University of Hertfordshire: Degree awarding gap reduction

Through the University's BME Success Project (BME SP), accountability was set at all levels; from senior level sponsorship of the project, to challenging each and every one of the staff to accept responsibility for making a change to their own practice. The University adopted anonymous submission and marking of all summative coursework except for certain items where it is not feasible to do so (e.g. presentations) or where there is no significant scope for bias (e.g. objective testing). There was also staff development initiatives in place to encourage the feedback  to focus on the work and not the author, de-personalising the critique and concentrating on  improvements.

BME SP has also encouraged more effective use of data to inform curriculum design and assessment practices.

The University’s Periodic Review and Validation processes provide formal opportunities to consider and address race equality issues in the design of curricula. For existing programmes this starts with an initial analysis of four years of student performance data, and all differentials must be addressed in the re-approval documentation. As a result of the above activity, the institution achieved a reduction in the degree awarding gap from 24% to 17%.