A member of staff at my university flagged up this Guardian article.
It appears ethnic minorities are less likely to receive offer from top universities in the UK. All factors such as academic and social factors (i.e. occupational position) are accounted for. However, still ethnic factors stood out strongly.
It was very interesting to read all comments on this article. Some condenmed the scientific quality of this work completely, while other raised other factors to be concerned such as interviews and personal statements.
So, I read the original article by Noden et al. (2014).
Actually these researchers thought out very carefully to build the study model; they accounted for multiple applications by individual students as well as factors, listed above.
Still ethnic differences in success rates were there!
Also, being a boy and being from comprehensive school or disadvantaged social background are also determining factors.
In their model, Pakistani applicants are likely to receive 7 more rejections per 100 applications compared with comparable White applicants.
So is this a case for racism?
The answer is: we cannot tell. Researchers could not account for other factors that were not directly observed such as personal statements.
More importantly, the researchers suggested that we need to look into the mechanisms are likely to exclude students from ethnic minority groups from entering university education.
We need to provide support young children in terms of selecting subjects for qualification, improving their spoken/written English, or just being a mentor to them.
I also think that universities need to be transplant in their selection process. Why would students with similar academic qualifications be selected differently? In the future universities may be pressured to explain their justification on selecting/rejecting each candidate.
Researchers are working very hard to understand the pathway of ethnic inequalities in education, employment, and health. We need new findings that can change the course of this inequality and research funds to support such research activities.
It appears ethnic minorities are less likely to receive offer from top universities in the UK. All factors such as academic and social factors (i.e. occupational position) are accounted for. However, still ethnic factors stood out strongly.
It was very interesting to read all comments on this article. Some condenmed the scientific quality of this work completely, while other raised other factors to be concerned such as interviews and personal statements.
So, I read the original article by Noden et al. (2014).
Actually these researchers thought out very carefully to build the study model; they accounted for multiple applications by individual students as well as factors, listed above.
Still ethnic differences in success rates were there!
Also, being a boy and being from comprehensive school or disadvantaged social background are also determining factors.
In their model, Pakistani applicants are likely to receive 7 more rejections per 100 applications compared with comparable White applicants.
So is this a case for racism?
The answer is: we cannot tell. Researchers could not account for other factors that were not directly observed such as personal statements.
More importantly, the researchers suggested that we need to look into the mechanisms are likely to exclude students from ethnic minority groups from entering university education.
We need to provide support young children in terms of selecting subjects for qualification, improving their spoken/written English, or just being a mentor to them.
I also think that universities need to be transplant in their selection process. Why would students with similar academic qualifications be selected differently? In the future universities may be pressured to explain their justification on selecting/rejecting each candidate.
Researchers are working very hard to understand the pathway of ethnic inequalities in education, employment, and health. We need new findings that can change the course of this inequality and research funds to support such research activities.
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