INVITED

Strategies towards Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Universities

The INVITED project aims to support universities in developing and strategies towards equity, diversity and inclusion. It also seeks to promote dialogue between stakeholders at the system level in order to ensure that regulatory and funding frameworks empower universities to fulfil their social responsibility.

Universities are seeking ways to enable the participation of people from various backgrounds, including those that are traditionally less represented in higher education. The topic is gaining importance with education ministers who reiterated their commitment at the 2018 Bologna Ministerial Conference in Paris to strengthen the social dimension of higher education and further national strategies.

Over the next two years (autumn 2018 – summer 2020) project partners will work together on the topic and engage university leaders, managers and practitioners in a number of joint activities. The results of the project will aim to inspire university leaders and staff in their own work and provide input at the policy level to the Bologna Ministerial Conference in Rome in 2020.

  • Objectives

    The INVITED project aims to:

    • support higher education institutions in fulfilling their social responsibility to reflect societal diversity in their student and staff body, as well as to cater to the needs of diverse groups and contribute to higher attainment among underrepresented groups (Bologna process commitment);
    • facilitate policy development through dialogue between relevant stakeholders (universities, ministries, funders, NGOs, associations representing disadvantaged or less represented groups) at the system level to promote appropriate regulatory and funding frameworks that empower universities to fulfil this responsibility.

    More specifically, the project aims to:

    • create a knowledge base to better identify and understand the important issues universities face with regard to diversity, equity and inclusion;
    • raise awareness about the topic, as well as identify and give visibility to existing practices;
    • provide project participants with an opportunity to exchange experiences with strategic relevance and learn from each other;
    • formulate and promote recommendations for institutions for the development and implementation of strategies for diversity management;
    • develop - if and where appropriate - recommendations to policy makers at the relevant levels.
  • Activities

    To achieve these objectives, the project will have several milestones including a short survey for universities, combined with follow-up interviews with a small sample of respondents. A series of events will follow, such as a peer learning seminar for university leaders and practitioners at the European level, as well as system-level workshops organised in collaboration with national university associations to facilitate concrete policy development. A publication will give an overview of the results of the survey and the events.

    INVITED Peer Learning Seminar, 14 June 2019, hosted by University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    The INVITED consortium organised a peer learning seminar with more than 30 university leaders and managers from 15 countries to discuss their strategies towards equity, diversity and inclusion, exchange good practices and learn from each other. On this occasion also the preliminary results of the INVITED survey with data from more than 160 higher education institutions from 36 European systems were presented.

  • Partners

    The INVITED project is jointly conducted by EUA and the European Universities Continuing Education Network (EUCEN) with support from the European Students’ Union (ESU).

Resources

  • Diversity, equity and inclusion in European higher education institutions: results from the INVITED project

    Report

    19 November 2019

    Inclusiveness has become a strategic question for a number of higher education institutions across E...

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  • Universities’ Strategies and Approaches towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

    Report

    28 May 2018

    The present edited volume is a contribution to a European exchange on the role of higher educat...

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Events

  • INVITED project final conference

    03 Mar 2020 Events Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the European Union in Brussels
    Inclusiveness has become a strategic question for a number of higher education institutions across Europe, impacting learning and teaching, research and institutional cultures. Many have taken action to find new ways to enable people from various backgrounds to find their place in higher education. ... Read more
  • EUA and its partners the European University Continuing Education Network (eucen) and the European Students’ Union (ESU)  are organising a webinar to present and discuss the outcomes of the INVITED project on strategies towards diversity, equity and inclusion at universities. On this occ... Read more
  • INVITED Peer Learning Seminar

    14 Jun 2019 Events University College Dublin
    The European University Association (EUA) and the European University Continuing Education Network (EUCEN) supported by the European Students’ Union (ESU) are organising a peer learning seminar for university leaders from across Europe to discuss university strategies and approaches towards eq... Read more

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