abstract: 'Purpose - Black British minority ethnics (BME) students are nationally

  underachieving in comparison to their Ethnic Chinese and White peers,

  showing typically a 16 per cent graduate attainment gap in the UK.

  Previous research has suggested that the attainment gap could be

  explained by BME student disengagement, as the students typically

  commute from family home to University, and they work part time.

  However, peer-assisted learning (PAL) has been shown to have a positive

  impact on addressing and resolving student alienation and disengagement.

  However, a question still remains regarding whether student perceptions

  hold up to statistical analysis when scrutinised in comparison to

  similar cohorts without PAL interventions. The paper aims to discuss

  these issues.

  Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents the results of a

  statistical study for two cohorts of students on engineering courses

  with a disproportionately high representation of BME students. The

  research method involved a statistical analysis of student records for

  the two cohorts to ascertain any effect of correlation between: PAL;

  student ethnicity; and student parental employment on student academic

  performance and placement attainment.

  Findings - The results indicate that PAL has no significant impact on

  the academic performance; however, PAL has a positive impact on the

  placement/internship attainment for BME students and students from

  parental households with parents in non-managerial/professional

  employment.

  Research limitations/implications - The research limitations are that

  the cohorts are small, but more equal diverse mix of different social

  categories than any other courses. However, as the cohorts are less than

  30 students, comparing social categories the data sets are small to have

  absolute confidence in the statistical results of academic performance.

  Even the t-test has its limitations as the subjects are human, and there

  are multiple personal factors that can impact an individual academic

  performance; therefore, the data sets are heterostatic.

  Practical implications - The results highlight that there is need for

  pedagogy interventions to support: ideally all BME students from all

  social categery to secure placements; BME students who are unable to go

  on placement to gain supplementary learning that has the same impact on

  their personal development and learning as placement/internship

  experience; and White students from managerial/professional family

  households to engage more in their studies.

  Social implications - Not addressing and providing appropriate pedagogy

  interventions, in the wider context not addressing/resolving the BME

  academic and placement attainment gap, a set of students are being

  disadvantaged to their peers through no fault of their own, and

  compounding their academic attainment. As academics we have a duty to

  provide every opportunity to develop our student attainment, and as

  student entry is generally homogeneous, all students should attain it.

  Originality/value - Previous research evaluation of PAL programmes has

  focused on quantitative students surveys and qualitative semi-structured

  research interviews with students on their student engagement and

  learning experience. On the other hand, this paper evaluates the

  intervention through conducting a quantitative statistical analysis of

  the student records to evaluate the impact of PAL on a cohort''s

  performance on different social categories (classifications) and

  compares the results to a cohort of another group with a similar student

  profile, but without PAL intervention implementation.'
affiliation: 'Nortcliffe, AL (Corresponding Author), Canterbury Christ Church Univ,
  Sch Human \& Life Sci, Canterbury, Kent, England.

  Nortcliffe, Anne Louise, Canterbury Christ Church Univ, Sch Human \& Life Sci, Canterbury,
  Kent, England.

  Parveen, Sajhda, Sheffield Hallam Univ, Dept Engn \& Math, Sheffield, S Yorkshire,
  England.

  Pink-Keech, Cathy, Sheffield Hallam Univ, Dept Lib Serv, Sheffield, S Yorkshire,
  England.'
author: Nortcliffe, Anne Louise and Parveen, Sajhda and Pink-Keech, Cathy
author-email: anne.nortcliffe@canterbury.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Nortcliffe
  given: Anne Louise
- family: Parveen
  given: Sajhda
- family: Pink-Keech
  given: Cathy
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1108/JARHE-04-2017-0047
eissn: 1758-1184
files: []
issn: 2050-7003
journal: JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN HIGHER EDUCATION
keywords: 'BME attainment gap; Peer-assisted learning; Placement attainment; Social

  economic background of students'
keywords-plus: HIGHER-EDUCATION; ATTAINMENT; STUDENTS
language: English
month: JAN 27
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '37'
pages: 489-506
papis_id: 2e4be188b312c6499ba604c8d94a3f7b
ref: Nortcliffe2022statisticallydoes
times-cited: '1'
title: Statistically, Does peer assisted learning make a difference on a UK engineering
  degree programme? HETL Scotland 2017
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000751459100028
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '5'
volume: '14'
web-of-science-categories: Education \& Educational Research
year: '2022'