Abstract
Summary The study reviews the records of 671 social work students and graduates including the seven intakes from the first cohort in 2003/2004 to the intake in 2010/2011 to examine the interacting effect of learning difficulties, ethnicity and gender on the completion of social work training at a university in the South East of England. Findings Among the students, 79.9% of them were female, 50.1% were black, 27.9% white, 10.7% Asian and 11.3% other ethnicities. A majority of students did not report any disability. Among those who did ( n = 84), 52.3% ( n = 44) reported a learning difficulty. The percentage of students who have successfully completed the training is 76.4%, a completion rate that is comparable to the UK's national figure. Having controlled the confounding variables, hierarchical logistic regression identified the risk factor for dropout from undergraduate social work programme as black female students with learning difficulties (odds ratio = 0.100, 95% confidence interval = 0.012–0.862, p < 0.05). Findings suggested that students with multiplicity of identities, i.e. being black and female and with a learning difficulty, have a lower probability to complete the programme successfully. Applications Strategies for tackling the intersecting disadvantages of race, gender and disabilities in social work training should embrace three principles: providing continuous support, focusing on how the support is provided and addressing contextual and structural barriers.
Highlights
A UK national report on the retention and completion rate of students studying at higher education institutions (HEIs) showed that 78.1% of local UK students were qualified with a first degree (National Audit Office (NAO), 2007)
The dropout rate is defined as the percentage of students who have withdrawn from the qualifying social work training within or after the maximum period of registration, i.e. four years of their first entry into the MASW programme, five years for BASW programme and seven years for BASW programme
A total of 671 students have enrolled in the university's social work programmes over the past seven intakes;34.4% (n = 231) were in the MASW programme, 54.2% (n = 364) in the full-time BASW programme and 11.3% (n = 76) in the part-time BASW programme (Table 1)
Summary
A UK national report on the retention and completion rate of students studying at higher education institutions (HEIs) showed that 78.1% of local UK students were qualified with a first degree (National Audit Office (NAO), 2007). According to this result, UK ranked as the fifth highest in estimated graduation (survival rates) in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2004 (NAO, 2007). Compared with the profile of professional social workers in the country, the university has a higher number of students reporting learning difficulties. Half of the social work students were black indicating the proportion of black students in the university was significantly higher than that of other universities in the UK (HESA, 2011c)
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