Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to close the higher education attainment gap between BME students and other students.

Joseph Johnson

The Higher Education Green Paper sets out steps the Government plans to take to improve outcomes for students, including BME students. We have consulted on how the Teaching Excellence Framework will recognise the efforts that providers make to improve the access and experience of students from all backgrounds, and the importance of this to the overall student learning experience.

Ministers have also asked Universities UK to establish an expert advisory group on social mobility and higher education to identify what more can be done to address this gap, and other issues concerning social mobility. The group will provide advice to the Minister.

In addition, new guidance from Ministers to the Director of Fair Access (DfA), published on 11 February, asks the Director to continue to address gaps in outcomes, including those for BME groups, through Access Agreements agreed with universities.