EUGLOH Diversity and Inclusion E-Conference Series – Tackling difficult issues as a European University and moving forward together

As an alliance of key European universities of research, the European University Alliance for Global Health or EUGLOH, shares the core values of the European Union and strives to offer all its players – students, academics and staff alike – a multicultural and inclusive inter-university campus. As such, EUGLOH aims to raise awareness on issues of diversity and inclusion throughout its campuses and think together on solutions and support that may be offered in these fundamental areas.

With this in mind, the 5 members of EUGLOH, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Lund University (LU), Universidade do Porto (UPorto), University of Szeged (USZ) and Université Paris-Saclay (UPSaclay), joined forces to provide a first series of e-conferences on issues of diversity and inclusion.

As the kick-off session defined what diversity means, and what inclusion has to do with it in the perspective of our universities, the three following conferences tackled targeted issues in depth. The first conference, on Policies & Definitions of Underrepresented Groups (see our article dated 23 February), aimed at creating awareness of the problems that underrepresented groups face and discuss what needs to be done to accomplish equal representation.

The second conference was centred on Accessibility, Usability and Inclusion. The benchmark carried out earlier over the 1^st year brought to light issues that were important to address. Accessibility happened to be a current focus of several of our universities. As such, it appeared interesting to bring the debate within EUGLOH, in order to exchange best practices and see what the perspectives of other universities and other communities are, as well as to draw from each other and move forward together.

As Alice Ribeiro, from UPorto Inclusion Office, explains, when speaking about accessibility, physical accessibility usually springs to mind. Needless to say, people with certain disabilities need easy access to places and buildings. However, the topic also concerns digital accessibility, which is all the more critical in times of pandemic: e-learning platforms must be accessible to all, and open. Time for exams must be adapted for certain students, and platforms must be adjusted accordingly, as well as the type used on screens, for instance. Communication and signing is also crucial online, namely for the hard of hearing or visually impaired. On a broader scale, accessibility also concerns access to management positions. The key question here is: are our universities willing, and prepared, to offer support for participation at that level?

The conference brought together experts from the five universities. Alice Ribeiro, who organised the conference with Adamma Stekovics, EUGLOH Project Coordinator at LMU, and the dedicated committee, emphasized that accessibility is not sufficiently addressed and there is a lack of knowledge on some of the connected topics. This conference, provided with sign language interpretation from English to Portuguese as well as interpretation into French, Hungarian, and Portuguese was a first step towards addressing the issue.

The last conference in this year’s series was centred on Racism. As in each conference, it began with an introduction in order to define the topics of the day, supported by student testimonials but also that of staff who pointed out that they do not always know how to deal with racism, as an employee, if they don’t have the tools or even just a contact to go to. Local initiatives presented their work. One association from LMU has established actions to teach against racism and discrimination in everyday life, while a member of the Erasmus Student Network at the University of Szeged detailed how they contribute to introducing students to one another avoiding biases we may have in our first impressions. To do such, the first time students meet, it is blindfolded! At the end of the evening, they finally see one another and enjoy the moment all together. This experience has proven to impact positively on countering biases we might have when meeting someone for the first time.

As the speakers pointed out, institutions have a duty to act in consequence of these discriminative actions and must not stay silent. It is of utmost importance that higher education institutions such as ours establish structures to show that we are really taking action to deal with racism. Katherine Fregnac, EUGLOH Campus Life Manager, pointed out that racism is a very sensitive topic, which is not studied in all institutions, thus making it difficult to find experts. The audience participation was very fruitful to the discussion and felt there is a real need to be able to talk more about racism and ways to dismantle it.

Still a taboo subject today, the organisers are hoping that conferences such as these will enable to open up the debate and move forward in addressing the topics. The EUGLOH consortium advocates well-being and inclusion throughout its campuses. As such, this is the perfect opportunity to discuss topics that are sensitive.

This first part of the Diversity & Inclusion e-conference series will be wrapped-up by the writing of a paper to summarise what came out of these conferences in order for the information to be disseminated and establish concrete actions at a higher level throughout our universities.

All the material created in the course of the e-conference series will remain readily available on a dedicated page on the EUGLOH website to continue raising awareness and work in this area, as the series will continue next year. The next conference, on Mental Illness, will take place on 9 November. More dates and topics:

• 18 January 2022 Work & Family Life Reconciliation
• 8 March 2022 Sexual Orientation
• 10 May 2022 Women
• 14 June 2022 TBD - Topic of the conference to be defined by the public

More info on EUGLOH https://www.eugloh.eu/

More info on the e-conference series https://www.eugloh.eu/campus-life/diversity-and-inclusion-e-conferences