Session Outline

Despite racially minoritised students entering UK-based higher education with similar entry qualifications to their white counterparts, they are more likely to leave university with a lower degree classification. The awarding gap refers to the persistent disparity in degree classifications awarded to white and racially minoritised students: the difference between the number of white and racially minoritised students awarded First class and Upper Second class (2:1) honours (Gabi, 2025). This persistent awarding gap, long recognised by policymakers and scholars, has consequences for access to graduate-level jobs and postgraduate opportunities (Gabi et al., 2023; Ugiagbe-Green & Ernsting, 2022). So far, efforts to narrow the awarding gap have been focused on decolonising the curriculum, which is important. However, we argue that recognising personal tutoring (PT) and academic advising as essential, often undervalued roles is also crucial for reducing awarding gaps.

This collaborative workshop between students and staff at Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the University of Salford invites participants to engage in a scenario-based immersive professional learning experience that (re-)imagines personal tutoring through the lens of racially minoritised students' lived reality. Centred on the pedagogical possibilities of CAVE immersive technologies, the session draws on 360-degree videos co-created with students, guiding participants through experiences that prompt critical awareness of how personal tutoring practices shape students' trust, persistence, engagement, and belonging.

Participants will engage with three immersive scenarios designed to provoke thinking and discussion around how personal tutoring can improve student outcomes through equitable, relational, and race-conscious practices and processes. Following each screening, students, in collaboration with a tutor, will facilitate discussions, sharing insights into what might have supported a more meaningful and restorative personal tutoring encounter.

Through this dialogic, participatory format, the workshop aims to move beyond surface-level discussions of inclusivity toward strategies for enacting race-conscious, intersectional, relational ethics of care and reflexive practices that can actively narrow not only awarding gaps for racially minoritised students but also improve outcomes for all students.

Participants will benefit from:

An embodied understanding of diverse student experiences, developed through immersive simulations that foreground the spatial, emotional, and relational dimensions of student life.

Enhanced confidence in addressing sensitive personal tutoring conversations, having practised decision-making in a safe yet authentic environment.

Direct engagement with students who co-facilitate the workshop, offering the opportunity to hear student perspectives, enhance their understanding of real challenges, and reflect collaboratively on how tutor responses shape student experience.

Practical, inclusive strategies for responsive personal tutoring and advising practices and approaches that support students’ wellbeing and academic development.

Learning Outcomes

Bibliography