Roma University Students in Spain: Who Are They?

Abstract

Roma people in Spain face situations of high deprivation, including high unemployment and early school leaving rates. The strategies to address this situation point to education as the means to overcome poverty and social exclusion. Although efforts have been made within compulsory education, scarce attention has been given to their performance once in higher education. Although young Roma people are reaching higher education more often than their parents, once at university they face specific barriers that hinder their opportunities. Using a mixed-methods approach, UNIROMA analyses those difficulties and formulates orientations to overcome them, thereby contributing to increasing the university graduation rates of Roma students. This paper presents the results of the quantitative fieldwork, consisting of an online questionnaire administered from May to July of 2020 to Roma students enrolled in Spanish universities. In the results, three main profiles were identified: traditional students, young students with other commitments (job and/or family responsibilities) and mature students. The results, concordant with research on other minority groups and higher education, provide evidence of the barriers that Roma students face in university due to the intersectionality of multiple factors of discrimination, namely, belonging to an ethnic minority and being more frequently first-generation, low SES and non-traditional students.

Recomendaciones para el apoyo de estudiantes Romanís en la Universidad

“…Partiendo de la identificación de los perfiles de personas gitanas que estudian en la universidad y las principales barreras que enfrentan identificados en la primera fase del proyecto (Flecha et al, 2022), la segunda fase se centró en formular actuaciones para contribuir a superarlas. El presente artículo se centra en esta segunda fase.…”

“…La literatura señala la existencia de una baja confianza en las propias capacidades para la realización de actividades académicas en estudiantes de minorías, especialmente entre aquellos que tienen trayectorias poco académicas y han accedido a la universidad de forma tardía. Al respecto, si bien nuestros resultados cuantitativos no parecen coincidir con dicha apreciación (Flecha et al, 2022), puesto que los encuestados muestran una alta confianza en la mayor parte de los aspectos académicos contemplados, en las entrevistas sí encontramos elementos que evidencian una falta de seguridad en los estudiantes, especialmente entre las mujeres. Las personas entrevistadas destacan la importancia del apoyo familiar o de redes de contención para superar este tipo de dificultades.…”

“…La discriminación contra el pueblo gitano es una realidad de la cual no está exenta la universidad. Los datos recogidos en la fase cuantitativa de este estudio (Flecha et al, 2022) revelan que los estudiantes romanís experimentan algún tipo de discriminación en distintos grados a lo largo de su trayectoria universitaria. Este es, por tanto, uno de los aspectos que puede dificultar la finalización de los estudios y que es preciso abordar.…”

Dialogic traits of Roma women leadership

“…Every time more, traditional ethnocentric and relativist perspectives at the time of studying "the Roma" which for long characterised anthropology and some social sciences' studies, are being abandoned towards doing research "with the Roma", from a dialogic and communicative perspective (Flecha, Gómez & Puigvert, 2003), and thus including their lifewords and own interpretations of reality. This is a major step towards creating new knowledge that is both not solely fair with the Roma social reality -and thus advancing to debunk stereotypes that are still associated with the Roma-, but which can also inform potential solutions to help improve their living conditions (Aiello et al, 2022;Flecha et al, 2022).…”

Examination of the Participation of Roma Families in the Educational System: Difficulties and Successful Practices

“…Specifically, stereotypes, prejudices and the widespread lack of knowledge and appreciation of Roma culture have been well documented in the European context (European Parliament, 2011;European Commission, 2019;EU-FRA, 2020) . Indeed, discrimination faced by Roma students leads to high rates of academic failure and school dropout while institutional barriers continue to hinder their inclusion in the educational system (Hellgren & Gabrielli, 2021;Kende, 2021;Flecha et al, 2022;Gallego-Noche & Goenechea-Permisán, 2022). Furthermore, ethnicity per se is not the variable that explains students' academic achievement (Richardson, 2019).…”