Effective Approaches to Enhancing the Social Dimension of Higher Education I:

Linz, March 22 2017

Mary Tupan-Wenno ECHO, Center for Diversity Policy

EAN, European Access Network

GAPS, Global Access to Postsecondary Education initiative

Why

• Social Justice driven reasons

Creating better and more equal opportunities

• Economic Reasons

To find better solutions for current and new socio

economic challenges

• Emancipation & Inclusion

What are Effective

Approaches?

Towards an inclusive & holistic approach

learning environment

images & expectations System/structure

sense of belonging

of students & staff

Person

Ethnic group

Gender

Sexual

orientation

Religious group

Age

Family

Education

background

Socio economic

background

Social identities & intersectionality Edwin Hoffman

Student impact and institutional impact Paul Thayer Colorado State University

Focus on innovation

IDEAS Identifying effective approaches to enhancing the

social dimension in Higher Education

report:

Making inclusion in Europe a reality

Source:ModeldevelopedbyECHO

IDEAS IDentifying Effective Approaches to

enhancing the Social dimension in

Higher Education

http://www.equityideas.eu/

EU funded project from

October 2013 – March 2016

Aims and Objectives • Identifying effective and efficient approaches (programmes

and policies) on micro and meso level

• Understanding the enabling factors which allow successful

examples of practices to take root

• Developing a database with examples of good practice with

proven quantitative and qualitative successes (Europe &

Global)

• Partners providing data, analysis and frameworks of tested

experience to inspire, disseminate, replicate and scale up

Outcomes and deliverables

• 57 (peer reviewed) cases from 20 countries (70%

from Europe)

• 25 different dissemination activities

• More than 2000 unique visits to the website

• About 15000 contacts made through social media

• An analysis of the first 57 cases and a policy paper

Dissemination to improve

inclusion in HE needs

advocacy as well

Results

Types of cases

• Cases that engage with communities to change

aspirations of young people;

• Cases that focus on prevent ‘castes’ in higher

education or to put it positive focussed on

developing inclusive learning communities;

• Cases to bypass administrative/systemic

barriers.

gfsffga

Student

Staff

Management&Organisa on

Curriculum

gfsffga

Prepara on

Access

Success

Transi ontothelabourmarket

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Aspira ondevelopment

Crea ngasenseofbelonging

Raisingawarenessnegstereotypes

Academicsupport

Psychologicalsupport

Mentoringbyrolemodels

SummerPrograms

IncreasingSTEM

ImprovingprofessionalSkills

Staff

D

evelopment

Studentfunding&Scholarships

Community&familyengagement

Ini a ngsystema cchange

Funding sources of successful cases

•

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

FinancialContribu on

InkindContribu on

StudentsasVolunteers

Allcases

Europeancases

When are practices successful?

The ‘good’ of Good Practices

The ‘good’ of good practices I • Good practices that have proven their success in terms

of time and survived policy and political changes. These

practices often have intended and unintended outcomes

and impact;

• Good practices that have proven their success in terms

of measurable results and successful qualitative

outcomes;

• Good practices that are efficient apart from being

effective because they can be replicated in a fairly short

time with a limited amount of resources;

The ‘good’ of good practices II • Good practices that have proven their success in a short

timespan and have the potential to grow to a long term

sustainable success;

• Good practices that are innovative in their aims & way of

implementation. Practices that dare to challenge;

• Good practices that support the visibility and success of

groups that have been underrepresented and invisible

because of a lack of acknowledgement and policy:

indigenous groups or undocumented groups.

Conclusions?

Main conclusions • Being intentional matters

• Context matters

• Support structures matters

• Awareness and attitudes of staff matters

• Monitoring and research matters

• Funding matters

• Understanding the worlds students come from

matters narratives

Combining a vision on

inclusion and quality matters

Making Excellence inclusive

Organisational

type, culture,

capabilitiy,

capacity

External political, economic and social environment

Local context

Intervention features

and design

Complexity

Relative

advantage

Compatibility

Others

Geography

Community

structures

Community

cutlures

Institutional

sturctures

Political

priotiies Economic

climate

Structures

(including

funding)

Kirsten Junge, Tavistock Institute

Thank you very much for your

attention!

Mary@echo-net.nl

www.echo-net.nl