Unlocking minority students’ potential with an asset model approach

The degree-awarding and graduate-outcome gaps between racialised ethnic minority and white students remain stark – 18.8 per cent in 2021-22, based on Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) 2023 figures, and about 8 per cent in 2019-20, according to graduate outcomes data from the UK Department for Education in 2023, respectively.

This is despite UK universities continuing to invest in activities to recruit students from traditionally under-represented groups. The number of black students entering higher education increased steadily between 2020 and 2023, according to Hesa figures, for example, rising to about 10 per cent of the student population in 2023. 

Many universities have created programmes to address the attainment gap, but approaches are often steeped in deficit-model thinking, emphasising financial support and upskilling students to “fix” their knowledge.

Moving away from a deficit model towards an asset model

Our approach through the Future Talent Programme is to work with students from an asset model approach. In changing the narrative, so students are not seen as “disadvantaged” or needing support or “fixing”, we equip them to identify and articulate skills and strengths gained through their own life experiences and rich cultural heritage.

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So, despite working in the careers service, we stopped our sessions on CVs and workshops on employability and shifted our approach to providing opportunities for students to showcase their potential. These include insight days (visits to employer offices to get a flavour of the work the company does), employer challenges, micro internships, work shadowing and mentoring.

The importance of cultural capital and addressing internal biases

We as staff need to acknowledge and address the internal biases we hold and consider the impact of these on our interactions with students. We must accept that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work and that having conversations with black and minority ethnic students in the same ways as we do with their white peers could inadvertently cause harm and break down trust in the relationship.

To add to this, failing to acknowledge our students’ cultural capital hinders our ability to support them to take up opportunities and progress. Celebrating cultural capital and becoming familiar with this helps staff to understand the value of students’ cultural practices and experiences, which in turn enables staff to tailor their advice and guidance to be more relatable and applicable. When their cultural capital is recognised in education settings, students have a sense of identity, and feel seen and heard, which leads to their feeling empowered to use their lived experiences to promote their own agency.

Listen to students

Educators and student support staff should listen to the needs of the students rather than relying on secondary sources of data when creating opportunities and activities to advance student growth. Regular focus groups with black students, and learning from information shared in these conversations, allow teams to adapt provision so it meets students’ needs. 

Listening to students’ experiences and needs, for example, led us to create partnerships with organisations that specialise in working with black and South Asian people and advance our mentoring offers as one-to-one coaching provision.

Representation is key

A lack of representation in senior positions in both academia and industry can leave students from ethnically diverse backgrounds with feelings of low aspiration and efficacy. Providing this representation and opportunities to speak with people who can better understand their situations based on their cultural backgrounds, values, norms and expectations is key to advancing student success.

Having mentors of the same heritage and shared lived experiences is valuable to students as are networks and spaces for people to come together and learn from one another. 

Examples include:

• an ethnically diverse team of staff with lived experiences 
• peer mentors with shared lived experiences and from same ethnicities
• industry and alumni mentors with shared lived experiences and from same ethnicities.

Supporting the student as a whole

Black and minority ethnic students have reached higher education due to their abilities and competence. However, the systemic structures in which they operate within the institution, coupled with the internal biases held by staff they engage with, can create and maintain barriers that make it harder for them to succeed. 

Programmes and processes encompassing services such as well-being, and academic and financial services should allow students to work on their personal and professional growth as a whole rather than being passed from pillar to post dependent upon the support they need.

Hemisha Harji is a diversity and inclusion coordinator, and Gemma Francis is an EDI projects officer, both at Loughborough University.

Loughborough University’s Future Talent Programme was shortlisted in the Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year category in the 2024 THE Awards. A full list of nominees can be found here.

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