Addressing racialised awarding gap in higher education: Insights from personal tutors

Abstract Situated within a wider cross‐institutional research project, this article provides an in‐depth case study of one higher education (HE) institution, focusing on how personal tutors make sense of racialised degree awarding disparities for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, how they perceive their responsibilities, the challenges and opportunities to contribute to ‘closing’ the awarding gap, and how they experience the positioning of the personal tutoring role within institutional equity agendas. Using an explanatory mixed‐methods design, which included a survey of 166 personal tutors alongside in‐depth conversational interviews, this study illuminates ways in which institutional structures and logics create possibilities for transformative personal tutoring practise whilst also constraining in ways that positioning personal tutoring as a site of struggle with and against normalised and familiar ideas of what personal tutoring should and should not be. Findings indicate that personal tutoring is positioned as both a site of responsibility for addressing racialised awarding gaps and a form of labour constrained by institutional norms of professionalism, neutrality and care. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, the study demonstrates how racialised power relations shape personal tutors' sense of agency, risk and recognition, and argues for a re‐conceptualisation of personal tutoring as a structurally embedded practise central to equity work in HE. Quantitative findings are interpreted cautiously given subgroup size disparities and are used to illuminate patterns that are explored in depth through qualitative analysis.