The Pharmaceutical Journal recently revealed for the first time that a significantly lower proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students are awarded a higher MPharm degree, compared with their white counterparts.
The data from all 4,690 students with a recorded ethnicity, who graduated with an MPharm degree in 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, were provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency and indicate that 91% of white students were awarded first class or upper second class honours, compared with 79% of BAME students over the same time period — an awarding gap of 12 percentage points.
In this podcast, we explore this issue in depth and speak with four BAME students about their experiences. There is also an interview with Isobel Lowings, publications officer at the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association, about her organisation’s position on the awarding gap and what she thinks should be done about it.
Part 2 will explore how the General Pharmaceutical Council and pharmacy schools intend to tackle this problem.
Presented by: Angela Kam. Producer: Geoff Marsh. Thanks to pharmacy students Unekwuojo Agada, Tsariye Doro, Ishwah Khaliq and Adam Ismail for their contributions.
Read more about this issue: Making the MPharm fairer: what can be done about the ethnicity awarding gap?
Click here for more audio from The Pharmaceutical Journal . Follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
