ABSTRACT
Questions about the relevance and validity of the ethnic categories currently in use ought to be part of any discussion concerning ethnic attainment differences in higher education. This chapter illustrates how the practice of categorising people does more harm than good. Critical race theory, multiculturalism and identity theories have justified the categorisation of people, that is, group-based social differentiation, in both ethnic attainment research and the literature. The chapter provides several examples to illustrate the implications the categorisation of people has on ethnic attainment research and university education include the National Student Survey and the literature on critical mass, role models and curricula. The term 'critical mass' here refers to the proportion of students and staff in universities who come from an ethnically minoritised background. Bagguley and Hussain's use of the term 'racism' is a case in point that illustrates the inaccurate use of terminology that can be noticed in some of the literature.
