tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/student-diversity-9638/articlesStudent diversity – The Conversation2024-01-23T13:30:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2204852024-01-23T13:30:11Z2024-01-23T13:30:11ZThree South African universities have new approaches to assessing students: why this is a good thing<p>South African higher education faces many complex challenges rooted in the <a href="https://amnesty.org.za/research/broken-and-unequal-the-state-of-education-in-south-africa/">legacy</a> of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a>. They include <a href="https://theconversation.com/pass-rates-for-school-leavers-in-south-africa-are-failing-students-and-universities-169876">the fact that many students</a> are unprepared for or excluded from higher education. Quality education is not available to all. It’s therefore difficult for many students to remain in higher education and eventually graduate. </p>
<p>The data points to two persistent trends. The first is that, according to 2018 figures, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/EAG2019_CN_ZAF.pdf">69%</a> of young South Africans (20-24) were not enrolled in education programmes. </p>
<p>The second is that racial disparities remain in the profile of those enrolled at higher education institutions. In <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115545/student-participation-rates-in-south-africa-by-population-group/#:%7E:text=The%20source%20noted%20the%20following,%2C%20and%206.5%25%20were%20colored">2022</a>, black Africans, who make up the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116076/total-population-of-south-africa-by-population-group/">majority</a> ethnic demographic in the country, accounted for only 5.5%. </p>
<p>The knock-on effect for young black South Africans is dramatic. The 2022 unemployment rate of young people (25-34) with a high school qualification was <a href="https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=ZAF&treshold=5&topic=EO">40.7%</a>. In contrast, <a href="https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=ZAF&treshold=5&topic=EO">75.3%</a> of those with a tertiary qualification were employed. </p>
<p>There are no simple or easy solutions to such challenges. However, educational assessment speaks to many of them. Assessment is the process of gathering, interpreting and using information to evaluate individuals’ knowledge, skills, abilities or performance. </p>
<p>Three South African universities – the <a href="https://cilt.uct.ac.za/projects/revising-ucts-assessment-policy">University of Cape Town</a>, <a href="https://sunrecords.sun.ac.za/controlled/C4%20Policies%20and%20Regulations/SU%20Assessment%20Policy_FINAL.pdf">Stellenbosch University</a> and the University of the Western Cape – recently approved new assessment policy documents. We were part of a group of University of the Western Cape academics <a href="https://journals.uj.ac.za/SOTL/index.php/sotls/article/view/334">who reviewed these documents</a>. Our main finding was that recent versions reflect global <a href="https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/what-is-the-future-of-assessment-and-feedback">shifts</a> in assessment thinking. </p>
<p>We found that previous assessment policy versions were more prescriptive and rigidly rules-based. They dictated what exactly should be done, for example, the examination rules and regulations. The new versions put students at the centre of the assessment process. In addition, they viewed assessment as a <a href="https://www.rpajournal.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/SF.pdf">social practice</a>. </p>
<p>We conclude that this is an important shift. Viewing students as potential partners in assessment could be seen as a radical shift in power and responsibility. In emphasising students, and the realities of their diverse and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-no-fee-school-system-cant-undo-inequality-178559">disadvantaged backgrounds</a>, assessment practices could make higher education more equitable in South Africa. </p>
<h2>Shifts from rules to real people</h2>
<p>Assessment is involved in university admission and selection processes. It influences curriculum design and benchmarking. It is used to ensure that the appropriate standards are met and maintained. It can help diagnose learning gaps and support student development. And, finally, assessment evaluates whether students have learned enough to graduate. </p>
<p>National statutory bodies set higher education standards, but universities develop their own policies and respond to new issues – such as COVID-19 and emergency remote teaching.</p>
<p>In the past, staff and the institution were very much at the centre. They enforced standards, their expertise was gospel and they were the authority on assessment decisions. </p>
<p>Previous policies focused on the more technical side of assessment, emphasising the importance of validity, measurement and judgement. While this focus is not necessarily “bad”, it is misplaced, as it largely ignores who the students are. </p>
<p>These policies dictated uniform rules that needed to be followed without consideration of student population diversity.</p>
<p>Our review shows that new policies adopted by the three institutions acknowledge the importance of the students and the need for their active involvement in assessment. The new policies re-centre students and their learning, which is relevant to the challenges of access, academic achievement, retention and throughput. </p>
<p>The University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape engaged students and other stakeholders in developing their new assessment policies. Stellenbosch University also stressed the need to build relationships between staff and students for mutual learning and improvement. Peer and team assessment were mentioned too. </p>
<p>In contrast to the previous rules-based approach, all three new policies put principles and values in the foreground. </p>
<p>For instance, they spoke of flexibility, including the use of technology among other modes of teaching and learning. We speculate that this may have been due, at least in part, to the rapid adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Few in-person examinations took place in 2020 and 2021. </p>
<p>Values such as fairness and inclusivity were highlighted. For example, staff should feel free to assess students through work such as online presentations instead of relying only on traditional written examinations. And students should have more and varied opportunities to be assessed, for example extended deadlines, so as not to disadvantage or exclude them. </p>
<p>The universities also referenced their disability and language policies, acknowledging the diversity of their students. Bias or discrimination (ethnic, gender, linguistic) was unacceptable. Staff were to be culturally aware and contextually sensitive in their assessment practices. </p>
<h2>Impact will take time to judge</h2>
<p>The new policies emphasise the role of the people (staff and students) who practise, experience and are affected by assessment, and the differing contexts in which these take place. </p>
<p>This is encouraging because it acknowledges the need for equity, inclusivity and social justice in South African education.</p>
<p>But enthusiasm should be tempered. We reviewed only three out of 26 public universities. Institutions are free to update their policies – or not.</p>
<p>Also, it’s not known how well these policies are understood, accepted and implemented by staff, students and the public. It’s important for students, families and employers, as well as lecturers, to understand what students are expected to achieve, how they are being evaluated and what universities are doing to give them a fair chance of success. </p>
<p>The final caveat is that it will take time to see what impact the new approach will have on diversity, access, retention, throughput, academic achievement and employment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Assessment is involved in many of the challenges facing higher education.Danica Sims, Lecturer, University of OxfordRajendran Govender, Dean of Faculty of Education, University of the Western CapeSamuel Lundie, Teaching and Learning Specialist, University of the Western CapeSimone Titus, Associate Professor: Health Professions Education, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1509522020-12-09T19:13:22Z2020-12-09T19:13:22ZMost of Australia’s uni leaders are white, male and grey. This lack of diversity could be a handicap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373228/original/file-20201207-21-7dlke4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C186%2C3514%2C2326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Burke/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian universities are diverse places. They are a mix of students, staff and communities from different demographic backgrounds.</p>
<p>This is not true of the people who run universities. Higher education leaders tend to have backgrounds that are <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-weirdest-people-in-the-world-9781846147968">“WEIRD”: Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143219893101">2018</a>, of the 699 governing council roles across Australia’s 41 universities, 94% of the incumbents had Caucasian and British backgrounds. The top tiers of senior executives were 94% Caucasian and British in background, as were 96% of vice-chancellors.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-to-confront-its-history-of-white-privilege-to-provide-a-level-playing-field-for-all-139755">Australia needs to confront its history of white privilege to provide a level playing field for all</a>
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<h2>What are the risks of homogenous leadership?</h2>
<p>When top leadership are strikingly WEIRD, the culture of their institutions is too. This reproduces <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/world-looks-like-this-from-here/282A6CCEF723CC392602FC8DF9EE6871">curriculum</a>, <a href="https://litwinbooks.com/books/topographies-of-whiteness/">library systems</a>, <a href="http://www.jeffreyarnett.com/neglected95arnettap2008.pdf">research</a> and thought <a href="http://www.boaventuradesousasantos.pt/media/Epistemologies%20of%20the%20south%20and%20the%20future_Poscolonialitalia_2016.pdf">paradigms</a> that are also WEIRD. This kind of sameness across universities has consequences.</p>
<p>A large body of research shows homogeneous governance presents risks. These risks include <a href="https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-trouble-with-homogeneous-teams/#:%7E:text=Diversity%20in%20the%20workplace%20can,susceptible%20to%20making%20flawed%20decisions.">groupthink</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/law/corporate-law/challenging-boardroom-homogeneity-corporate-law-governance-and-diversity?format=HB&isbn=9781107014879">oversights</a> and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1585280">unchecked blind spots</a>.</p>
<p>A range of risks and long-term implications are associated with <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/Leading%20for%20Change_Blueprint2018_FINAL_Web.pdf">under-representation</a> in many sectors, including <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-27/women-still-underrepresented-in-parliament/11148020">parliament</a>, the <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2020/10/14/govt-backs-harassment-inquiry-into-legal-profession-but-parliament-house-off-limits/">legal sector</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-art-institutions-dont-reflect-our-diversity-its-time-to-change-that-122308">arts</a>, <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2753&context=lhapapers&httpsredir=1&referer=%22%20%5C">journalism</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/nov/22/australian-media-more-than-half-of-opinion-pieces-found-to-have-negative-depictions-of-race">media</a>, <a href="https://www.defence.gov.au/publications/coi/">military</a>, <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/reports-and-key-issues/reports-and-discussion-papers/seeing-ourselves">films</a>, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2020/08/03/i-wanted-only-read-books-diverse-writers">creative writing</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-06/food-culture-media-diversity-australia-durian/12522524">culinary</a> industries.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-and-government-need-to-rethink-their-relationship-with-each-other-before-its-too-late-139963">Universities and government need to rethink their relationship with each other before it's too late</a>
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<p>Australian higher education has not been immune to tunnel vision. We see it in the discourse of “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07294360.2020.1712677?needAccess=true%22%20%5C">internationalisation</a>” policy in Australia universities. There has been a lack of global vision in the construction of many <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/australia-s-universities-need-to-be-free-to-engage-globally">university strategies</a>.</p>
<p>The structural issues in Australia and Australian universities are entrenched, yet have been denied for decades, if not centuries. If we want Australian higher education to meet our aspirations and to prepare future generations, we need to confront this elephant in the room.</p>
<p>A deterioration of public trust in universities and expertise has forced many universities in the Western world to the brink of existential crises. WEIRD leaders are struggling to redefine what the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-losing-sight-of-higher-educations-true-purpose-73637">purpose</a> of the university should be.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-losing-sight-of-higher-educations-true-purpose-73637">We are losing sight of higher education’s true purpose</a>
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<h2>Diverse leadership has many benefits</h2>
<p>Diversity delivers a wide range of social, economic and policy benefits. Higher education needs diversity to continue to thrive, to open mindsets, to gain new viewpoints, to broaden paradigms and to widen ranges of solutions. </p>
<p>Research shows diverse groups outperform homogeneous groups in <a href="https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation">productivity</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2020/01/15/diversity-confirmed-to-boost-innovation-and-financial-results/?sh=2073b17c4a6a">innovation</a> over the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-business-case-for-more-diversity-11572091200">long term</a>. Universities need to play a long game too. </p>
<p>The pandemic is forcing Australian universities to transform. But if this transformation is to be successful, the voices of young people, women, Indigenous people, diasporas and people of diverse abilities need to be heard across all levels. The sector needs to enable talents with all perspectives to co-create new insights and ideas to move forward.</p>
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<img alt="diverse group of students on universitycampus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373448/original/file-20201207-21-12zlfk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The students at Australian universities are much more diverse than their leadership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-august-5-2018-students-1163673487">Nils Versemann/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Practical steps to diversify leadership</h2>
<p>Beyond setting goals and informed targets, we can achieve a more diverse leadership with a few practical measures.</p>
<p>We can establish <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1478210315578562">mentoring strategies and policies</a>. These help ensure a more diverse range of people are in the leadership pipeline and have exposure to executive meetings.</p>
<p>We can <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ791633">create open and safe forums</a> that promote dialogue about leadership issues. Universities need to have honest conversations about the complexities, challenges and barriers to achieving greater diversity in leadership. This includes being able to examine contested ideas such as <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-981-287-532-7_479-1">decolonisation</a>, <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/university-report-card/university-report-card.pdf">quotas</a> and <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-meritocracy-hurting-higher-education/">meritocracy</a> within the university system.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-coronavirus-universities-must-collaborate-with-communities-to-support-social-transition-140541">After coronavirus, universities must collaborate with communities to support social transition</a>
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<p>We can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/110330880901800107">engage young people</a> and diverse groups using <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-40660-7_138">non-English media platforms</a> to communicate key ideas to a wider and more diverse audience. This could shift attitudes toward the Anglophone-dominated status quo and create space for greater inclusion, both physically and intellectually.</p>
<p>The key to success will be <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED412823">empowering the “other”</a> to advise leaders, become leaders and participate in problem-solving and decision-making.</p>
<p>We need to <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democratising-the-workplace/">democratise workplaces</a> through participation, to shift workplace relations and power dynamics. A mobilised and diverse university community could come up with more holistic, innovative and transformative solutions. </p>
<h2>Diversity is integral to sustainability</h2>
<p>More than ever, Australia’s higher education sector needs an <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20180711100836157%22%20%5C">intersectional lens</a>, where leaders see the world through multiple perspectives and through the experiences of students and staff from different backgrounds. </p>
<p>Diversity in senior leadership is essential to give meaning to the assertion “<a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-australian-parliament-house-act-270320">we are all in it together</a>” and to <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/Leading%20for%20Change_Blueprint2018_FINAL_Web.pdf">sustainable development</a>. Acknowledging the interconnected nature of our society, universities need to reflect the ecology of knowledge that is integral to driving <a href="https://sustainablebrands.com/read/press-release/three-reasons-diversity-is-important-in-driving-sustainability-1">sustainable</a> socio-cultural, environmental, economic and technological development. </p>
<p>Diverse leadership should be the norm as we imagine the “<a href="https://en.unesco.org/futuresofeducation/debates/the-new-normal">new normal</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sameness of ‘weird’ university leaderships creates well-documented risks for the sector and adds to the challenges of ensuring higher education meets future needs.Siew Fang Law, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Graduate School Of Education, The University of MelbourneGwilym Croucher, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1421222020-08-31T19:33:27Z2020-08-31T19:33:27ZEthnic diversity on campus helps break down stereotypes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354147/original/file-20200821-24-fbd7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C8556%2C5769&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students who attend racially diverse colleges benefit socially.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multi-ethnic-group-of-students-wearing-masks-on-royalty-free-image/1263065701?adppopup=true"> FatCamera/GettyImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>When students attend ethnically diverse colleges, their enriched experience transforms how they view different ethnic groups and better prepares them for life and work in 21st century America. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/23/12741">This finding</a> is based on the responses of nearly 4,000 students from 28 U.S. colleges who completed annual surveys between 1999 and 2004 about their views of overall ethnic diversity at their schools, specific ethnic groups and their own well-being.</p>
<p>More diversity makes students see ethnic groups as being basically the same when it comes to warmth and competence – <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-02942-002">two major dimensions of group stereotypes</a>. That is, the more diverse a campus is, the more likely students perceive Asians, Latinos, Blacks and whites as similarly trustworthy and similarly intelligent, rather than as stereotypically different.</p>
<p>When students see similarities across groups, it’s associated with higher satisfaction with college life. Conversely, those who attended colleges where most students had the same ethnic background were more likely to keep the stereotypical views they had before college, and were less happy with their lives.</p>
<p>When stereotypes fall by the wayside, students can see more common ground than divisions.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2045, <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf">whites will no longer be the majority in the U.S.</a>. </p>
<p>In higher education, between 1997 and 2017, the share of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/31/us-college-faculty-student-diversity/">non-white college students increased from 28% to 45%</a>. However, interacting with people of different backgrounds can be difficult at first. The tensions, according to what people report, make them more dissatisfied with their lives. Individuals do get used to diversity, but data from countries around the world show that <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/25/12244">adaptation takes between six and eight years</a>. When people adjust to increased diversity, their life satisfaction recovers – and there should be initial signs of this during the four years students spend at college.</p>
<p>Stereotypes play a major role in how people see diversity. Some ethnic groups are stereotyped as warmer socially, while others are seen as more competent or intelligent. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027717">For example</a>, Asian students tend to be seen as competent and not so warm, and Black students as warm but not so competent. When students think about ethnic groups as differing a lot along these dimensions, getting along is harder. Alternatively, if students come to see other ethnicities as basically similar, finding common ground is easier. </p>
<p>Diverse environments encourage people to reject stereotypes. Diversity allows people to start seeing others as individuals and to notice that people within each ethnic group vary a lot, some warm, some not so warm; some smart, some not so smart. Such variability shows that groups overlap a lot. Living in diverse campuses make students rely less on stereotypes and see groups as more similar to each other. Studying how these processes unfold is critical to understanding how individuals adapt to diversity and how our country can best develop everyone’s talent and ability to work together. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>The psychology behind how stereotypes fade away is not fully understood. It might require repeated exposure to different groups, or working together on the same team, which makes people from different groups less like strangers. That is to say, the more individuals are exposed to people from different groups, the more they should see them as familiar, similar and acceptable.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.fiskelab.org/">The three of us</a> are now designing experiments to understand why stereotypes about different groups diminish when people live, work and learn in diverse environments. Understanding how people adapt to changes in ethnic diversity is a key challenge in the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miguel R Ramos received funding from the Fulbright Commission. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Fiske receives funding from Beyond Conflict and from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xuechunzi Bai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students can better see their commonality with others when they attend colleges that enroll students from diverse backgrounds, research shows.Xuechunzi Bai, Graduate student researcher, Princeton UniversityMiguel R. Ramos, Assistant professor, University of BirminghamSusan Fiske, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/979372018-06-17T18:53:44Z2018-06-17T18:53:44ZThree issues language proficiency can hide for students from non-English speaking backgrounds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223294/original/file-20180615-32316-1sa1ppe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Learning difficulties or challenges such as dyslexia or Autism Spectrum Disorder may be masked by language ability for students from non-English speaking backgrounds.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities have increasingly diverse student bodies, bringing together varying forms of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1361332052000341006?journalCode=cree20">social and cultural knowledge</a>. But universities generally don’t recognise diverse forms of knowledge. This is particularly so with language and cultural practices, and the way these may affect learning. </p>
<p>Universities require specific forms of English language knowledge in order to complete degrees. This includes advanced understandings of discipline-specific language. </p>
<p>And yet, narrow views of what counts as academic language — and the idea that language and literacy are neutral, transferable “skills” — create <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079812331380364">challenges for students and staff</a>. It also perpetuates the idea that students lack the capacity to communicate. This is particularly true for culturally and linguistically diverse students if language proficiency is seen as representative of <a href="https://srhe.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13562510902898866?needAccess=true">academic ability</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-international-students-should-mean-more-support-for-communication-and-interaction-39914">More international students should mean more support for communication and interaction</a>
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<p>Language (mis)use can disguise other issues for students from non-English speaking backgrounds. In particular, learning difficulties or challenges such as dyslexia or Autism Spectrum Disorder may be masked by language ability. This presents several challenges for universities, including the extent to which students require specialised English language support, as distinct from social, emotional or mental health support.</p>
<h2>1. Language leading to disengagement</h2>
<p>Not participating in tutorials, presentations or group work can be seen as lack of commitment in universities and other higher education institutions. But this <a href="https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/IEJ/article/view/6766/7411">silence</a> is more likely due to the anxieties caused by having to perform and articulate learning and understanding through unfamiliar and high-stakes forms of language. This includes oral presentations or participation requirements in tutorials.</p>
<p>For example, students’ pronunciation can often cause embarrassment and inhibit participation in class. Additionally, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-13602-002">research</a> has found students who struggle with English also typically see themselves as inferior to their peers. </p>
<p><a href="https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/93463/3/hdl_93463.pdf">Research</a> in primary and secondary schools indicates a narrow focus solely on language acquisition can lead to disengagement at school: for example, through reduced attendance or decreased commitment to learning. In the school setting, learning activities that don’t rely on English language knowledge (such as music, arts and sport) have been shown to increase school engagement and participation at school. </p>
<p>In the university setting, bringing diverse cultural knowledge of theories or practical issues (for example in psychology, of cultural understandings of mental health) to learning activities may help engage culturally and linguistically diverse students. Such activities will benefit all students by offering nuanced learning activities that assist them to think outside specific cultural reference points.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223295/original/file-20180615-32313-lqiff4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Universities need to do more to support students with difficulties relating to English ability.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>2. Language impacting relationships with staff and students</h2>
<p>Communication between non-English speaking background students and educators or other students can be interpreted as students either not knowing the “rules of the game”. Or — worse — it can be interpreted as being deliberately rude. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer/article/view/1173/1319">excessive formality</a> (or informality) and the misappropriation of titles (such as “Dear Professor”) or using only surnames. Students are not typically taught how to deal with the power dynamics and structures of higher education. They wouldn’t know why all lecturers aren’t called “professor”, or why it’s the norm to use titles in the first place. </p>
<p>Also, language is a key inhibitor to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2013.806447">forming relationships</a> with students from Australian-born backgrounds. <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-13602-002">Research</a> has found these relationships are important for wellbeing. This means language plays a central role in the broader wellbeing of culturally and linguistically diverse students in higher education. </p>
<p>Universities could help by offering student activities (assessed or otherwise) that take into account the diversity of strengths brought by culturally and linguistically diverse students. Providing opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students to demonstrate their own knowledge may assist them to form relationships with staff and students and increase self esteem.</p>
<h2>3. Masking dyslexia or other learning difficulties</h2>
<p>Errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation can be read as the student not having the “right kind” of English. But these kinds of mistakes can be the result of (potentially undiagnosed) learning <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317482963">difficulties like dyslexia</a>, or underdeveloped literacy which requires specialist support. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-need-to-do-more-to-support-refugee-students-97185">Universities need to do more to support refugee students</a>
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<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0004944115587365">Research</a> at the primary and secondary school level suggests understanding whether language misuse or lack of engagement is related to the student’s non-English background or a language disorder is complex and challenging. More work is required in this area.</p>
<h2>What can be done to address this?</h2>
<p>These challenges show us universities and other higher education institutions need to invest more time and money on language and cultural development for students and staff. This would be done by trying to level the playing field in communication. </p>
<p>More <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-017-0127-z">holistic educational practices</a> that take into account varying cultural forms of knowledge or approaches to learning will <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4253321/">benefit the entire student body</a>by asking academic teachers to clarify the kinds of language-related assumptions that many take for granted.</p>
<p>For example, educators could consider any hidden causes of silence within classes, reconsider responses to students who do not fully understand communication norms (such as the use of titles), and design courses to include space for students to discuss understandings of course content from their own cultural perspective.</p>
<p>There is much we can learn from the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse students and their language-related challenges at university.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clemence Due has received funding from the Australian Research Council to explore the educational and wellbeing experiences of refugee and migrant background young people, as well as from the Office of Learning and Teaching to look at online learning in undergraduate degrees.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Baker has received funding from the Office for Learning & Teaching (OLT) for a project titled (Re)claiming social capital: improving language and cultural pathways for refugee students into Australian higher education (ID15-4758). Sally has also received funding from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) for a project titled ‘People Seeking Asylum: Access and support in higher education’. Sally is also the co-chair of the national Refugee Education Special Interest Group (<a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/educationsig/">https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/educationsig/</a>)</span></em></p>Difficulty with English language can mask other difficulties culturally and linguistically diverse students may have, such as Austism or dyslexia.Clemence Due, Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of AdelaideSally Baker, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/940912018-04-26T10:38:55Z2018-04-26T10:38:55ZWhen college tuition goes up, campus diversity goes down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216346/original/file-20180425-175074-193zen4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tuition hikes can change the racial and ethnic makeup of a college campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/crowd-image-students-graduation-ceremony-behind-273979073?src=N2idswI_02KC5n8bpkKkOw-1-80">baipooh/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As college tuition continues to rise at a <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/2017-trends-in-college-pricing_0.pdf">staggering rate</a>, people <a href="https://www.higheredtoday.org/2017/05/16/think-college-affordability/">tend to worry</a> about how much harder it becomes for students and families to pay for college.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x2dC31AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researchers</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LZUHt7kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">focus on higher education</a>, we found a different reason to worry.</p>
<p>We examined tuition hikes at public four-year colleges and universities over a 14-year period. We wanted to see if tuition increases at public colleges and universities changed the racial and ethnic makeup of students on campus.</p>
<p>What we found is that for every $1,000 increase in tuition at four-year nonselective public universities, diversity among full-time students decreased by 4.5 percent.</p>
<p>In other words, as tuition goes up, diversity goes down. The end result is the nation’s colleges and universities become less reflective of the ethnic diversity of the United States as a whole.</p>
<p>How long does it take for tuition to rise by $1,000 at a given university? A $1,000 hike could happen over the course of only one or two years in some cases. Over the past decade <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/2017-trends-in-college-pricing_0.pdf">tuition and fees</a> rose by $2,690 at public four-year institutions.</p>
<h2>Why diversity on campus matters</h2>
<p>The fact that diversity drops when tuition rises at certain colleges and universities is a big deal. For starters, it means that more minorities might choose not to enroll in college and, therefore, forego the <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w19053">economic and social benefits</a> of higher education.</p>
<p>But less diversity doesn’t just affect those who are priced out of higher education. It also affects students who are able to afford college.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/How+College+Affects+Students%3A+21st+Century+Evidence+that+Higher+Education+Works%2C+Volume+3+-p-9781118462683">decade’s worth of research</a> shows that more diversity on campus brings numerous benefits. These benefits include a richer intellectual environment that features a variety of different perspectives. </p>
<p>Across 1,800 empirical studies, there is a striking “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=62nmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT977&lpg=PT977&dq=%E2%80%9Cconsistency+in+the+evidence+regarding+students%E2%80%99+engagement+with+diverse+peers,%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=bSqvrTrd9b&sig=FbBahpat3YVz08-VU2rPsMxEK-4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjao72D0tXaAhVMLKwKHZA5BSoQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9Cconsistency%20in%20the%20evidence%20regarding%20students%E2%80%99%20engagement%20with%20diverse%20peers%2C%E2%80%9D&f=false">consistency in the evidence regarding students’ engagement with diverse peers</a>.” This is particularly the case in relation to students’ exposure to diversity, whether that exposure be in class, through student organizations or even informal campus encounters.</p>
<h2>Examining the effects of tuition hikes</h2>
<p>Our study looked at both diversity and tuition levels at approximately 600 public four-year colleges and universities, as well as 1,000 public two-year colleges from 1998 to 2012. Diversity was measured by a standardized measure of the likelihood that two students chosen from a college or university at random will differ in terms of race or ethnicity.</p>
<p>Taking all four-year institutions that we examined as a whole, we found minimal effects of tuition hikes on racial and ethnicity diversity. </p>
<p>But things changed when we focused specifically on the least-selective four-year institutions. These are institutions where the average test scores of incoming students indicate that they admit a wide range of students in terms of academic preparation and achievement.</p>
<p>At those those institutions, a $1,000 tuition hike would lead to a 4.5 percent drop in racial and ethnic diversity among first-time freshman. At two-year public colleges, the drop in diversity associated with a $1,000 tuition increase was smaller but still significant at 1.4 percent.</p>
<p>While our study did not directly track where students enrolled, these changes in diversity at public institutions suggest that some students are forgoing a college education altogether.</p>
<p><iframe id="K6Y48" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/K6Y48/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Ripple effects</h2>
<p>We also uncovered intriguing evidence that tuition changes among private institutions within a 100-mile radius has the opposite – and a potentially larger – influence on student diversity at public institutions. </p>
<p>Specifically, what we found is that a 1 percent increase in average tuition and fees at nearby private four-year institutions is associated with a 3 percent increase in diversity among students at four-year public institutions. This suggests that not only could tuition hikes impact diversity at a given institution, but tuition increases at institutions down the street, or in a neighboring state, also affect diversity. </p>
<h2>Paying more for less</h2>
<p>As colleges come to grips with a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/education/learning/colleges-adapt-changing-students.html">rapidly changing landscape</a>, tuition increases should be understood not only in terms of the bottom line, but also in terms of how they might change the overall composition of students on campus.</p>
<p>Whenever tuition rises – at least at nonselective four-year colleges – it not only means students will have to pay more for college. It also means they will have a lesser chance of attending college with someone from a different racial or ethnic background – and a less rich academic experience as a result.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whenever tuition rises at nonselective four-year colleges and universities, racial and ethnic diversity within the student body declines, researchers have found.Drew Allen, Executive Director, Initiative for Data Exploration and Analytics for Higher Ed, Princeton UniversityGregory C. Wolniak, Director of the Center for Research on Higher Education Outcomes and Associate Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/924862018-02-27T12:47:49Z2018-02-27T12:47:49ZSix ways to bridge the gap between rich and poor at university<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208068/original/file-20180227-36686-2faobv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graduation day.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portsmouth-july-20-graduation-ceremony-university-601347749">edella/Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Theresa May’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43106736">year-long review of student funding</a> offers a real opportunity to solve the big problems around tuition fees and financial support at UK universities. </p>
<p>As part of our <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/education/research/projects/geographies-higher-education/">research</a> on how young people from different places and backgrounds transition into university, we spoke with more than 180 young people from across Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and each region of England, and analysed detailed student records to track the movements of half a million students who entered university for the first time, over recent years. </p>
<p>Here we present six suggestions, based on our findings, that could help make going to university a real option for students of all backgrounds. </p>
<h2>1. Lower the price of leaving home</h2>
<p>We found evidence from talking to young people that the poorest are often highly conscious of the cost of living at university. This can limit their university choices: some will rule out a university because of the high cost of accommodation. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208057/original/file-20180227-36686-1rg4zuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">UEA’s ziggurats: it costs to live on campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/23351536@N07/15016843422/sizes/l">kaysgeog/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>We found that young people in different parts of the UK had different attitudes towards the costs of study, which influenced their choices about going to university and whether or not to leave home. Our <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/home-and-away-student-mobility/">recent research for the Sutton Trust</a> revealed that disadvantaged students across the nation were least likely to leave their parents’ home, and there was some evidence that the rise in tuition fees strengthened this trend. </p>
<p>The government should consider either regulating accommodation costs, or providing funding that takes differences in cost into account – for example by weighting support according to the cost of accommodation at the student’s chosen university.</p>
<h2>2. Cater for commuters</h2>
<p>The number of students living at home while at university rose from 278,555 in 2007-08 to 328,675 in 2015-16. That means more students are commuting, but these costs aren’t accounted for in current packages of financial support. </p>
<p>Some institutions have more commuter students than others. London universities including the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and St Mary’s University College Twickenham have all seen 10% increases in the proportion of their new undergraduate students who commute. Staffordshire University, Stirling University, the University of Cumbria and the University of East Anglia have also seen big increases. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208060/original/file-20180227-36703-1n7n8cn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Joining the crush: London Underground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tompagenet/6850442869/sizes/l">tompagenet/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Clearly, this requires tailored responses from the universities, based on their local geography and the types of courses affected. But there are some changes which could make life better for commuter students across the board. Rescheduling classes to avoid early starts (when commuting may be more difficult or expensive), having greater flexibility about office hours and considering forms of online learning could help. </p>
<p>These changes need to prioritise the needs of commuter students, without increasing workloads for lecturers, who are often already over-stretched.</p>
<h2>3. Help pay for transport</h2>
<p>There’s not enough support for students who commute. First-time students who live in university accommodation often live close by to essential academic and pastoral support services, such as the library, lecturers’ offices, study skills workshops and study spaces and facilities. But it’s harder for commuter students to access these services. </p>
<p>Transport should be subsidised for students who commute, in the form of petrol vouchers, car sharing schemes or extended subsidised bus services – whichever is suitable. An extended 18 to 25 student railcard could also offer students who have to commute during peak times the same one third discount, which currently only applies to off-peak fares.</p>
<h2>4. Admit there’s a diversity problem</h2>
<p>Universities <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/diverse-places-of-learning-home-neighbourhood-ethnic-diversity-ethnic-composition-of-universities/attachments/Diverse-places-of-learning.pdf">are highly segregated</a> along the lines of race and ethnicity, and some universities are substantially less diverse than their surrounding areas. </p>
<p>For instance, the Universities of Birmingham or Leicester are substantially more ethnically mixed than similar institutions. But they are 10% less ethnically mixed than Birmingham City University, Aston University or De Montfort University. London’s elite arts and music colleges and institutes do not reflect the super diverse population of the capital. This stands in direct contrast to universities like the University of East London, London Metropolitan University and City, University of London. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208064/original/file-20180227-36674-5u56aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graduation day at the University of Bradford.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/11227914955/sizes/l">Tim Green aka atoach/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is no simple solution for dealing with the ethnic and socio-economic segregation of higher education. Oxford’s intake won’t echo that of Bradford (an institution with an ethnically diverse, working-class intake) any time soon. Too many vested interests mean that the most elite institutions will remain predominantly white and middle-class for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>This should not prevent the work needed to make universities more diverse, which includes addressing the content of the curriculum, as well as perceptions about different courses and institutions. But we should not expect that the majority of working-class, ethnic-minority students, coming from families with no or little university experience, will want to move away for university. </p>
<h2>5. Bring back the bursary</h2>
<p>The lack of diversity in universities creates serious inequalities in student finance. In particular, it means that the greatest financial support <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/6/1/5/htm">is available to</a> the most academically-able disadvantaged students. In effect, bursaries are concentrated in the wealthiest institutions, with the smallest number of working-class and ethnic minority students. </p>
<p>It’s time to revisit the idea of a <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/37NationalBursaryfull.pdf">national bursary system</a>. There’s also a clear desire among students to bring back maintenance grants on a universal basis, alongside additional means-tested support. Given we live in an era of substantial generational inequality, these moves should be seriously considered.</p>
<h2>6. Help universities reach out</h2>
<p>Efforts to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds to attend university are unevenly concentrated across the country. In particular, third sector outreach and social mobility charities are overly concentrated on London, despite attempts by some organisations to expand their efforts. </p>
<p>There’s a skew of cultural and economic resources and activities towards the capital, which directly affects outreach and widening participation activities. For example, funding for the National Collaborative Outreach Programme currently stands at <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2017-12-06/118007/">£60m a year</a> – less than the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/aimhigher-brought-down-by-coalition-axe/414416.article?storycode=414416">£78m a year</a> given to Aim Higher, which did a similar job on university outreach, just before its closure in 2010-11. </p>
<p>Government needs to act to address this imbalance. The return of a scheme like Aim Higher would do much to resolve the geographical imbalances in widening participation efforts run by charities which – despite <a href="http://www.thebrilliantclub.org/about-the-brilliant-club/our-strategy-the-path-to-outcomes/">notable successes</a> – have failed to fill the gap.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Donnelly receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (award no. ESN02121/1). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sol Gamsu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research reveals that poorer students are less likely to leave home for university – and that has serious impacts on their experience.Michael Donnelly, Lecturer, Department of Education, University of BathSol Gamsu, Researcher, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/568572016-04-06T11:29:57Z2016-04-06T11:29:57ZHow universities can teach their students to respect different cultures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117271/original/image-20160404-28667-1xnfaeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities expose students to difference, providing them with a unique opportunity to learn from others.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities are diverse spaces. Their students are of different races and religions, belong to different socioeconomic groups and are even geographically different: some come from cities, others from rural areas and still more from completely different countries. With such exposure to difference, students have the unique opportunity to learn from others.</p>
<p>South Africa’s universities, however, are struggling when it comes to this sort of learning. Most, like their peers on the continent and globally, commit themselves publicly to core values such as diversity and global citizenship. Yet they are missing out on developing students’ intercultural competence, which is key to bringing those core values to life.</p>
<p><a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002197/219768e.pdf">Intercultural competence</a> is a combination of skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to engage successfully across difference. It’s what is required to get along at an interpersonal level with those who may not seem like us. Universities have an important role to play in developing this competence. Doing so can help equip graduates for living and working in the 21st century. </p>
<p>Focusing on intercultural competence can also encourage the kind of often hard discussions that will benefit South Africa in the long run. Apartheid physically kept people apart and this legacy <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/07/28/the-future-of-south-africa/in-south-african-geography-echoes-of-apartheid">persists</a>, meaning that really getting to know different people is unlikely to happen organically for most South Africans. Educational institutions, at all levels, become key sites of intentional interactions and potential interventions that facilitate deeper connections with each other.</p>
<h2>Formal lessons</h2>
<p>Teaching intercultural competence can happen both formally – in the classroom and through the curriculum – and informally, through students’ activities and their daily lives in university residences and around campus.</p>
<p>Right now, it’s often language and business students who are primarily engaging with ideas of intercultural competence in class. For example, students <a href="http://www.ru.ac.za/confuciusinstitute/courseoutlines/">learning Mandarin</a> are also taught about Chinese culture and customs. Those who hope to work elsewhere in Africa will learn about other countries’ business customs so they do not accidentally offend a potential client. In these examples, the focus is on how to engage internationally. Not much is done to encourage respectful, nuanced interactions with fellow South Africans.</p>
<p>In the formal curriculum, universities should be examining what is taught, how it is taught and who is being taught in regard to intercultural learning, both domestically and internationally. For example, in medicine, intercultural competence might include providing similar scenarios with patients from a variety of cultural backgrounds and belief systems from within South Africa. This might affect whether a patient is addressed formally or informally, or whether certain foods can be prescribed as part of a diet. It will involve teaching students that some people may refuse blood transfusions or organ donations on religious grounds. Such heightened cultural awareness will aid students in approaching patients in ways that are open and respectful.</p>
<p>Teachers must also understand that all students arrive from <a href="http://www.education.uw.edu/cirge/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Darla-INTERCULTURAL-COMPETENCE-MODELS-deardorff-09.pdf">different places and at different stages</a> in their cultural development. Lecturers need to appropriately engage all students in the classroom to ensure that, at the end of their degrees, students can communicate intelligently and appropriately across cultures in order to begin moving beyond their own stereotypes and prejudiced views.</p>
<p>While these formal interventions are important, there is also a lot that can be done beyond the classroom to develop students’ intercultural competence.</p>
<h2>Informal learning</h2>
<p>Universities can boost intercultural competence elsewhere on campus, as much learning occurs outside the classroom.</p>
<p>Here’s a simple example: instead of providing only traditional spoons, knives and forks in dining halls, universities could offer students the opportunity to experience other meal utensils that may be unfamiliar to them, such as chopsticks or even their hands – students can learn that each is an <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/29/travel/international-food-etiquette-rules/">equally valued but different</a> way of consuming a meal.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, conversations could be facilitated around common interests, favourite memories or inspirational people. Through exploring commonalities, students begin to realise that they may have more in common with diverse others than not.</p>
<h2>Tough personal questions</h2>
<p>Being interculturally competent requires a commitment to an ongoing engagement with learning about ourselves and others. It requires doing some of the “hard work” on ourselves to become open human beings who can really live a life of interconnectedness – embracing learning about others and valuing others as fellow humans, regardless of differences that may seem to divide us. We need to ask ourselves questions such as, “How can I begin moving beyond my own biases? How can I engage those with whom I feel uncomfortable? How I can show my respect for those with whom I deeply disagree?”</p>
<p>A first step in this work might be to remember that we are all in this together and that our actions affect each other. Universities, individual students and staff members need to ask how they can practice these ideas in their daily lives and interactions with each other.</p>
<p>Another step is to remember that people are each so much more than one identity – and to instead begin seeing each other as richly complex humans. What are the multiple identities we each hold? How are we similar to each other and what do we have in common? </p>
<p>Third, we all need to have the courage to move beyond our comfort zones in beginning to get to know others who may not look, talk or think like us.</p>
<h2>Constructive, transformative engagement</h2>
<p>Focusing on intercultural competence may seem like a strange priority to those who have been watching South Africa’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/feesmustfall">student groundswell</a> since late 2015. Why should universities focus on intercultural competence when there is other work to be done? Because, we’d argue, developing such competencies will allow people from different backgrounds to begin to engage constructively with each other at deeper and more transformative levels. </p>
<p>Such mutual engagement is good for university graduates, universities and the country as a whole as they work through the many issues South Africans must address.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Universities have an important role to play in developing students’ ability to engage successfully across different cultures and experiences.Orla Quinlan, Director Internationalisation. Lead on Internationalisation of Curriculum for International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA), Rhodes UniversityDarla K. Deardorff, Research Scholar in Education and Executive Director, Association of International Education Administrators, Duke UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/513612015-11-27T11:00:29Z2015-11-27T11:00:29ZCampaign to stop David Starkey being the face of Cambridge was not censorship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103382/original/image-20151126-28280-m6zt05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A video with historian David Starkey was removed from the University of Cambridge website. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gareth Fuller/ PA Archive</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12006160/Our-brightest-students-should-be-ashamed-of-their-intolerance.html">Telegraph column</a> recently opined that “our brightest students should be ashamed of their intolerance” and demanded to know why “a lecturer at one of our most exalted universities [is] shutting down free speech?” </p>
<p>The column by journalist Jemima Lewis was in response to a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/david-starkey-students-and-staff-demand-cambridge-university-drop-historian-from-promotional-a6739636.html">campaign</a> led by English lecturer Malachi McIntosh and black and minority ethnic students at Cambridge to stop the university using a promotional fundraising video in which the historian David Starkey, a Cambridge alumnus, was the key presenter. </p>
<p>The aim of the campaign was not to stop Starkey speaking, but to stop him from being used as the representative of the University of Cambridge. The petition was accompanied by a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1woplhgaVN0UySwALeg1K9ocK2uSDw_DsR0ULyEqbqHw/edit?usp=sharing">two-page argument</a> about the effect that using Starkey to speak for Cambridge would have within an <a href="http://www.equality.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/equality_and_diversity_information_report_2013-14.pdf">institution</a> where 89% of people are “white-British” or “white-other” and only 0.6% are “black”, “black British African” or “black British Caribbean”. </p>
<p>It argued that his inclusion suggested that the university cared “very little about its appearance in the eyes of black and minority ethnic students and staff, current and future” and that it undermined daily efforts to make the university more inclusive.</p>
<p>Yet in the Telegraph and Observer <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/22/barabara-ellen-why-i-am-leaving-labour-party">commentary</a> on the issue, complex ideas were inevitably ignored on how the participation of students in university life can be diminished by the ways in which their views are valued or dismissed.</p>
<p>More familiar narratives were offered, reinterpreting the campaign in terms of no-platforming policies and “pre-emptive” censorship, an incursion on Starkey’s right to express his views. The <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/in-defence-of-david-starkey/17667#.Vlc5ecq69hY">coverage of the issue</a> revealed a worrying tendency in public discourse to present public efforts to challenge particular ways of thinking as “censorship”. </p>
<p>But it ignored the insidious and more harmful ways in which the threat of censure controls what is said and done everyday on university campuses. </p>
<h2>Internal censorship</h2>
<p>There is one type of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00957.x/epdf">censorship</a> that is very obvious: we see it in banned and destroyed material, the state-sanctioned punishment of writers, speakers and performers. And there is a different kind of censorship that is internalised and invisible. It makes the speaker anticipate official supervision and societal censure and conform to an imagined community’s ways of thinking. Learned from the society where a speaker lives, it also reflects conscious and unconscious biases about who should speak, how they should speak and for how long.</p>
<p>What the campaign against Starkey’s inclusion in the video argued was that a university’s publicity materials can encourage internal censorship, encouraging potential applicants not to apply and students not to speak up. </p>
<p>A black student applying to a university which accepted the representation of Starkey as an archetypal lecturer, would be justified in wondering whether they would receive a hostile response to whatever they said at their admissions interview because of their skin colour. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the London riots, Starkey’s comments on “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14513517">nihilistic gangster culture</a>” caused deep offence. The university <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/david-starkey-students-and-staff-demand-cambridge-university-drop-historian-from-promotional-a6739636.html">has implied</a> it does not think that Starkey’s views on race matter as long as he is “representing his affection” for Cambridge, casting them as merely “controversial statements”. In such a context, students and staff could be forgiven for thinking that speaking out against racism and drawing attention to explicit and implicit biases is pointless. </p>
<p>In a country where a Telegraph column casts critically conscious adults as “kids” talking “nonsense” and an Observer columnist dismisses a two-page argument in 300 words as “<a href="http://guardian.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx?issue=17022015112200000000001001&page=17&article=71b2e513-d88c-48aa-b1fe-c74acd32d661&key=wAlcZpBzKKmOKna4Gpuk/Q==&feed=rss">outrage-mush</a>” of which students should be “ashamed”, how can the many students who led the campaign not absorb a lesson about how their speech must be moderated or depoliticised, in order to avoid being dismissed out of hand? </p>
<p>Across the UK, black and ethnic minority students have <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-must-aim-higher-on-ethnic-equality-and-diversity-37073">lower university admission rates</a> than comparably qualified white peers. At <a href="http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/undergrad_admissions_statistics_2014_cycle.pdf">Cambridge</a> this is very marked. The university needs to do more rather than less to encourage applications from black and ethnic minority students and to make sure all potential students feel their voices will be heard and valued once they are here.</p>
<h2>Free speech and argument</h2>
<p>Formulating an argument, persuading 860 others of its validity – including several of those participating in the video – and using the authority that comes with all of that to help change university practice is in no way an illustration of censorship. Quite the contrary: it illustrates what the determination to maintain free speech can achieve in increasing dialogue. </p>
<p>There are many people in our society who have the freedom to hold opinions and to express them, but who have no power to voice their thoughts so that they are heard publicly. They lack a column in the Telegraph or the Observer, a place in front of a camera, a lectern in a lecture theatre. </p>
<p>Students and academics working together to make their voices heard is itself a manifestation of free speech, but more importantly it is about preserving a space for other voices within Cambridge. The campaigners were working together to make a simple point to current and perspective students: this man does not speak for us, do not anticipate our censure, we want to hear what you have to say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex da Costa is a colleague of Malachi McIntosh and was one of many people who helped with the campaign. </span></em></p>In defence of the campaign by students and lecturers at Cambridge for the university to take down a promotional video featuring the controversial historian.Alex da Costa, University Lecturer in English Literature , University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421352015-06-15T04:04:32Z2015-06-15T04:04:32ZUniversity residences aren’t yet a happy home for same-sex students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84687/original/image-20150611-11398-zmyff3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some students say they are too frightened to bring a same-sex partner back to their residence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a series The Conversation Africa is running on issues related to LGBTI in Africa. You can read the rest of the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/lgbti-africa">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>A large body of research <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J035v12n01_06">shows</a> that lesbian, gay and bisexual people are often able to express their sexuality and confirm their sexual identity for the first time when they go to university.</p>
<p>Having a safe, accepting and conducive environment in which to “come out” is critical for a person’s well-being. South Africa has very <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/south-africa-progressive-lgbt-rights-gays-still-battle-social-reform-1471213">progressive laws</a> protecting gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people. However, the country’s young people frequently come from homes where non-heterosexual desires are <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/1607/Pride%20and%20Prejudice.pdf">not supported</a>. </p>
<p>Many universities have formal policies that declare their commitment to inclusivity and non-discrimination. But research conducted at Rhodes University shows that lesbian, gay and bisexual students experience systematic exclusion in everyday campus life.</p>
<p>We were interested in experiences of residence life because residences are, firstly, a place where students spend large periods of their time – they are homes away from home. Secondly, university residences are often <a href="http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=pubadmin_facpubs">sites of tension</a> and conflict. </p>
<p>After examining literature from many different disciplines we distilled the essential features of “homeness” as incorporating comfort, privacy, security, acceptance, companionship and community. These are all essential to human flourishing. We wondered how lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) students experience residence life and whether they are afforded or denied these home comforts.</p>
<h2>Not a home for all</h2>
<p>In university residences, the dominant expectation is that everyone will be heterosexual. This means that LGB students are excluded from everyday conversations. For example, when everyone is talking about dating, participants reported that they often keep quiet. If they do enter the conversation it interrupts the comfortable flow of story swapping and suddenly turns the spotlight of public attention agonisingly onto themselves. </p>
<p>LGB students find themselves being careful about what they say, who they are seen with and who they bring home – the very antithesis of what we associate with feeling comfortable and at home. </p>
<p>Everyday rituals like taking a shower are major hurdles to overcome when one is gay and in an environment where one fears encountering a lack of understanding. One participant spoke of experiencing an “acute awareness that I was lesbian when I went to the showers”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… and I was like ‘Oh my goodness they think I will be checking them out’ and I worried I was making them uncomfortable by being there. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>What makes this particularly poignant is that the young woman is trying not to intrude on the sense of comfort, privacy and security of the majority in the residence. She realises this is a natural and accepted expectation of being at home – yet she herself is denied these rights.</p>
<p>The sense of being constantly the object of scrutiny and surveillance means that LGB students can never let down their guard – kick off their shoes, as it were – and just make themselves at home. Many end up isolating themselves and feeling that there is something wrong with them.</p>
<p>They engage in a constant internal questioning: “Should I bring a girl over? If I do, what will they say, how will they react?” Some participants experienced high levels of anxiety – as one put it, “shit your pants fear” – at the risk of being exposed as homosexual. </p>
<h2>Coming home</h2>
<p>When home is experienced as comfortable it fulfils the fundamental human need for recognition, acceptance and being welcomed by others. The flipside of belonging is ostracism – being ignored, judged or excluded. We have a long way to go before our campus environments are places where people are simply afforded the equal right to just, as one participant put it, “live our lives”. </p>
<p>There is much that institutions can do to infuse their non-discrimination and inclusion policies into day-to-day practice. Those in formal positions of leadership and authority have an enormous role to play in creating institutional environments in which it’s possible for all to feel equally welcomed. Institutions need to be calling their office bearers and employees at every level to account for what they are doing to promote inclusion. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Author’s note: I would like to acknowledge the work of Chipo Munyuki, a Master’s student, in collecting the data discussed in this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Vincent receives funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>How do lesbian, bisexual and gay students experience life in a South African university residence? Sadly, with a great deal of fear.Louise Vincent, Professor of Political Studies, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/373972015-02-10T15:14:24Z2015-02-10T15:14:24ZClassrooms with mixed ethnicity can help boost tolerance of immigrants<p>As Western societies have become more diverse due to immigration and cross-border mobility, the question of how welcoming their native populations are to newcomers has become ever more relevant. Exclusionary and hostile attitudes can compromise the integration of immigrants into society and have potentially negative consequences for overall social cohesion. Nowhere is the urge to combat such hostility early on more pronounced than in schools. </p>
<p>Governments are increasingly calling on schools to <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-many-minorities-britain-is-not-living-up-to-its-own-values-28465">cultivate tolerance</a> among young people. One way of doing this is to have classes with an ethnically mixed intake. </p>
<p><a href="http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/30/6/810.abstract">My research</a> has examined the impact of this “mixing” and found that ethnic diversity in the classroom does lead to more tolerance of immigrants among teenagers. But the proportion of first-generation and second-generation immigrants makes a difference to attitudes. </p>
<h2>Does diversity increase tolerance?</h2>
<p>The idea that ethnically mixed classrooms can contribute to tolerance is <a href="http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/files/2012/04/A-Meta-Analytic-Test-of-Intergroup-Contact-Theory.pdf">based on the assumptions</a> that a culturally diverse environment provides more opportunities for inter-cultural contact. This in turn enhances positive opinions about the ethnic “other”. </p>
<p>Until now, no study has explored whether the effect of mixed schooling on attitudes towards immigrants is the same across different national contexts. But it’s important to see whether mixed schooling has the same positive effect everywhere, despite very different national cultures and different ethno-cultural backgrounds of the immigrant population.</p>
<p>Our research analysed the survey data from the <a href="http://www.iea.nl/iccs_2009.html">International Civic and Citizenship Education Study</a> collected in 2009 among more than 100,000 13 and 14-year-olds in 38 countries worldwide. In each of the participating countries, a nationally representative survey was conducted among 2,000-3,000 students from 150-200 schools. We focused our analyses on a selection of 18 states that had experienced large waves of immigration, either recently or some time ago. </p>
<p>We looked only at the attitudes of native youngsters towards immigrants. We analysed their responses to questions on whether immigrants should have the same rights and opportunities as everybody else and should be allowed to speak their own language and maintain their own customs and lifestyle.</p>
<h2>Classroom composition matters</h2>
<p>We looked first at differences across states in average levels of inclusive attitudes. The graph below shows that youngsters generally had more inclusive than exclusionary views in all the countries included in the analysis. Although young people in England were moderately well-disposed towards immigrants, their score was low compared to 17 out of 18 other “immigration” countries. Only in the Netherlands did youngsters hold less positive views. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71596/original/image-20150210-24700-18wllk5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Room for improvement on attitudes to immigrants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">International Civic and Citizenship Education Study</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also found that ethnically mixed classrooms do contribute to more favourable attitudes towards immigrants. Native youngsters in mixed classrooms had significantly higher levels of inclusive views than native youngsters in all-native classrooms. This was after many factors, such as social background, gender and classroom social status had been taken into account. </p>
<p>This effect could be seen in quite a few, mostly west-European countries such as England, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands, which differed substantially in their national cultures, political histories and origin of the migrant population. </p>
<h2>First vs second generation</h2>
<p>But ethnic mixing appeared not to have any effect on tolerance in half of the states we surveyed. Without exception, these countries, such as Spain, Ireland, Italy and Cyprus, had only recently become immigration countries. In all of them, first-generation immigrant children – born abroad – outnumbered second-generation ones – whose parents were born abroad – in the survey.</p>
<p>Diversity enhanced teenagers’ inclusive views in those classrooms with – on average – many second-generation children. Yet in classrooms with many first-generation children it had no effect, as the table below suggests.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71608/original/image-20150210-24655-dghrgo.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Created by Datawrapper.de</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Better contact between “native” and “second-generation” students is likely to explain this difference. Second-generation students are more familiar with a country’s culture and customs and have a better command of its language. They also tend to have more friendships with native-born students, as <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Education_for_democratic_citizenship.html?id=Lu-eAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">previous research</a> has found.</p>
<p>We also found that classroom ethnic mix has the strongest positive effect on inclusive attitudes at medium and higher levels of diversity – where more than 15% of the class is of a different ethnicity. </p>
<p>These findings suggest that education policies should consider ways to increase ethnic diversity in schools as a strategy to foster inclusive attitudes among the native majority. But we should not expect immediate results in schools with many first-generation immigrant students. Neither should we expect a minimal presence of immigrant students in class to do the job.</p>
<p>At a time when political parties <a href="https://theconversation.com/pm-has-the-power-to-address-migration-concerns-without-resorting-to-eu-scare-tactics-34820">across Europe are responding to widespread concern</a> about immigration, our research suggests that this issue could diminish over time. After all, once immigrant communities have become more settled and integrated in their new countries, positive effects of ethnic mixing could well emerge everywhere.</p>
<hr>
<p>Next read: <a href="https://theconversation.com/bid-to-force-immigrants-to-speak-german-in-their-homes-wont-help-integration-35212">Bid to force immigrants to speak German in their homes won’t help integration</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Germ Janmaat receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy.</span></em></p>As Western societies have become more diverse due to immigration and cross-border mobility, the question of how welcoming their native populations are to newcomers has become ever more relevant. Exclusionary…Jan Germen Janmaat, Reader in Comparative Social Science, Department of Lifelong and Comparative Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/360782015-01-21T06:14:11Z2015-01-21T06:14:11ZIncreasing diversity in science could be one way to fight inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69526/original/image-20150120-24450-cdez6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Come on board.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Science_express_bio_diversity_special_4.jpg">Kannanshanmugam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am a scientist. I am also white, male and middle-class. There are a lot of scientists like me in the UK, and this lack of diversity within the scientific community is a concern.</p>
<p>There are compelling reasons, beyond basic equality, for tackling the under-representation of different ethnic groups, women and those from low-income backgrounds in science. I want to focus on the latter – a group that has received relatively little attention in debates concerning diversity in science.</p>
<h2>STEM skills gap</h2>
<p>A strong economic case can be made on the basis of a growing <a href="http://www.smf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Publication-In-The-Balance-The-STEM-human-capital-crunch.pdf">science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills gap in the UK</a>, with demand for workers with STEM skills outstripping supply. This gap is also expected to widen owing to shifting employment requirements (further increasing demand) coupled with political pressure to reduce migration (further reducing supply). There is, therefore, a pressing economic need to increase the domestic supply of STEM-skilled workers. </p>
<p>Part of the solution to this will be to increase the levels of STEM participation in those from low-income backgrounds. Interventions in schools may be particularly effective. Indeed, it has been <a href="http://www.smf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Publication-In-The-Balance-The-STEM-human-capital-crunch.pdf">estimated</a> that if GCSE science results for pupils on free school meals were to improve to the same level as the rest of their cohort, the numbers of students going on to take A Level science would increase by 3,000-4,000 per year. </p>
<p>As a consequence we would see more individuals with STEM skills filtering into the workforce. Although this is not enough in itself to eliminate the disparity between supply and demand, it shows how addressing under-performance in science among low-income pupils would be beneficial here. </p>
<h2>Science and social mobility</h2>
<p>Beyond the economic arguments, there are also compelling social reasons why this diversity issue is important. We live in an age of great scientific and technological advancement. This affects us in various ways, from altering the nature of our social interactions to altering the employment landscape by opening up new career opportunities. </p>
<p>Because the reach of science and technology is so pervasive, it is becoming increasingly important to <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/education/research/aspires/ASPIRES-final-report-December-2013.pdf">improve science literacy in those from low-income backgrounds</a>. That is, we need to ensure that individuals across the social spectrum have a sound understanding of science (as well as technology, maths, and engineering). Without this there is a danger that individuals from low-income backgrounds will be prevented from full and active participation in society, and as a result, will be further disadvantaged. </p>
<p>Linked to this issue of inequality is the potential role of science careers in promoting social mobility. Although tackling this issue has been on the UK’s political agenda for some time, little progress (if any) has been made. <a href="http://www.oecd.org/tax/public-finance/chapter%205%20gfg%202010.pdf">Some data</a> suggests that the UK is one of the worst performers in the developed world when it comes to social mobility. </p>
<p>Those with a first degree in a STEM subject earn around 4.5% more than those with first degrees in other subjects. This would suggest that a career in science could be an effective vehicle for social mobility, adding further weight to the case for tackling the under-representation of individuals from low-income backgrounds in science.</p>
<h2>Diversity for scientific endeavour</h2>
<p>Science itself also stands to benefit from improving diversity. The importance of the human in the scientific endeavour is often overlooked: the individuals that make up the scientific community heavily influence the way science is done. The lack of diversity within the scientific community will, therefore, result in a narrowing of the kinds of questions we ask, the kinds of problems we think worth tackling and the ways in which we go about doing our work. A healthy science – and one working to its full potential – will be one that embraces diversity. </p>
<p>Finding effective solutions to this diversity issue will not be easy. Moreover, it will require efforts at all levels. Government clearly has a role to play, in both encouraging individuals from low-income backgrounds to study science and doing more to help them then pursue science careers. </p>
<p>But we scientists can also do our bit by doing more to engage with students from low-income backgrounds. Although this is not an easy issue to address, it should be clear that it is in all our interests to ensure that those from low-income backgrounds are better represented within the scientific community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>I am a scientist. I am also white, male and middle-class. There are a lot of scientists like me in the UK, and this lack of diversity within the scientific community is a concern. There are compelling…James Moore, Senior Lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.