The University of Bedfordshire holds a Bronze Race Equality Charter award. A case study on a faculty-based approach to reducing awarding gaps is available in the Good Practice Initiative database.
Reducing degree awarding gaps remains one of the most significant challenges facing higher education. While widening participation has opened university doors to more diverse student populations, ensuring all students have an equal opportunity to succeed requires sustained institutional commitment and action.
The University of Bedfordshire is demonstrating what meaningful progress can look like. Through its strategic focus on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and the introduction of the Closing the Gaps staff development programme, the University has reduced its ethnicity degree awarding gap by 10 percentage points over two years, bringing the gap down to 12 percentage points and in line with the wider higher education sector.
Serving one of the UK’s most diverse student communities, Bedfordshire understands the importance of moving beyond access to focus on outcomes. Around 57% of students are from ethnically diverse backgrounds, 55% are mature learners and 65% are the first in their family to attend university. This rich diversity presents opportunities for innovation but also highlights the need for inclusive approaches to teaching, learning and assessment.
Launched during the 2024/25 academic year, the Closing the Gaps programme was designed to help academic staff better understand awarding gaps within their own subjects and identify practical, evidence-based solutions. Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all model, each faculty developed activities tailored to its specific context, combining institutional data, sector research and examples of effective practice.
The programme explored a range of priority areas, including inclusive curriculum design, authentic assessment, student engagement, learning analytics, leadership for inclusion and staff capability building. Faculty-wide events encouraged discussion and reflection, while school-level activities enabled teams to analyse their own data and develop targeted enhancement plans.
A key strength of the initiative has been its focus on empowering staff to take action. The programme has helped colleagues move beyond awareness of awarding gaps towards implementing practical changes that improve student experiences and outcomes.
These changes have included reviewing curricula and reading lists to improve representation and diversity, auditing placement opportunities to ensure greater inclusivity, introducing more flexible assessment approaches, embedding library support within programmes and strengthening support for neurodiverse learners. Staff have also been encouraged to share examples of effective EDI practice across disciplines, helping to build institutional capability and momentum.
One particularly innovative example is the Changemaker Dissertation Pathways initiative within the School of Applied Social Sciences. Alongside traditional dissertations, students can undertake project-based research in partnership with external organisations, allowing them to align their final-year projects with their interests, strengths and career ambitions.
The impact of these efforts extends beyond the reduction in the ethnicity awarding gap. Between 2022/23 and 2023/24, attainment increased by 11.7 percentage points for male students, 10.6 percentage points for Black students, 9.6 percentage points for mature learners, 8.9 percentage points for students from IMD Quintiles 1 and 2, and 6.5 percentage points for students eligible for Free School Meals.
