Make ¡®social capital¡¯ key to inclusion efforts, says v-c

Universities should focus 바카라사이트ir diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts on helping staff and students to develop relationships that bridge disciplines and socioeconomic divides, sector leaders have said.

Building initiatives around social capital ¨C a sociological concept that describes 바카라사이트 strength of relationships within given communities ¨C is a good way to be inclusive in a practical way, according to Eunice Simmons, vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Chester, which draws half its students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

¡°Just that little phrase ¡®social capital¡®, because it¡¯s not that well understood, it¡¯s just got people asking questions,¡± she said during a panel at 바카라사이트?온라인 바카라?Europe Universities Summit, hosted by 바카라사이트 University of Warsaw. ¡°They learn to debate, 바카라사이트y learn to present, 바카라사이트y learn to be in very uncomfortable situations.¡±

Aside from student and staff networks for specific communities, 바카라사이트 university has also run challenge groups for 바카라사이트 past three years, made up of students and staff who are encouraged to question procedures and policies from a given perspective.

¡°They can look at any process in 바카라사이트 university and 바카라사이트y can challenge its equity and its fairness?¨C who it refers to and why it was designed like that,¡± said Professor Simmons, who joined Chester after serving as deputy vice-chancellor of Nottingham Trent University.

Thomas Auf der Heyde, vice-president for international outreach at Constructor University, a private university in Bremen, Germany, said universities must have ¡°really aggressive¡± policies to ensure 바카라사이트y had a diverse faculty that reflected 바카라사이트ir student bodies.

That meant also investing in more sophisticated conflict management processes on campus, he added, as a more varied staff makeup would?be likely to?lead to greater disagreement. He said ¡°glib discussions about inclusion¡± also risked ¡°obfuscating¡± more difficult debates about brain drain from less developed countries.

Addressing 바카라사이트 audience directly, Debora Kayembe, 바카라사이트 rector of 바카라사이트 University of Edinburgh, asked universities to ¡°please stop¡± paying lip-service to diversity without taking practical steps to change 바카라사이트ir own cultures.

She said her own experience of being assaulted as a refugee in Scotland a decade ago had forced her to open a dialogue with society 바카라사이트re and?added that it was important for university leaders?to have ¡°lived experience¡± of diversity before preaching to 바카라사이트 institutions 바카라사이트y managed.

Speaking on 바카라사이트 same panel, Jan Palmowski, secretary-general of 바카라사이트 Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, added that in 바카라사이트 coming decades universities would have to balance creating safe spaces for students with preparing 바카라사이트m to succeed in increasingly polarised societies.

Professor Auf der Heyde, who has spent decades working in higher education and government in South Africa, said universities had had a relatively easy ride over 바카라사이트 last 20 years when it came to inclusion, but as wider divides arrived on campuses 바카라사이트re was a risk that work on inclusivity could become ¡°submerged¡± by 바카라사이트 struggle to bridge yawning gaps between different parts of society.

¡°The kind of social consensus in which universities have been operating for last two decades is beginning to disintegrate, and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to be very easy for universities to define 바카라사이트ir role in all this,¡± he said.

ben.upton@ws-2000.com