Colour-evasiveness and higher education: Synthesis of literature on race and widening access

MADRIAGA, MANNY

Abstract

Widening access policy and initiatives in English higher education (HE) have largely been colour evasive rather than colour-focused. The paper draws attention to the literature - empirical work on widening access specifically - to understand the silence on race matters. The systematic literature review repurposes a framework by Gillborn (2005) in analysing widening access policy and race matters. In getting a glimpse of how the issue of unequal access to higher education has been framed in the research field, the paper reveals a better grasp of the continued colour evasiveness of widening access policy. The findings show that widening access policy has not benefitted students of colour as they are not accessing higher education with the same kind of success as their white peers. The paper concludes for a call for colour-specific targeted interventions to remedy the continued race inequity in accessing elite universities based on the evidence gathered from the synthesis.

Citation

MADRIAGA, M. (2022). Colour-evasiveness and higher education: Synthesis of literature on race and widening access. London: Society for Research into Higher Education

• Report Type: Project Report
• Acceptance Date: Mar 28, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 11, 2022
• Publication Date: Apr 11, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 16, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 17, 2022
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8498752
• Publisher URL: https://srhe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/MadriagaMannyReport.pdf