Runnymede Trust's concern that Government policy changes don't consider impact on ethnic minorities

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS FROM THE VOICE ONLINE:

THE UK'S leading race think tank, the Runnymede Trust, says it is concerned that the Government is making policy changes such as abolishing the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) without considering how it could impact already struggling ethnic minority students.


"Policy changes which do not use evidence as their basis with regard to BME (black and ethnic minority) students are of concern," said Dr. Debbie Weekes-Bernard, senior research and policy analyst at the Runnymeade Trust.

Speaking with The Voice after last week's release of the Trust's new report, Widening Participation and Race Equality in Higher Education, Weekes-Bernard, the report's editor, said: "Abolishing EMA, without acknowledging what impact this will have on aspiring BME students is clearly short sighted.

“Higher education cuts which will affect the types of courses that BME students participate in. Student fee increases and increasing student debt may indeed affect the aspirations of existing school pupils to go into higher education.”

Weekes-Bernard added: “Assessing race impact is vital. Higher education should not be a destination for the selected few.”

The Runnymede Trust’s report, which contains a collection of essays from higher education and race equality experts, talks about the experience and achievement of ethnic minority university students It also looks at possible solutions to addressing under-representation in the UK’s most prestigious universities.



The publication said while more BME students are going to higher education institutions, ‘questions remain as to where they are studying, the extent to which they remain in university for the whole duration of the course and what the outcomes are of their time spent at university’.

It also lamented that ethnic minority students are less likely than white students to go to top universities; achieve a first or second-class honours qualification and find jobs are graduation.

Read more of what the Runnymede Trust said in next Thursday’s Voice (Jan 20).



http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=18765