A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Supporting student learning
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active policy to promote good race relations and ensure that no student is disadvantaged
or suffers harassment or discrimination because of his or her race or ethnicity.
Responding to cultural and ethnic diversity requires a whole institution response which
should:
• recognise cultural diversity in the curriculum;
• ensure that bibliographies reflect a range of perspectives;
• use teaching methods which encourage students from all cultures to participate;
• monitor assessment and results to check that fairness to all groups is demonstrated;
• consider the university calendar to ensure that major cultural and religious holidays
are recognised;
• ensure that university publications do not contain assumptions about the ethnicity
of the readers;
• develop proactive policies against discrimination and harassment;
• provide specialist counselling, advice and support services;
• provide places for all faiths to carry out acts of worship.
In these ways promoting equality of opportunity and good relations between
multicultural groups contributes towards achieving a more supportive and enriched
learning environment for all students.
Recent events have created headlines about Islamic groups within universities as a
potential ‘recruiting ground for terrorists’. Universities need to be vigilant about student
societies and also about potential conflicts among ethnic groups. Clear principles need
to be publicised and enforced about the values of free speech and tolerance. The
institutional anti-harassment policy should clearly ban religious and racial hatred as well
as gender harassment. But universities also need to educate its staff about ‘cultural
literacy’. As a contribution to this goal, the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre
for Philosophical and Religious Studies has produced a series of Faith Guides which aim
to assist in addressing ‘issues relating to teaching people of faith in a higher education
environment’.
International students
There are over 300,000 international students in UK higher education of whom about
one-third are from the EU (Vickers and Bekhradnia, 2007). Institutions are part of an
international market attempting to attract students from around the globe. The quality
of support they receive is therefore important, not only for the benefit of the individual
students but for the institution. International offices offer advice on immigration
procedures, accommodation, family support, finance and scholarships, and security, and
general counselling about living in the UK. They often welcome students and provide a
specialist induction programme, and they can also offer learning support, particularly
English language courses, sometimes before registration on a programme of study and