ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role of student identity and its link to student success. It intends to extend this understanding by emphasizing the significance of the relationship between student's identities and their own perceptions of the psychological contract they have with their faculty. The chapter proposes that, despite their best efforts to be inclusive, respectful and offer engaging environments, the language universities use permeates the ether of the institution, infiltrates the thinking of the student, and negatively impacts on the process of generating an academic identity and becoming part of the community of practice. It describes a central debate interwoven with a discourse of gaps in attainment, in particular the national disparity in attainment between students classified as Black and minority ethnic (BME) and their White counterparts, which is reliant on a numeric definition of success and raises a debate centring on how categorical labelling is at odds with students sense of identity.
