps
Designing unfair practice policies to encourage good academic practice in international students from Business and Economics
Presentation at DEE 2019,A number of recent media reports have highlighted a perceived ‘crisis’ in UK higher education associated with students cheating – either through plagiarising work, or otherwise through the reported growing problem of ‘commissioning’ (paying an individual or company to produce a bespoke essay). Of particular note in many reports is that non-EU international students make up a disproportionate proportion of discovered cases. One characteristic of this recent media reporting is that it frequently focusses on reporting and perpetuating a sense of moral outrage around plagiarism and associated offences. Whilst such exposure is useful in attracting the attention of the readership, politicians, and organisations responsible for academic standards, it is rarely helpful in encouraging institutions to consider the more holistic questions around understanding why students engage in such practices. Indeed, efforts by universities to eliminate these unfair practices have all the hallmarks of an ‘arms race’ – investments in detection and penalties increase, which drives ingenious ways to bypass detection, and yet has little impact on the problem overall – resulting in increasingly inefficient uses of resources. Through focus groups and surveys of Economics and Business students at a number of UK HE institutions, this research aims to shift this system and the associated discourse toward a more constructive outcome by broadening understanding of international students’ attitudes toward, and specific challenges around, unfair practices and policies. It is informed by the belief that unfair practice (UP) policies should facilitate the learning of students, as opposed to simply punishing students for non-compliance, and aims to produce a readily implementable set of policy guidelines which can be implemented across the sector.
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.
