This document outlines a project to investigate the student experience of ethnic minority students at Brookes University. It discusses using student researchers to conduct interviews for the project. The benefits of involving student researchers are that it will challenge staff perceptions, generate new ideas, provide different contacts and skills. The document provides background on why the project is being done, as Brookes is below targets for BME student completion rates. It discusses recruiting and training student assistants to interview participants, to reduce power dynamics and get honest responses. It raises potential ethics concerns around using students for institutional research.

1. Students researching the student
experience of ethnic minority
students
Suneela Ahmed, PhD student, Urban Design
Neil Currant, OCSLD
Dianne Regisford, PhD student, Social
Sculpture

2. Outline
• Background to why we are doing the project.
• The role of student researchers in the project.
– Why get involved?
– Personal benefits?
– Benefits to the project.
• Discussion

3. Background
• The university is more than 3% below OFFA
(Office for Fair Access) target for completion rates for
BME students.
• BME students are less likely to get a 1st or 2.1
(at Brookes we calculated around 45% less
likely, trying to take account of other factors)
• By 2016 we risk being more than 3% below
our OFFA target for BME ‘Good’ completion.

4. FT U/G
Home
students
From FE
% of BME
49
% of White % of BME
with good
completion
37.3
50.8
% of White Attainment
with good gap
completion
73.5
22.7%
From other
51
62.7
62.2
73.1
10.9%
14.8
83.8
88.6
4.8%
9.1
41.3
62.8
21.5%
32
46.6
66.5
19.9%
Of known
10.7
Tariff over
400
Of known
14.6
Tariff below
200
Unknown
47.7
tariff
Table 1: Proportion of BME and White students entering Brookes and gaining
good degrees based on entry tariffs and where they last studied (combined
data for 2009-11)

5. Project
• To investigate the BME student experience
• Combining APTT (Academic Performance Tracking Tool) data
with qualitative interviews.
• What sort of place is Brookes for BME
students?

6. Approach to qualitative data collection
• Employ student assistants to recruit and
interview participants - generic student
assistant job description (pioneered by Berry
O'Donovan)
• Why? – To reduce the power distance to get
honest, open stories. Built into the research
design.

7. A word on ethics
• The ethics committee had some concerns
about using students as researchers and doing
the interviews for institutional research.

8. Benefits to the project
•
•
•
•
Challenge staff perceptions / thinking
Generate ideas
Different Contacts
Different Skills
http://neilslearning.wordpress.com

9. Why I am involved - Suneela
• Research literacy
•
“As a teacher every year I have felt
that literature and theories on
architecture of the third world is very
limited- thus the course contents
have a western tilt- both in terms of
content and theory. The question
about overcoming this problem has
been a burning issue for me
personally for the last eight years.”
“I hope to gain practical
experience of doing
qualitative interviews which
will benefit in my research
degree studies.”
Academic literacy

10. Why I am involved - Suneela
• Personal interest
“being an international student in the
UK currently, and having done my
Masters from Australia where again I
was an international student and being
a socialist at heart it is but natural that I
sympathize and can relate to issues
BME students face.”

11. Dianne

12. Discussion points
• The value of / engagement of student
researchers
• ‘Paying’ for engagement?
• The institutional position on student
researchers (ethics?)
www.doiop.com/racismatuni