Inclusive Higher Education! – European Competition for Equity
The idea of the EquNet campaign was to provide a platform for people to express their views and their activities regarding the equity issues in the European higher education system and to raise attention of the society with ensuring high visibility for the best works.
The theme of the campaign is ensuring and improving access to higher education in the widest sense for socially, geographically, physically or otherwise hindered or disabled people, encouraging their involvement and motivating those who may help them.
We received many interesting and valuable contributions that present both the individuals’ point of wiews and good practices of organisations. Entries were welcome in Writings and in Visual/audio-visual category.
Winner of the writings category:
Redistribution, Recognition, Participation and Capabilities: Paths for Social Justice in Higher Education
Author: Ana Sofia Ribeiro Santos, Portugal
Ana Sofia Ribeiro was born in 1979 in Coimbra, Portugal. She has a Licenciatura degree in Educational Sciences (University of Coimbra 2002) and an Erasmus Mundus Master in Higher Education (University of Oslo, University of Tampere, University of Aveiro 2010). From 2003 to 2005 Sofia was involved in several artistic and cultural projects. In 2006-2007 she worked at the Portuguese Unit of Eurydice Network, in the Portuguese Ministry of Education, where she gained closer contact with comparative and international studies in education. In 2010 she joined the HEDDA higher education master, studying and travelling in 3 different countries. Currently she is a Marie Curie Fellow in the Eduwel Initial Training Network and researches first generation student experience in Portuguese higher education using Amartya Sen’s and Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach. Her research interests include as well internationalisation and globalisation processes in education, governance and social justice.
Winner of the audio-visual category:
Exchange Ability
The video was submitted by the UNICA Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe, Belgium.
ExchangeAbility project aims to encourage and increase the number of students with special needs taking part in exchange programs by stimulating their mobility through the organization of site visits connected with different activities across Europe. The project itself offers a possibility for young people with disabilities to take ownership in the promotion and improvement of exchange programs according to their needs. Mobility offers young people opportunities for self-development and future employability. This becomes even more important when we speak about groups more vulnerable to suffer from social exclusion.
The video was shot by two students of film arts, Mathias Ruelle and Lena Dewaegenaere, the attached video is 1 of 5 portraits of students from five different countries and with five types of disabilities.
The winners are invited to the 2nd EquNet Conference in Varna, Bulgaria, 3-5 November 2011.
Visit this site to see other outstanding contributions of the campaign.
Copyright issues are managed according to the Creative Commons’ Attribution Non-commercial category.
