Universities from the NEOLAiA consortium take part in the Erasmus Mundus Design Measures call (ERASMUS-EDU-2021-EMJM-DESIGN) to present their design of a multiple degree in the field of Diversity and Inclusion: “NEOtrend Inclusion – degree, competence, mobility”.
Bielefeld University (DE) together with Örebro University (SE), the University of Jaén (ES), the University of Salerno (IT), and Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava (RO) have collaborated to design a multiple degree in the field of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), providing a wide range of ideas for module content with an international profile in order to attract excellent international students.
Diversity and Inclusion lies at the heart of NEOLAiA as it has been identified as one of the three main Action Areas for the Consortium. NEOLAiA believes that a mere theoretical discussion on what is understood by D&I is not enough and sees launching a postgraduate programme in D&I extremely positive.
As indicated in the proposal abstract, the D&I degree aims at: “Teaching students with different backgrounds and training professionals with different backgrounds to raise everyone’s awareness of these issues and facilitate the advances in a truly inclusive Europe. The project fills the gap in the EHEA of a cross-border study programme with a focus on the international Inclusion perspective and the university-wide, cross-national implementation of Diversity in the broad sense of a concept encompassing all categories of difference”.
The project pursues providing students with an international cross-cutting postgraduate education with a truly European perspective on how D&I is studied and applied across the different EU countries in order to create a pool of professionals with an integrative and holistic view on D&I.
It also works towards developing a process manual for designing a multiple degree and establishing inclusive standards by conceiving a Master programme offered at five European locations, with D&I as a focus, both in terms of subject content and administrative-organisational aspects. As a consequence, it will also boost the internationalisation of the curricula of the NEOLAiA universities.
