The academic engagement of White and ethnic minority students in distance education

Abstract

At UK institutions of higher education, the academic attainment of White students tends to be higher than that of students from other ethnic groups. A postal survey of Open University students found very little difference in academic engagement in those from different ethnic groups. The differences in pass rates and course grades remained statistically significant even when any effects of differences in academic engagement had been controlled. This is consistent with previous findings that quantitative variations in the attainment of students from different ethnic groups are not reflected in concomitant qualitative variations in their experience of higher education. The explanation for the attainment gap in ethnic minority students must be sought elsewhere than in the nature of their experience of higher education.

Keywords:

• attainment
• distance education
• engagement
• ethnicity
• pass rate

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Nick Haycox for identifying the samples of students for the questionnaire survey, and to his staff in the Open University’s Survey Office for preparing and distributing the questionnaires and processing the responses. I am also grateful to James Hartley, Anne Jelfs, George Kuh, Erik Meyer, Tony O’Shea, Linda Price, Ormond Simpson, Will Swann, Patrick Terenzini and Alan Woodley for their comments, criticisms and advice.