New report reveals widespread education barriers faced by GRT students
A new Higher Education Policy Institute report reveals that GRT learners are the lowest achieving ethnic grouping in the UK education system and least likely to progress to higher education. Read on to discover the depth of the issue and why new approaches are urgently needed…
A new report written by Dr Laura Brassington and released this Autumn by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and University of Sussex, explores the full extent of GRT learners’ marginalisation and calls for radical new approaches to address the issue.
The report ‘Gypsies, Roma & Travellers: The ethnic minorities most excluded from UK education’ reveals that:
- Young people from Gypsy / Roma and Irish Traveller communities are the least likely of any groups to enter higher education, with just 6.3% of Gypsy / Roma and 3.8% of Irish Traveller students accessing higher education.
- There has been progress made. In 2012-13 there were just 120 GRT students in higher education and today there are over five times that number. However, if GRT students were evenly represented, there would be 2,600 GRT students in higher education.
- There are even fewer students with GRT backgrounds registered at Russell Group Universities - just 30 GRT students registered in 2020/21.
- Gypsy / Roma and Irish Traveller pupils are consistently the two least likely groups to achieve grade 5 or above in English and Maths at GCSE. In 2020/21 just 9.1% of Gypsy / Roma and 21.9% of Irish Traveller pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and Maths compared to a national average of 51.9% of pupils across England.
Prejudice is cited in the report as one of the leading causes of the disrupted education pathways GRT learners often experience. In 2020 research carried out by Buckinghamshire New University revealed that 78% of those in GRT communities had experienced bullying and 87% had experienced social media abuse.
Other factors that can prevent GRT learners from progressing to higher education referenced in the report include:
- Lack of digital access (preventing effective study at higher levels as well as completion of application)
- Institutionalised discrimination leading to a feeling of ‘not belonging’
- Entrenched negative beliefs around likely attainment levels of GRT learners
- Lack of awareness of progression pathways amongst some GRT learners and their families
- A reticence from some GRT families to support young people to pursue higher education at the expense of more traditional routes
- Parent literacy levels acting as a barrier to accessing education and finance support
- High rates of exclusion and expulsion leading to disrupted education
Debra Vice-Holt, Programme Manager for SLN comments: “The findings of this report are alarming. They lay bare just how poor educational outcomes are for GRT students and the responsibility we must all take for ensuring this is no longer the case. Progress is being made, as evidenced by the increase in GRT students in higher education, but it isn’t fast or significant enough.
“With the highest proportion of respondents identifying as Gypsy or Irish Traveller in the 2011 census being concentrated in the South East, we have a responsibility to create a positive blueprint for inclusive, innovative progression support.
“That’s what this newsletter is all about. We’re celebrating the many exciting initiatives that exist in our region and showing that real inroads can be made working together with our partners and the GRT community.”
Click here to find out more about Sussex Learning Network’s GRT projects or to discover how you can support GRT students in your learning environment.