Exploring the status of diversity in policies and practices of Spanish universities. An asymmetric dual model

Abstract

Higher education across the world is currently in the throes of assuming a commitment to diversity. However, certain critical positions maintain that such evolution is still guided by market principles. Within such a context, this paper explores what attention is given to diversity in Spanish university policies and practices and how it relates to key productivity indicators. To do so, a study with a descriptive and correlational design was conducted, based on analysing institutional documents and surveying chief diversity officers, techniques which provided evidence about diversity philosophy and practices, respectively. The results revealed at least an average level of institutionalisation of diversity, although it did not demonstrate, in most of the areas, any association with indicators derived from a consolidated ranking by productivity in Spain. The conclusion is that Spanish universities have adopted an asymmetric dual model, in which neo-liberal ideas maintain their hegemony while, although subordinately, certain innovations have been consolidated in parallel in order to protect a number of vulnerable groups under the rhetoric of equity and social justice.

¿Para qué sirve la investigación? Transfiriendo conocimiento para la formación de docentes universitarios en educación inclusiva

“…Independientemente del rasgo específico de diversidad, los trabajos sobre esta temática coinciden en señalar el escaso background formativo especializado en educación inclusiva del profesorado universitario y en los esfuerzos poco ambiciosos que hacen las universidades en la capacitación pedagógica como área de institucionalización del proyecto inclusivo (Álvarez-Castillo et al, 2021).…”

Inclusion at universities: Psychometric properties of an inclusive management scale as perceived by students

“…Within the responses that higher education institutions develop in much of the world to address student diversity and inclusion, these have been driven by the rhetoric of equity and social justice [27]. This is why the concept of inclusion in education, defined as a means to achieve equitable access of the diversity of students to quality education, takes on special importance, without discrimination [28]; a scenario in which a link between the inclusion of diverse students and quality in higher education is required [3,[29][30][31][32], because equity is closely related to the inclusion of diversity, and is considered a central element in the assurance of educational quality [30].…”

“…The democratically based discourses, which call for the inclusion of student diversity in university education, allow for the generation of dialogues that lead to institutional participation, in this way, the "positive affective value" of diversity becomes a useful tool for professionals who manage inclusion programmes, managing to chip away at this "brick wall" of the academy [38]. From this perspective, recent literature points that in Spanish universities there is a medium level of institutionalisation of diversity [27] or even a disconnection between institutional regulations and their practical implementation in other Ibero-American contexts [32]. This is because universities are not stable, but are in a continuous process of being "instituted" through practices such as recruitment and employment [38], seeking a benign commitment to diversity that often fails to achieve fundamental changes in the distributions of power, resources and opportunities, but only intensifies existing inequalities.…”

“…However, all these actions do not necessarily entail a genuine commitment by the institutions to diversity and inclusion [38]. This view and the tensions that are generated from it are consistent with what Thomas (2018) proposed on "Diversity Regimes" [39]; on the one hand, the imperative need to adopt a perspective focused on the generation of social value and an inclusive approach linked to quality is disseminated and highlighted [42][43][44][45]; on the other hand, the concept of quality has been assumed and measured in terms of productivity and efficiency in a market-based context, under which there is no room for the valuation of diversity and the social role [27], marginalising non-monetary values with the strengthening of competence mechanisms centred on the hegemony of rankings as surveillance and control procedures [46].…”

The scarce representation of women university professors in research groups

“…Recently, there has been a debate in various academic and scientific fields on how to implement gender mainstreaming and diversity management in university centers [12]. There has been a call for university policies to place greater emphasis on addressing gender diversity at the institutional level in universities [13]. At the university level, gender policies are primarily developed around the academic careers of faculty, from recruitment to initial teaching positions to promotion to full professor [14].…”