The Attainment Gap, or Awarding Gap, is the gap between the mean grades awarded to White students and the mean of grades awarded to students from Black, Asian and all other ethnic backgrounds. There is a gap in every HE institution in the UK.   

The gap on the MB ChB Course is 12.6%, which means that despite all our students (almost all of whom are British and educated in the UK) beginning the MBChB with a 2:1 or a 1st class previous degree, our BAME students leave the medical school with lower overall marks and awards than their white peers. 

This inequality is unacceptable and as a member of the WMS Faculty you are key in helping every Warwick medical student who you meet to achieve the best they can achieve.  

Actions taken so far by WMS:

• up the Attainment Gap Group (AGG) based at Gibbet Hill but including clinical staff and students working together to address the gap  

• Working groups set up by the AGG to focus on different themes   

• Challenging Racism workshop rolled out to staff

• Work on decolonising the curriculum NB if you give lectures at Gibbet Hill you may find that you receive advice or guidance to decolonise or alter your lecture content in response to work being done by the AGG. 

• Work to improve the diversity of photos and other lecture support material to redress the challenges of finding these resources  

Activity 6:

Read two papers about the student experience of racism:

1 – Welcome

2 - MB ChB Degree course

3 – Assessments

4 – Phase 1

5 – Phase 2

6 – Phase 3

7 – Case Based Learning

8 – Student Engagement

9 – Student Support

10 – The Awarding Gap

11 – The Teaching Commitment

12 – ePortfolio

13 – Feedback

14 – Developing yourself as an educator