Students being accepted to study on the Textiles Programme I work on are increasingly coming from more diverse backgrounds. The programme accepts more international students and students who are coming straight from school without doing a foundation year, I think this is positive and is leading to increased inclusivity and generally a more diverse student body. What is less considered is the appropriateness of the experience these students have on our course. Are we retaining these students and if they complete the course of study they enrolled on have they managed to realize their full potential and been enabled to achieve the top grades they aspire to? We are failing our students if we don’t adapt our teaching methods to encourage and sustain our new diverse intake of students.
How will the textiles program change and adapt the curriculum to nurture and sustain the high numbers of international students and students from diverse backgrounds we currently accept on the program?
How do we put in place a strategy to encourage a sense of community and understanding amongst all the students studying on our program and the wider university?
Students on the textiles program often work on individual projects which they discuss with lecturers and technicians on a one-to-one basis ‘pearls of wisdom’ approach Orr, Yorke and Blair 2014, I think this is an insular way of educating our students and results in students who may have studied at CCW for years not really knowing their own classmates. ‘The work that is undertaken by students is not usually done for the good of the group of learners or other community, but in order to satisfy the requirements of the teacher and the institution’. (Mann 2001, p. 13). More group activity would lead to pre-conceptions being challenged and ideas around intersectionality and identity being regularly discussed as an integral part of every project.
I have learnt that it is such a missed opportunity not to include transformational learning as part of all study at UAL and other Art and Design Institutions. Integral to all study on your course would be learning about social justice, inclusivity and intersectionality with the result that our students would not be in their 50’s, like me, before they begin to explore these vitally important ideas.
It seems be positive to see the university increasing the number of admission of students with diverse background. My previous experience of masters study at UAL and a closer look at statistics shows the other side of the reality in relation to the admission in higher education. According to the article, How data reveals fashion’s inclusivity problem UAL’s Diversity and Inclusive report on 2018 lists 47% black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and 53% white students in student population respectively. Among the BAME student population, 87% are in fact international students with an Asian background. In other words, the number of the black and other minority-ethnic group students from the UK were in fact very low in the whole student population in 2018. Behind those impressive figures, this revealed that inequality exists among the marginalized groups when it comes to accessibility in higher education
I agree with you that universities need to catch up with the speed of incorporating the sustainable inclusivity pedagogy into course curriculums and students’ learning experiences. This would have a positive impact on guaranteeing that students with diverse background can find their way when entering the creative industries.
It seems be positive to see the university increasing the number of admission of students with diverse background. My previous experience of masters study at UAL and a closer look at statistics shows the other side of the reality in relation to the admission in higher education. According to the article, How data reveals fashion’s inclusivity problem UAL’s Diversity and Inclusive report on 2018 lists 47% black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and 53% white students in student population respectively. Among the BAME student population, 87% are in fact international students with an Asian background. In other words, the number of the black and other minority-ethnic group students from the UK were in fact very low in the whole student population in 2018. Behind those impressive figures, this revealed that inequality exists among the marginalized groups when it comes to accessibility in higher education
I agree with you that universities need to catch up with the speed of incorporating the sustainable inclusivity pedagogy into course curriculums and students’ learning experiences. This would have a positive impact on guaranteeing that students with diverse background can find their way when entering the creative industries.
It seems be positive to see the university increasing the number of admission of students with diverse background. My previous experience of masters study at UAL and a closer look at statistics shows the other side of the reality in relation to the admission in higher education. According to the article, How data reveals fashion’s inclusivity problem, (https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/jul/29/numbers-dont-lie-how-data-reveals-fashions-inclusivity-problem) UAL’s Diversity and Inclusive report on 2018 lists 47% black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and 53% white students in student population respectively. Among the BAME student population, 87% are in fact international students with an Asian background. In other words, the number of the black and other minority-ethnic group students from the UK were in fact very low in the whole student population in 2018. Behind those impressive figures, this revealed that inequality exists among the marginalized groups when it comes to accessibility in higher education
I agree with you that universities need to catch up with the speed of incorporating the sustainable inclusivity pedagogy into course curriculums and students’ learning experiences. This would have a positive impact on guaranteeing that students with diverse background can find their way when entering the creative industries.