Beyond Access: Black Women Alumnae’s Perspectives on Navigating Russell Group Universities as Undergraduates in the United Kingdom

<p>This qualitative study examines the lived experiences of Black British women who attended Russell Group universities, investigating how they navigated identity, belonging, racism, and institutional support within elite higher education. The study was guided by three research questions: how Black women experienced identity and belonging in these environments; what survival and resistance strategies they developed in response; and what institutional changes they recommend to better support Black women students. Drawing on Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000), Strayhorn’s (2018) sense of belonging framework, and Tuck’s (2009) desire-based research framework, the study employed a phenomenological methodology adapted from Seidman (2019). The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews with a total of 15 Black women alumnae who attended three Russell Group universities between 2013 and 2025. The data thereafter was analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), generating nine themes organized across the three research questions. The findings of this study revealed that participants experienced hypervisibility, racial isolation, and a form of conditional inclusion that granted access while withholding genuine belonging. Racism, ranging from persistent microaggressions to overt racial violence, was a near-universal feature of their undergraduate experiences. In response to these experiences, participants developed individual and collective survival strategies, most significantly through African and Caribbean Societies and Black peer networks, which provided the community infrastructure their institutions failed to offer. Participants of this study consistently identified institutional failures, including unclear reporting pathways, an absence of Black faculty and culturally competent support staff, and a systemic pattern of offloading diversity responsibilities onto student-led societies. Notably, 14 of the 15 participants stated they would still recommend their institution to a younger Black woman, not as an endorsement of their experience, but as a reflection of the value they placed on the credential despite the considerable personal cost of obtaining it. This distinction is central to the study’s argument: that Black women’s persistence must not be misread as evidence of institutional success. Ultimately, this study calls on Russell Group universities to move beyond access as a measure of equity and to take genuine responsibility for the belonging, safety, and flourishing of Black women once they arrive.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Education, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Educational Studies

Year dc:date.available

2026

Author dc:creator

• Kativhu, Varaidzo Felistus

Contributors dc:contributor

• Frances Gipson
• Torie Weiston-Serdan

• Black Feminist Thought
• Black women
• identity
• race
• Russell Group
• sense of belonging
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1108

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2130