Jisc Change Agents' Network Conference 2024

There has been much recent debate over both the BAME awarding gap and the need to support students with Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs). However, less investigated are the issues around intersectionality of these cohorts. Much anecdotal evidence suggests that BAME students are less likely to arrive at university with a diagnosis and more likely to receive one late in their university career. With only two books on dyslexia and race in the UK and one (now defunct) organisation focused on this, this presentation challenges the sector to examine whether there is a 'hidden' awarding gap for these students.

This session will present finding from focus groups with students of colour (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) with SpLDs and highlight how by working to their strengths, we can improve student retention. It will also demonstrate the failings of a deficit approach to such students and contest that there needs to be further efforts to move away from a within-person model of disability to a within-institution understanding of the constraints and potentials for students with SpLDs. The main part of the session will be devoted giving voice to the barriers which these student still face, while highlighting how pre-registration screening tools can make a major intervention in helping both students of colour and the wider neurodiverse student population thrive in higher education. 

This presentation will also highlight the importance of staff-student collaboration when researching sensitive topics (and the lived experience of the researchers with the subject under investigation) such as race and disability, and the importance of autoethnography as a key component of such work.