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Raising Awareness and Increasing Attainment in BAME Diaspora Communities in South Wales

The context for the project is that 2018/19 saw notable increases in overall registrations in Wales, coupled with a slight decline in BAME proportions in Wales across the period measured (MarComms Insight Programme 2019, ‘Can we grow the OU’s appeal to Black, Asian and minority ethnic students?’). The local authorities with the highest percentages of BAME population within Wales are its two largest cities. Cardiff (south east Wales) with a BAME population of 16.1%, and Swansea (south west Wales) 9.5%. The level of ethnic and cultural diversity within these communities suggests a need for a deeper understanding of how the University can attract, accommodate and retain students from those communities and ensure that learning provision and learning materials are fair, equal and unbiased. 

This project therefore has three main objectives: 

  1. To assess how the OUiW can build on existing contacts within local BAME communities in order to identify, engage with and understand under-represented groups (work strand 1: already underway); 

  1. To identify and analyse current learning provision through a series of workshops with ALs and students (and in a second stage, community group representatives) in order to seek to make learning materials more accessible, representative of diverse cultures and ultimately contribute towards student success (work strand 2. a); 

  1. To evaluate the workshops and complete a report to share the findings, inform production of legacy resources and make recommendations for change (work strand 2. b).