Uncover Progress Proposal: Reflections on an Internship Focused on Creating an Access Project for Black British Students

Adeyemi-Abere, Emmanuel (2024) Uncover Progress Proposal: Reflections on an Internship Focused on Creating an Access Project for Black British Students. In: NEON Summer Symposium, 2024-06-13 - 2024-06-14, University of West London.

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Abstract

Like other HE institutions, Lancaster University commits to advancing interests of underrepresented and minoritised groups through an Access & Participation (A&P) Plan. However, for Black British students, their struggles are particularly acute, suffering an Attainment Gap double that of Asian and White British counterparts (26 pp. to 13 pp). Absence within PG lecture halls and staffing bodies is an additional indicator that barriers for BAME students are differentiated, needing appropriate responses and disaggregation. That call to attention took the form of a Summer Internship, triangulating between the efforts of two Lancaster University students, the Widening Participation Team and Groundswell Research. The Internship involved consultation of students from schools in London and the South via focus groups. These conversations conveyed how, even within the Black British community, there are distinct dilemmas and barriers that relate closely to communities and expectations of young people. Along with the existing reports of staff and students on the institution, the material from these focus groups informed the decisions on the barriers we wished to address as part of this Internship. Indeed, though the Internship had placed focus on pre-entry barriers, this groundwork shifted the emphasis to exploring ideas around the continuity of collaboration between pre-entry and post-entry stakeholders. Above all, there was a desire from students— and parents that were part of an extra focus group— to engage in constructive dialogue with HE institutions to tackle alienation, unfamiliarity, and sources of discomfort. That realisation resulted in the construction of a four staged project proposal: 1. Beyond The Brochure Conference Day: a discursive space centred on clarifying myths and misconceptions in relation to barriers for Black British students through an on-campus visit 2. Immersion Weekend: a residential trip tailored to campus experiences for Black students 3. A mentoring scheme that allows prospective students to network with current students 4. A series of in-school sessions to sustain connections between prospective students and the institution, engaging Student Ambassadors as well as senior and professional staff members. The project proposal was not the only outcome of this Internship. On the way to its creation, various stakeholders grappled with a pair of conflicting dynamics. Positively, there is a readiness and appetite to develop innovative ideas, reach out to leading voices in the space and use community engagement to devise solutions from below. However, as a sector project and policy change takes time and is constrained and impacted by the political landscape. The reality is often students and young people who contribute to bringing about radical change will not always directly benefit. Therefore, there is a need for reflection on the impact of this work on all stakeholders, in particular the young people and communities involved. The lessons to be learnt about managing these projects may inform how other institutions approach the challenge of radical change.