A Closer Look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and ...

(section 4.2.1). This pattern relates to locality (high representationof minority ethnic population in the London area and manystudents stay locally) and also the different entry requirements ofuniversities and different types of courses/subjects on offer (andminority ethnic groups have different prior attainment, seebelow). There is also some evidence of racial bias in admissionsprocesses to degree courses at some universities, which may affectminority ethnic representation levels (section 4.5).There is a skewed subject distribution also in degree study (section4.2.3), eg twice as high a minority ethnic representation incomputer science, law and medicine, and also higher than averagein business studies, engineering and mathematical sciences degreecourses, but below average representation in education andhumanities degrees. There are also differences by ethnicity andgender in subjects studied.Minority ethnic students have slightly higher representation onfull-time sub-degree courses, than full-time or part-time degree orpart-time sub-degree courses (section 4.2.2). This pattern is subjectrelated. Gender differences between minority ethnic groups areevident here too (section 4.3), and also age differences (section 2.6).Different trajectoriesMinority ethnic young people are equally as likely as Whitepeople to gain entry qualifications to go to university by age 19(which contrasts with the situation at 16, at GCSE level), but thetype of highest qualification held and their schooling post-16varies significantly (sections 2.3 to 2.5). Overall, minority ethnicdegree entrants have lower entry qualifications on average, fewertake the traditional ‘A’ level route, and are more likely to comeinto HE from FE colleges, than White entrants. However, theseoverall results mask divergences between groups of minorityethnic students in their HE entry route and prior qualifications. Insummary:• Indian and Chinese groups are the most likely to take thetraditional ‘A’ level highway’ to HE and are better qualified asHE entrants; they are also more likely to have been at anindependent or grammar school.• Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups do not gain as high ‘A’level qualifications as Indian or Chinese, though do better thanBlack students.• Black groups, and Black Caribbean in particular, aregenerally older on entry, with a wider range of entryqualifications than the average; more progress to HE via theFE college and work routes, and more are likely to havevocational entry qualifications.xv