The Guideline Toolkit for setting up an IDEA office is designed to be a supporting framework, which post-secondary institutions may also apply to evaluate and improve on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access activities. University College Dublin (UCD) and the University of Zadar have been the primary leads developing this report, together with the IDEA-net project partnership. The guideline is the product of an extensive desk review and multiple workshops and sessions with IDEA practioners to test its usefulness across borders and cultures. It is neither prescriptive nor exclusionary. Local expertise will be vital in ensuring that the Guideline Toolkit can be adapted as appropriate.
The nine steps
-
- Identify need and underrepresented groups.
- Identify inclusion activities over the student life and employee cycle.
- Establish principles.
- Identify governance structures/prerequisites to enable success.
- Identify stakeholders.
- Source funding and resources.
- Identify an optimal IDEA structure.
- Develop a system for measuring impact.
- Engage students and staff as partners.
Providing clarity of purpose from the outset is a core message to develop an understanding of when, where, and how interventions and activities can be most appropriately made. The steps outline an ambitious plan for post-secondary institutions to celebrate change and diversity. Recommendations are specifically attentive to IDEA-conducive activities as well as intra- and inter-institutional cooperation while generic enough to be beneficial in meeting different benchmarking systems, where based on principles of equity or equality.
Challenges and possible solutions
Feedback gathered in the development of the guideline highlighted the need to address conservative opposition. The importance of working with each other has been stressed, with concrete actions suggested in the guideline to avoid polarisation and “taking sides”.
Fear of saying the wrong thing often fuels resistance to IDEA. By following the nine steps above, education institutions would be taking a crucial step towards agreement on what is and is not within the remit of the IDEA office with all relevant collaborators.
Suggestions for securing institutional management buy-in are included. Where the opening an IDEA office is not possible in the short-term, starting small – from wherever it is possible to start – is beneficial towards a “plus one” approach. This attitude ensures appreciation and the opportunity for small changes to make a significant impact.
The alliED Network for Inclusion in Education is a public LinkedIn group for education practitioners and other experts developing capacity in the areas of inclusion, diversity, equity and access in higher education.
Expectations
Joining the alliED Network on LinkedIn is for anyone who wants to share their experiences with implementing IDEA practices at the institutional, faculty, or policy level. This group is coordinated by the IDEA-net project, which has been running since September 2022:
- An online database of over 50 IDEA offices, services, programmes and leadership positions from around the world.
- Nine-step guidelines for setting up a central IDEA office.
- Proven methods for designing institutional IDEA training and support.
Conversation starters for applying these findings will be published in the LinkedIn group, via our newsletter and our webinars. In the longer term, the IDEA-net team plans to develop universally applicable models for capacity building in IDEA training and support. Therefore, facilitating meaningful dialogue and engagement towards this goal is a key priority for our team.
Learn more about why we created this network
Firstly, we believe that international collaboration is a valuable asset to support the sustainable development of IDEA practises. As our project is in its final year, we want to provide more effective IDEA training and support.
Currently, the project is conducting IDEA workshops at partner universities in Belgrade, Ljubljana and Zadar. The methodology for these workshops is developed by ECHO (Expertise Centre for Diversity Policy) – an organisation with 30 years of experience capacity building IDEA in the Dutch education system.
University College Dublin, another project partner, contributes participatory universal design approaches, in particular through the Guidelines for an IDEA office. Erasmus University Rotterdam, as coordinator of the IDEA-net project, contributes its many years of experience in managing IDEA from vision to realisation.
The Knowledge Innovation Centre is proud to lead this Community of Practice and the dissemination of the project. It is committed to ongoing dialogue, resource sharing and professional development in education.
Assoc. prof. dr. Petra Videmšek is responsible for the professional management of the new Office for Equality and Inclusion (PEV) at the University of Ljubljana. Her area of expertise focuses on involving services users to develop social work education, as well as on the empowerment and advocacy of people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities. We reached out to find out:
The office’s top priorities
The fundamental aim of the Equality and Inclusion Office (PEV) is to contribute to the development of a general culture of inclusion, tolerance and integration in an open academic community.
This includes providing information on the principles of equality and legal foundations that ensure equal opportunities and dignity; to point out violations; and to systematically ensure integration in the academic community.
To this end, the office is linked to the work of the Student Ombudsman Service, the Student Affairs Committee, the Psychosocial Counselling Services and the activities of the Equality Plan Implementation Working Group.
What expertise are you bringing to the table?
My knowledge of social work is certainly very useful, because in social work we have developed the concepts of participation, empowerment and, above all, the concept of co-creation. My work is based on theories developed by people who have experienced exclusion themselves. The slogan “Nothing about us without us” is a guideline for the work of the office. We do not want to plan from the top down, but from the bottom up. We start from the needs and plan further activities around these needs. I believe this is the most effective way of providing support, based on partnership and dialogue.
Of course, my knowledge of social work alone is not enough, an interdisciplinary approach is needed to ensure inclusion. Teamwork and an interdisciplinary approach are essential to developing an inclusive and compassionate community.
