Student Perspectives: Ariadna (UPF)

How should students be involved as co-creators in Higher Education?

The student voice, and student experiences, are the most important part of this conversation: you don’t know what’s happening until you talk to students and they describe the experiences they live every day. In any guidelines about inclusion in university, it’s really important that you represent these specific experiences and inclusion practices, so it’s not all generalised.  

Are there any inclusive practices at your university that you would like to highlight?

The Unitat d'Igualtat oversees initiatives relating to changing the names of transsexuals, transgender, and intersex people, as well as offering provisions for victims of gender-based violence and LGBTQ+ phobia. These are incredibly important practices, and we think it’s great that the university makes them visible from the first day when students arrive.

Also, in UPF, when you finish a course you can anonymously say anything about the teacher and rate them. So you can point out what the teacher is saying and doing. You can also go to the Unitat d’Igualtat and tell them if something happens, if someone abuses you. These are really good practices for enabling people to report problems in a safe, confidential way.  

What new or improved practices would you like to see?

There is a project at UPF called Viquidones (Catalan for ‘Wiki-women’), which aims to reduce gender bias on Wikipedia. This is a very important initiative that has been running for about 10 years. However, we think it could be improved by going beyond the focus on gender bias, and including other minorities and discriminated groups.