Widening participation in mathematics: an East London perspective

Queen Mary is part of the federation of colleges that make up the University of London. The School of Mathematical Sciences is one of the largest mathematics departments in the UK. It is based on the Mile End campus, about two miles east of central London. I’ve worked there since August 2007. Until April 2009 I worked as a project officer for the East London region of the national ‘more maths grads’ project funded by HEFCE. I now work as the School’s Executive Officer for Teaching and Research.

The ‘more maths grads’ project aims to encourage more students to take up degree courses in mathematical sciences and to increase the numbers participating who are from traditionally under-represented backgrounds. The groups mentioned in our remit include people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, women, adult learners and people of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Black Caribbean or Black African ethnicity.

In this article I will describe the HEI and local context for widening participation.

A. Gender

Over six hundred undergraduates were taking mathematics courses at Queen Mary in 2006/07: this increased to over seven hundred in 2007/08 and increased again in 2008/09. Around 45% of these undergraduates were female and 55% male. HESA statistics show that 38% of the Mathematical Sciences students across all universities in 2006/07 were female. Percentages of women in other subjects at Queen Mary are shown in the Table 1 below. I have tried to take the most appropriate comparative HESA figure in each case.

The first row in Table 1 shows the statistics for Queen Mary undergraduates in 2006/07. The second row shows the statistics for both Queen Mary undergraduates and postgraduates in 2006/07. HESA national statistics count undergraduate and postgraduate numbers in 2006/07, full and part time. All figures include Home, EU and non-EU students…