During this unit, I have noticed in the workshops, blogs, and in conversations, how despondent and frustrated people are feeling on the subject of the awarding gap. It appears that the scale of the awarding gap is the main factor in feelings of despondency. There is also the consensus that the awarding gaps are not being acknowledged; that not enough is being done to address this systemic and structural issue.
I can relate to feeling despondent, but I would like to suggest that there is much that we can do, and we must do what we can, where we can, and when we can, regardless of our role. Recently (12.05.25) I was in a meeting with the Head of College (LCF), the Dean, Programme Director, Head of Quality, etc. The reason? The course that I lead is under review, due to substantial awarding gap between ‘white’ and ‘B.A.M.E.’ students. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and review the actions that had been made in the past few months to attempt to reduce this gap. Once this was done, there was a space for me to share my concerns/issues. I find the acronym B.A.M.E. to be extremely problematic, so my first response in the meeting was to let them know this, and whenever the acronym came up, I made a point of using it in its full wording, not as an acronymised version. UAL still uses this term, despite that in early 2021, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published a report in which it found that terms like BAME were “no longer helpful and should be dropped”. (Sahi, N 2023)
In this space I let it be known that it is remarkable that I did not know of these gaps previously, and that this revealed the lack of action that was being taken on a college wide level to address this systemic issue. I stressed that a systemic problem needs an urgent college and university wide proactive approach, as opposed to the current reactive tactic of putting out fires where they show up, via course reviews. Further to this, I stated that the problem with approaching the awarding gap on a course level, is that any positive work done is siloed, not shared with other courses. So, this means that successful approaches are not nurtured or capitalised upon. Therefore, doing nothing to reduce the gap as a college wide strategy.
It’s not that easy to say to the head of college that not enough is being done, particularly when you suffer from imposter syndrome. I get imposter syndrome when eating a bar of chocolate that contains more than 20% cocoa. However, the head of college responded that my point was noted, appropriate, and timely. Apparently, there are discussions currently taking place about developing workshops and initiatives to tackle the awarding gap. So, my point is, that despondency is actionable, dissent is healthy, and it’s okay if you are more Cadburys than Lindt.
References:
Sahi, N. 2023. BAME no longer acceptable. Available at: https://rswlaw.co.uk/bame-no-longer-acceptable/ (Accessed: 09.06.2025)
Thanks for your focused post on the awarding gap, Danny. I have been thinking about that as well, about how it bears the weight of responsibility onto the assessors to fix racism in the institution. This is a larger problem too, isn’t it? This is a problem of neoliberalism: the student becomes the commodity, and we as staff need to graduate more students, but ultimately, there is no more support provided for staff, just growing numbers. I often think about how the assessment is uneven because of the infrastructure provided. I also think about the language support and requirements provided for a growing body of international students, who provide a large source of the generated income. The awarding gap become a way to compartmentalise blame, not seeing the larger issues that drive these inequalities.
I am curious: how is your programme directed to contain the awarding gap? Are there actual recommendations or strategies?
Hi Christin,
Thanks for your reply.
Good question, and coincidentally something I was speaking with my team about today: Last week we had a staff away day for the school. The Dean of the school highlighted that the awarding gap reduction was one of the main priorities of the school. This is great to be aware of, however, there was no suggestion or commentary on how we might tackle this as a school. It’s a similar analogy to assessing work and providing feedback of why work might not be successful, but with no advice or strategy as to how to improve the work going forwards. I find it very frustrating that the attitude seems to be flagging issues with no pragmatic responses to working on solving these issues. Furthermore, the problem of neoliberalism is that it centres the individual, not the environment in which the individual finds themselves in. It’s the environment that cause the awarding gap, not the individual, so there’s a fundamental problem.
This is such an honest and powerful post, what really stuck with me was how you turned frustration into action. Calling out the use of “BAME” in that space and pushing for college-wide change took real guts. It’s a great reminder that feeling despondent doesn’t mean we’re powerless, and that speaking up, (however uncomfortable) can actually shift things. Fighting systemic issues and keeping it real with your chocolate choices? Iconic 🙂
Thanks for your encouraging post, Romany. I think turning frustration into action is something I will continue to focus on as a driving force. In this unit, I feel I have found a voice for dissent, and once you use it, it becomes addictive!
Thanks for this Danny, your posts as always make for inspiring and encouraging reads! 🙂
Its good to know discussions are in place, well done for questioning and speaking up in that meeting, hopefully these workshops that are being developed have been created with authentic desire for improvement not just to fix an issue.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your kind words Eleanor!
That’s an interesting question you pose, the notion of actions being ‘authentic’. I sense that you are, quite rightly, cynical about the intent behind the workshops. I share this sentiment. After all, why is it taking so long for anyone at executive/higher levels at UAL to ensure that everyone is aware of the awarding gaps? Why is no-one addressing the fact that the awarding gap at UAL is much higher than many institutions? It’s almost like a dirty secret that no-one likes to discuss or tackle, but of course the problem with this is that the awarding gap only gets wider the longer it is not appropriately addressed.