Institution Level Awarding Gap Metrics for Identifying Educational Inequity: Useful Tools or Reductive Distractions?
Open accessAbstract
Abstract Equity is increasingly seen as a core value for higher education systems around the world. (In)equity is often measured through construction of achievement gaps, quantifying the relative outcomes of two populations of students. Institution-level gaps are embedded in the policy landscape of HE, becoming performance metrics in their own right. These gap metrics increasingly inform the actions of governments, regulators, institutions and educators. This theoretical article scrutinises the technical and conceptual construction of achievement gaps through using the dominant UK conception of the institution level degree classification ‘awarding gap’. Drawing on Adam’s Equity Theory of Motivation, Rawls’s Distributive Justice and the Capability Approach as theoretical perspectives, I highlight multiple structural weaknesses in the conception of the awarding gap. I illustrate the implications of this metric by analysing simulated awarding gap data for a fictional institution, and through the perspectives of five idealised stakeholders. I identify multiple technical and theoretical limitations of the institution level awarding gap metric, including examples where the threshold-based nature of the awarding gap fails to capture statistical differences between groups, thereby undermining its utility in identifying inequity. I call on the sector to develop metrics that more accurately capture (in)equity of outcomes and align better with theoretical frameworks, thereby creating more powerful explanatory metrics that can inform meaningful action.
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Cited by
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Generative AI in Higher Education: Balancing Innovation and Integrity
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“Hubbard [21] outlines that existing metrics can be reductive and fail to capture the full complexity of equity, particularly in educational outcomes; GenAI can potentially exacerbate this divide further.”
- Authors
- Hubbard, K. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Hull (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Hubbard, Katharine Elizabeth
- Venue
- Higher Education
- Published
- 2024-04-15
- Volume
- 88
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 2269-2289
- ISSN
- 0018-1560 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-174X
- OpenAlex
- W4394821414
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 29.03
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Higher Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Repository@Hull (Worktribe) (University of Hull) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Higher Education Governance and Development
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Practises and Engagement
- Keywords
- educational inequity, awarding gap, achievement gap, higher education equity, degree classification, distributive justice, capability approach, student outcomes, UK higher education
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