Cultural Diversity in the UNIC HEIs: The Role of Inclusion Practices on Belonging and IdentityBuilding

The commitment of higher education institutions (HEIs) to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is growing in Europe and beyond. Within the framework of supranational institutional recommendations and taking into account local priorities, universities are developing specific policies and practices targeting the academic experience of students and staff, as well as - to some extent - connecting this with local environments. While EDI policies and associated implementations have gained momentum, gaps such as lack of awareness and tools or implementation of superficial measures can still be observed. Additionally, although these policies may impact membership, identity formation, and students’ sense of belonging, particularly in the teaching and learning environment, these aspects remain understudied.
Since 2020, the UNIC alliance (The European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition) has provided a platform for partner universities to share experiences, good practices, and reflect on challenges regarding relevant issues. A series of results from this program have helped to identify gaps and ways to prepare universities for superdiversity, i.e., capable of meeting the diverse needs of their community members.
Thanks to several tools and processes, the UNIC consortium has identified, mapped, and compared numerous practices concerning higher education institutions and their socio-cultural realities in relation to EDI aspects, with the participation of different university members through various means (peer reviews, superdiversity schools, and several publications).
This workshop can be considered a venue to bridge theory and practice toward making change in the lives of different university communities and beyond by revisiting the aforementioned work and reflections, paying particular attention to the challenges faced in teaching and learning and student support/life in a superdiverse environment. It will also address how issues of culture, identity (claimed or assigned), and forms of racialization and discrimination are addressed at different levels. Participants come from the UNIC consortium and beyond.
The questions that will be addressed during the session are the following:
What are the lessons learned from different tools experienced as a consortium to emphasize and promote EDI agendas? What worked and what can be done differently?
What are different ways in which identity and belonging are being addressed across different universities?