In a recently published report by the Aziz Foundation, British Muslims within higher education are seen as an ‘exemplar of the type of constituency at the sharp end of the intersectionalities of disadvantage’.
In unpacking this claim, the co-authors of Transitions: British Muslims between undergraduate and postgraduate studies reflect on what national datasets and testimonies say about the academic prospects of a major student demography. Indeed, regulatory statistics reveal the declining rate of participation for British Muslims across education levels, the biggest fall occurring between Undergraduate (UG) and Post Graduate Taught (PGT) studies (from 12% to 8%).
This acute social mobility fault-line has salient consequences, particularly when repairing the ‘broken bridge’ of PGT through dedicated Widening Participation (WP) programmes remains down the list of priorities for institutions and regulators alike. With commentators and policymakers raising the alarm over the financial crisis slowly engulfing the sector, university leaderships may not be keen to commit further resources to WP.
However, higher education administrators eager to devise new interventions can proactively shape the future of the access regime, diversifying cohorts at the PGT level by taking into the account the granular experience of minoritised communities. Practitioners of this frame of mind will find Transitions of particular interest in informing institutional approaches.
Incorporating British Muslims in the fair access regime
The Aziz Foundation is a social mobility charity, devoted to British Muslim communities, with one foot in the HE sector and one foot outside of it. This positioning has enabled it to act as a ‘critical friend’ for universities and its stakeholders, utilising the data generated from its flagship Masters scholarships scheme to make major interventions in the ongoing sector discourse within the aligned areas of EDI and WP.
With access to a rich seam of data on the UG/PGT transition, the Foundation is well situated to examine the inhibitors to progression. The report co-authors have identified this progression challenge as an outcome of the ‘intersectional disadvantage’ experienced by British Muslims. In other words, the interaction between markers of faith and ethnicity that shapes the British Muslim identity and exacerbates disadvantage in institutional settings.
The double or triple penalty faced by British Muslims, surfacing in the degree awarding gap and, as our research shows, a frustration in being unable to influence research agendas prior to the Post Graduate Research (PGR) level, puts this demography off further study. The persistence of processes of racialisation being ‘priced’ into the student experience, and Muslim cohorts shouldering the emotional burden of campaigning for greater faith provision only deepens the fatigue with academia.
The policy exceptionalism that excludes British Muslims from being acknowledged in formulas of WP (for example in Access and Participation Plans) only sustains the equality gaps that university leaderships are so keen to state they wish to address.
Recommendations for the sector
As a call to action, we would invite all institutions to reflect on ways they can enhance the access regime within their institutional context, making it future proof and responsive to the needs of different communities. In the case of British Muslims, more consideration of PGT WP can yield dividends in strengthening the pipeline to PGR and industry.
One bright spot on the horizon is the introduction of the new Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, which does explicitly cite British Muslims as at risk of a subpar student experience due to inadequate faith provision. To deepen this line of work, some of our report recommendations for institutions and the sector point to ways of revitalising the access framework:
- Amongst HEIs, there ought to be parity of esteem and financial resources between pre-entry widening participation and postgraduate widening participation
- HEIs to be proactive in incorporating ‘British Muslim students’ as a disadvantaged group in Access and Participation Plans (APPs), considering institutional context
- The ‘broken pipeline’ at PGT ought to be bridged with appropriate funding opportunities such as ring-fenced scholarships
We would urge institutions and practitioners to read our report carefully and consider our full set of recommendations.
Transitions: British Muslims between undergraduate and PGT studies can be accessed here.
