Critical perspectives in the construction and contextualisation of minoritised students in UK Higher Education

Within the current context of UKHE, there is a strong focus for institutions to enact Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity initiatives. This tends to place emphasis on the minoritised home student experience and their outcomes, and neglects the minoritised international student experience. Instead, the institutional experiences of international students are confined within Internationalisation policies and processes. This is largely concerned with a market-driven approach underpinned by a hyper-focus on student recruitment, leading to ethical issues in relation to their lived experiences and realities. These disparities are further revealed through the distinct categorisation of ‘home’ and ‘international’ students as separate binaries. In response to this reality, this research aims to mesh these distinctions through an overarching analysis of both home and international multilingual student experiences by situating language as a distinct component, in addition to a wider intersectional approach that considers a complexity of differences in experiences. Theoretically, this research places importance on critical race/post/decolonial theories in challenging eurocentric epistemologies. This enables a wider understanding of the historical legacies of colonialism in addition to contemporary issues of race and racism inflected through the student experience. It also ensures that the experiences of minoritised students are not homogenised. Methodologically, this research utilises a qualitative framework informed by a Critical Race Theory lens, relying on storytelling and counter-narratives. Data were gathered through semi-structured focus groups and interviews with 15 participants, including five home students and ten international students The data analysis follows a reflexive thematic analysis approach, combined with a qualitative sensibility lens resulting in a richer set of data generation and interpretation. The intersectional convergences and divergences within the student experience reveal key findings. (1) The realities of processes of ‘othering’ signified through: linguistic racism; pedagogic issues situated within deficit discourse; and internalised double-consciousness, stemming from coloniality. This produces a diverse range of disparities in experiences across and within minoritised students in relation to the impact on belonging and community. These disparities extend to wider issues of citizenship, faith, race and racism, and the impact of coloniality. (2) The use of a Raciolinguistic analogy, adopted in the context of UKHE minoritised students, as an original lens to reveal the interconnections and power dynamics situated between language and race. An overarching theme across this research is the disruption of deficit narratives. Instead, an emphasis is placed on student agency, and positioning students as knowledge producers. (3) This research has highlighted the importance of relationality and care as central within student support mechanisms, and in doing so, validates diverse ways of knowing and being. Thus, it begins to offer possibilities in reimagining and constructing the university as a homeplace.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Loonat, Sumeya

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/92800b36-c63f-46f5-ae09-94e044d5586a/download