Representation of Ethnic Groups in Chemistry and Physics

7: Ethnicity and undergraduate studies
60
percentage of students completing chemistry degrees
50
40
30
20
10
first
upper second
0
Fig. 23: Proportion of
students obtaining firstor
upper-second-class
degrees in chemistry, by
ethnic group.
Notes:
1. England- and Walesdomiciled
students only.
2. Percentages exclude
those whose ethnicity is not
known.
Source: HESA first destination
surveys combined cohort
1996/1997–2001/2002
white black Caribbean black African Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese
chemistry
is defined by the proportion of first and upper-seconds
awarded to white students). This shows that, at least in part,
the under-achievement of different ethnic groups can be
accounted for by lower higher-education entry qualifications
and by subject difficulty.
However, even after accounting for entry qualifications
and subject choice, the ethnic-minority communities are
other/mixed
still somewhat behind in terms of degree result. The study
examines broad subject classifications (e.g. physical sciences)
rather than individual subjects and does not take
socioeconomic factors into account. Consequently,
although overall performance of the ethnic-minority cohorts
in broad subjects may be to some extent explained by the
study, questions still remain at the individual subject level.
28 R EPRESENTATION OF E THNIC G ROUPS IN C HEMISTRY AND P HYSICS M AY 2006