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Promotion of Inclusion and Equal Societies
The EUTOPIA Inclusion Action is an innovative and challenge-driven initiative that includes the mission to promote and ensure that higher education is inclusive and accessible to all students.
Read the EUTOPIA Inclusion Manifesto
Read the EUTOPIA Inclusion Framework
Read about EUTOPIA’s work with the Western Balkans
Implementing principles of inclusion, openness, equality, and diversity requires higher education institutions to move beyond traditional exchange approaches and to integrate well-coordinated practices and programmes that are explicitly and genuinely designed to support two key goals:
- foster the inclusion of all, regardless of gender, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, regional affiliation, migration background, capability, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or expression;
- attend to the relationship between ideal inclusivity agendas on the one hand and real student-body balance and financial inequality issues on the other hand.
EUTOPIA’s approach emphasizes inclusive practices by involving people with first-hand experiences of exclusion in the planning and implementation of policies. By inviting disadvantaged students to share their experiences and participate in activities, we demonstrate the value of inclusion and show that good planning comes from the bottom up. Inclusive higher education benefits individuals from disadvantaged groups and less developed regions, as well as the broader student body, contributing to individual development, well-being, and upward convergence in higher education. Inclusive institutions can act as role models for the broader society and promote the transformative development of social justice and inclusivity.
The project’s main principle is to provide equal learning opportunities for all groups of students, especially those disadvantaged because of their sex, race, ethnicity, immigrant background, economic status, disability, and so on. To this end, the project seeks to achieve two goals: develop recommendations and initiatives promoting equality and inclusion for disadvantaged groups, and jointly build expertise on how the European principles of openness and inclusion could be applied to all European regions, including the Western Balkans, especially in connection with education. With few exceptions, the universities in this region can include structurally disadvantaged students in international academic activities based on their ability to secure international research funding.
Key Principles
As part of the EUTOPIA pilot project, the action of promoting inclusion and equal societies will contribute to the following:
- a shared definition of disadvantage.
- developing recommendations and initiatives for the inclusion of disadvantaged groups.
- designing strategies and methods of education for the inclusion of the Western Balkans.
- creating a joint research programme focusing on issues concerning the Western Balkans.
- raising awareness of and providing information on best practices and celebrating diversity by holding a “Diversity Day ”.
The implementation of this action within the EUTOPIA pilot project proves that inclusion is not just a buzzword in today’s European social or university policies, but that such participation can exist and facilitate changes for disadvantaged students. By ensuring inclusion and participation, we can create a university of the future open to everyone.