Dr Orkun Yetkili and Dr Deborah Husbands (University of Westminster) have led the delivery of a scoping review on the impostor phenomenon among racially minoritised UK undergraduate and postgraduate students funded by the Society for Research into Higher Education.
Research Summary
Purpose
This scoping review examines what is known about the impostor phenomenon (IP) among racially minoritised undergraduate and postgraduate students in United Kingdom (UK) higher education (HE), exploring its relationship with sense of belonging, institutional experiences and awarding inequalities. Drawing on critical race and social identity perspectives, the review positions IP not as an individual deficit, but as a phenomenon shaped by racialised institutional contexts, representation, exclusion, academic cultures and experiences of belonging.
Methods
Following JBI guidance and PRISMA-ScR reporting standards, eight empirical studies published between 2021 and 2026 were included in the scoping review. First, Title and Abstract screening was piloted and carried out against the prespecified PCC eligibility criteria. Second, full texts of potentially relevant records were retrieved and assessed for eligibility. Data from included studies were charted using a structured extraction form and synthesised descriptively to map study characteristics.
Findings
The selected studies indicate that IP is experienced across undergraduate and postgraduate populations and is associated with factors such as underrepresentation, racial and gendered expectations, perfectionism, academic comparison, exclusionary environments and limited culturally relevant support. Sense of belonging emerged as a key intersecting factor, with students describing how recognition, representation, and supportive academic communities can mitigate feelings of illegitimacy and unbelonging.
Conclusions
This scoping review synthesised eight studies on IP among racially minoritised students in UK HE, revealing a sparse and methodologically diverse body of evidence. While studies identify connections among IP, belonging, help-seeking, academic confidence, and attainment-related experiences, none of the included studies established IP as a direct explanation for the degree6 awarding gap. None of the studies included in this review evaluated an intervention designed to counter impostorism among racially minoritised students in UK HE. The review highlights the need for culturally responsive institutional approaches, improved measurement of racialised IP, greater intersectional analysis and evaluation of interventions addressing belonging, equity and student success. Future research should therefore adopt intersectional approaches and examine how IP interacts with student outcomes and institutional inequalities without positioning racially minoritised students’ experiences as individual deficits.
