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The Experience of BAME Students on DE300

It is well documented that Black and Minority Ethnic (B.A.M.E.) students are awarded lower grades at university than their White counterparts. In the UK, a first class and second upper class degree classifications are considered ‘good degrees’. In 2019/20, while 81.61% of White students obtained a ‘good degree’, this percentage was lower for B.A.M.E. students: 63.68% for Black students, 72.39% for Asian students, and 78.93% for Mixed-race students.

The literature is clear that this awarding gap is not due to students’ previous qualifications. Researchers indicate the value of focussing on specific modules and distinguishing amongst different ethnicities, with their individual experiences. The undergraduate research project has substantial impact on degree classification, hence a good grade is crucial. It is also a module where students are expected to take initiative and work independently, while discuss ideas and the development of their research project with their supervisor and possible with their peers (e.g. in online forums). Hence, in relation to Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), the psychological needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy are relevant to understand the experience of BAME students on the undergraduate research module.

This study seeks to understand the experiences of B.A.M.E. students on an undergraduate research module in an online university with regard to their psychological needs of autonomy, competency, and relatedness. Students will take part in an individual interview, which will cover their experience on this module. There will be a focus on the following

  • Students’ sense of autonomy, in feeling confident they can work well independently, including generating suitable ideas for their project.
  • Students’ sense of competence, referring to how well they feel they can do in the various stages of the module, including literature review, data collection, data analysis, and write-up.
  • Students’ experience of connectedness, to tutors and peers.
Findings will be used to inform practice on the psychology undergraduate research project, and will also be shared with module teams that look after dissertation or projects modules in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.