Students from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background are more likely to withdraw from their undergraduate degree in the United Kingdom (UK). It is therefore important to explore withdrawal experiences and perspectives that relate to this population of students to increase both student retention and success. Thirteen UK-domiciled, full-time undergraduate, first-degree entrants from a BAME background, who had withdrawn from a post-1992 university in the West Midlands, took part in a semi-structured interview. The present study explored BAME student experiences of withdrawal which covered personal, academic and social concerns. Using a thematic analysis approach, five themes were developed: (a) academic issues, (b) does anybody even care? (c) balancing part-time employment alongside HE, (d) family perception and pressure and (e) the importance of social integration. Participants often discussed withdrawal as a holistic experience whereby although certain aspects were more prominently spoken about, generally withdrawal was a materialisation of more than one problematic area. There is a need for institutions to further understand the challenges faced by BAME students in order to provide more localised support and intervention to improve BAME retention, success and experiences within higher education (HE).

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In this study, the natural convection nanofluids flow through a channel formed by two vertical parallel plates having distance d between them has been examined under the influence of the ramped velocity. Sodium alginate is considered as base fluid, and nanoparticles of titania ( TiO 2 ) and alumina ( Al 2 O 3 ) are added to it. Analytical and semianalytical results for temperature and velocity profiles are obtained with Laplace transform and inverse Laplace algorithms (Tzou, Stehfest, Talbot, Honig and Hirdes, and Fourier series), respectively. Furthermore, the impacts of nanoparticles, Prendtl number, heat absorption, and time on velocity and temperature are drawn graphically and discussed. The outcomes show that the high thermal conductivity of particles increases the temperatures, and the high density of particles decreases the velocities of the nanofluids. The current findings are compared to previous findings in the literature. In the tables, the effect of volume fraction on Nusselt numbers and skin frictions is explored.