Designing and supporting inclusive practices in Higher Education

Project Details

Description

Promoting inclusive higher education systems is a key priority for Europe. The European Universities Association recently published a report which examined the way 159 European Higher Education Institutions engage with and promote diversity, equity and inclusion. This report showed that training on diversity, equity and inclusion mainly targets academic teaching staff leaving the non-academic staff with very few opportunities for training with inclusive methods and tools. Furthermore, research shows that very few institutions have considered to develop practices that support the inclusion of diverse members with ethnic, cultural and migration background. This is also evident in the partner countries, Cyprus, Belgium, Finland, Romania and Greece, where policies and practices focus in promoting diversity and neglect the importance of inclusion.

This project was developed based on several policies focusing on inclusion that European Commission issued over the past few years. In particular, the Yerevan Communique of 2015 placed highly the commitment for social inclusion in Higher Education, by widening disadvantaged and underrepresented students’ access and completion of tertiary education. Also, the Renewed EU Agenda for Higher Education, adopted by European Commission in 2017, sets one of the four goals for European cooperation in Higher Education to be: “Building inclusive and connected higher education”. Additionally, the Bologna Process suggests that European Higher Education Institutions reform their policies in order to facilitate student and staff mobility, making HE more inclusive and accessible.

Taking into account the above, this partnership consists of a total of 6 Partners (3 Universities, 1 non-profit research center, 1 European Universities Network, 1 SME) from 5 EU countries who come together to address the following objectives:
1. Support higher education providers to design, implement, and monitor effective inclusive policies and practices.
2. Building the competences of learning designers and academics to design inclusive learning programs.
3. Improve the supply of high quality inclusive higher education opportunities for all.
4. Engage all key stakeholders in inclusive practices.

The project builds on the existing knowledge developed by partners and aims at supporting higher education institutions develop innovative policies and practices for integrating inclusive practices in designing and teaching courses. The primary target groups for this project include:
• Higher education faculty and instructors
• Policymakers and university leadership teams
• Learning designers, and support staff
• Higher education students

The project Intellectual Outputs are:
• IO1 - Toolkit for administrators and policy-makers at higher education institutions to support them in developing inclusive policies.
• IO2 - A training course for learning designers and academics on how to design inclusive education programs.
• IO3 - E-learning platform and MOOC on inclusive practices for academics and support staff.

The expected results of the project are:
• Improved capacity of universities to modernize their teaching and learning, their curricula, and practices.
• Improved competencies for faculty, learning designers, and university support staff to design inclusive university curricula and courses.
• Increase synergies among universities and SMEs.
• Improve the quality and relevance of teaching and learning in Higher Education.
• Increase the competitiveness of the European Higher Education sector.

The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.
AcronymInclusiveHE
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date01/12/2030/11/22

Collaborative partners

  • Åbo Akademi University (lead)
  • CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET (Project partner)
  • University of Pitesti (Project partner)
  • University of Latvia (Project partner)
  • Innovade LI LTD (Project partner)
  • EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES CONTINUING EDUCATION NETWORK (Project partner)