[2019] BSE Skopje

BSE SKOPJE 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia 14th - 22nd of July 2019

BEST

SYMPOSIA ON EDUCATION

STEMbox: Open your eyes and see the diversity

PREPARED FOR Educational Involvement Department Board of European Students of Technology PREPARED BY Orsalia Andreou (Athens, Greece) Daniel García (Madrid, Spain) Dariusz Wojtkun (Wroclaw, Poland)

Table

of content

01.

Acknowledgments

3

1.1 Local BEST Group Skopje 1.2 Educational Involvement Department

3 4

02. Introduction

5

2.1 Board of European Students of Technology 2.2 BEST Symposia on Education (BSE) 2.3 BSE Skopje 2019

5 5 6

03. Methodology

9

3.1 Discussion group 3.2 World CafĂŠ 3.3 Brainstorming 3.4 Debate 3.5 Roleplay 3.6 Open space technology

9 9 9 9 10 10

04. Sessions

11

4.1 Introduction 4.2 Types of diversity 4.3 European demographics 4.4 Diversity now 4.5 Views and perspectives 4.6 Diversity and employability 4.7 Students’ attitude again racial and ethnic diversity 4.8 Unconscious bias 4.9 Teachers and diversity 4.10 Inclusive pedagogy 4.11 Mobility programs 4.12 Integration techniques 4.13 Diversity and social responsibility 4.14 The role of the stakeholders 4.15 Future universities 4.16 Case study 2

11 12 16 18 24 30 35 37 40 41 44 50 53 56 58 61

01.

Acknowledgments

BEST Symposium on Education (BSE) Skopje “STEMbox: Open your eyes and see the diversity� took place from the 14th until the 22nd of July 2019. However, its preparation had begun over 8 months before it actually took place. During that time, there were several contributions that the authors of this report deemed necessary to acknowledge.

1.1 Local BEST Group Skopje To the Local BEST Group (LBG) Skopje, which hosted and took care of the entire logistics of the event, with the support of the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, thank you very much for all your effort.

A personal acknowledgement to the President of BEST Skopje, Marin Malusovski, and the Core Team of the event.

Table 1. Members of the Core Team and Board of BEST Skopje Name

Surname

Position

Organizing team of the BSE Marija

Kiprijanova

Main Organizer

Teodora

Trajkova

Content Team Responsible

Kristijan

Vlahov

IT Responsible

Ana

Ilieva

Design Responsible

Angela

Gjorgjevska

Social Responsible

Maja

Krsteva

Social Responsible

Filip

Tanevski

Logistics Responsible

Petra

Prelogovski

Logistics Responsible

Georgi

Kamchevski

FR Responsible

Amar

Hadzi Ahmetovic

Participants Responsible

Pance

Andonoski

Local Participants Responsible

Viktor

Zafirovski Atanasov

PR Responsible

3

Table 1. (continued) Board of the LBG Marin

Malusovski

President

Sara

Papazova

Treasurer

Damjan

Pecioski

Secretary

Ana

Sekulovska

PR Coordinator

Irina

Chabukovska

HR Coordinator

Ivana

Todoroska

FR Coordinator

Vladimir

Dimovski

IT Coordinator

1.2 Educational Involvement Department BSE Skopje is a project supervised by the Educational Involvement Department of BEST. Through this department, BEST strives to raise awareness on educational matters, gather students’ input about them and then disseminate them to the relevant bodies. For that, we would like to acknowledge the effort of this department naming its Coordinators for the past and present year.

Educational Involvement Department Coordinator 2018-2019: JoĂŁo Moita

Educational Involvement Department Coordinator 2019-2020: Silvia Marogel

For the more information, please check the homepage of the Educational Involvement Department.

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02.

Introduction 2.1 Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) is a constantly growing non-representative, non-political and non-profit voluntary student organisation, whose mission is to develop students.

One of the core activities of BEST is the organisation of BEST Courses, which aims to supplement the skills and outlook of European students of technology. Since the founding of BEST in 1989, more activities have been adapted to its vision of empowering diversity, counting European BEST Engineering Competition (EBEC), BEST Career Day (BCD) and the BEST Symposia on Education (BSE).

A special unit of BEST is dedicated to connecting students of technology with contemporary educational topics on engineering education. Through the Educational Involvement Department, BEST strives to listen to the students’ ideas on what can be changed in their universities, study programmes and curricula. BEST is eager to be in close collaboration with the stakeholders of higher education, letting them know about innovative solutions, coming directly from the main receivers of education - students.

BEST is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and cooperates with a number of corporate, career support, project and university partners to provide its services.

2.2 BEST Symposia on Education (BSE) BEST Symposia on Education (BSE) were created to involve students in the process of educational improvement and raise their awareness about the possibility of students being involved in their education. Together with the other stakeholders involved directly or indirectly in educational matters, students discuss a variety of education-related topics. BEST counts on both the participants of the event and the stakeholders to provide insights on current educational matters in a most active way, in order to influence changes in education across Europe.

In BEST Symposia on Education, participants are given the opportunity to express their thoughts on educational matters, which are then presented in the events’ final reports. Reports are used as a resource for writing papers on particular topics, typically submitted and presented in scientific conferences dealing with Higher Educational matters, thus making students’ voices heard.

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2.3 BSE Skopje 2019 The main topic of the BEST Symposium on Education 2019 Skopje was Race and Ethnic diversity in STEM Education, contributing to the topic of “Diversity in STEM Education”ofthisyear’sEducationalInvolvement Program The topic is highly related to BEST’s vision (“Empowered Diversity”) and wants to highlight the importance of diversity in education.

The purposes of the BEST Symposium on Education 2019 Skopje were the following:

Raising students’ awareness in education-related matters and gathering input on different aspects of the topic from a students’ perspective;

Participants, individually, had the opportunity to practice and develop multiple soft skills such as presentation skills, interpersonal and communication skills, as well as improve their international interdisciplinary cooperation and teamwork.

2.3.1 Schedule 14.07.

15.07.

16.07.

17.07.

18.07.

19.07.

20.07.

21.07.

22.07.

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Transport

Transport

Transport

Transport

Transport

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Coffee break

Coffee break

Coffee break

Coffee break

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Transport

Coffee break

Coffee break

Coffee break

Coffee break

Working hours

Working hours

Working hours

Transport

Transport

Transport

7:30-8:00 8:00-8:30 8:30-9:00 9:00-9:30 9:30-10:00

Official opening

10:00-10:30

Wake up Breakfast

Coffee break

10:30-11:00 11:00-11:30 11:30-12:00

Working hours

12:00-12:30 12:30-13:00 13:00-13:30

Arrival

13:30-14:00 14:00-14:30 14:30-15:00

Weekend trip

15:00-15:30 15:30-16:00 16:00-16:30 16:30-17:00 17:00-17:30

Cultural activity

17:30-18:00

Official Closing Sharing session

18:00-18:30 Free time

18:30-19:00 Transport

19:00-19:30 19:30-20:00

Dinner

20:00-20:30

21:30-22:00 22:00-22:30 22:30-23:00

6

Dinner

Sharing session Sharing session

20:30-21:00 21:00-21:30

Dinner

Free Time + Activities

Free Time + Activities

Free time Cultural activity

Free Time + Activities

Dinner Transport Dinner Free Time + Activities

Transport to Weekend trip and dinner

Sharing session Free Time + Activities

Free Time + Activities

Weekend trip Departure

2.3.2 Participants A total of 20 students of technology were engaged in the sessions of BSE Skopje.

Table 2. Participants’ information University

Country

Age

Gender

Ghent University

Belgium

21

Female

Brno University of Technology

Czech Republic

22

Female

Brno University of Technology

Czech Republic

24

Male

University of Patras

Greece

23

Male

Riga Technical University

Latvia

24

Male

University of Maribor

North Macedonia

19

Female

University of Lisbon

Portugal

22

Male

University of Lisbon

Portugal

23

Female

POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest

Romania

21

Female

POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest

Romania

21

Male

POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest

Romania

23

Female

Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University

Russian Federation

23

Male

Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University

Russian Federation

24

Female

Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University

Russian Federation

24

Female

University of Novi Sad

Serbia

24

Female

Las Palmas of Gran Canaria University

Spain

23

Female

Technical University of Catalonia

Spain

21

Female

Technical University of Catalonia

Spain

22

Female

7

Table 2. (continued) Technical University of Catalonia

Spain

23

Male

Istanbul Technical University

Turkey

26

Female

2.3.3 Content Team Alongside the Educational Involvement Department, a content team of BEST members designed the sessions of BSE Skopje. Their contact information is shown below.

Table 3. Members of the Content Team Name

Surname

Email

BSE Coordinator Orsalia

Andreou

orsalia.and@gmail.com

BSE Facilitators

8

Daniel

GarcĂ­a

daniel.garcia.best@gmail.com

Dariusz

Wojtkun

dariusz.wojtkun@best.wroclaw.pl

03.

Methodology Depending on the current topic, we applied a variety of different session formats. For example, World Café and Brainstorming were used when the goal was to generate new ideas. All methods are described below and will be shortly referenced in the description of the respective sessions.

3.1 Discussion group A discussion group is an interactive oral process in which a group of people is given a topic or a situation and after reflecting on it for a few minutes, they discuss their points of view with each other. The opinions and ideas are expressed in a systematic way.

3.2 World Café World Café methodology is a simple, effective and flexible format for hosting large group dialogues. Participants are divided into groups, each starting from a different spot or table. Each table has a specific topic which is being discussed. Discussions are recorded and after the allocated time, groups change tables. After moving to the new table, groups familiarize themselves with what was previously discussed there and then the new group adds its ideas. This process is repeated until all the groups have been to all the tables. Finally, the ideas from each table are presented to all the participants.

3.3 Brainstorming Brainstorming is a structured process which encourages the generation of a large number of ideas in a group setting. All ideas are recorded and no judgments or evaluations are made. It is perhaps the most popular technique used in groups to expand the thinking process. Brainstorming works on the premise that even crazy and “wild” ideas should be listed, as they may spark new and practical ideas that would otherwise not have surfaced. Participants of the brainstorming session are encouraged to contribute any ideas and to build upon others’ ideas.

3.4 Debate A debate is a formal discussion on a particular matter in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in which opposing arguments are put forward and which usually ends with a vote. The debate style used was the Oxford format, in which the debate is broken down into four sections: opening remarks, an intra-panel discussion, a question-and-answer period and closing remarks.

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3.5 Roleplay Role-playing represents consciously acting out an adopted role. As a facilitation tool, it is commonly used in order to make people think about how they would behave in specific scenarios. Usually, a role-play is done by 2 or 3 people from a group. The scenario is presented to them, they act out the scene, and is often followed-up by a group discussion. This way, all the people from the group imagine the particularities of any situation and have a better perception of ways and reasons of certain things happening and how it could be improved.

3.6 Open Space Technology Open Space Technology (OST) is a method for organizing and running a meeting or multi-day conference, where participants have been invited in order to focus on a specific, important task or purpose.

In contrast with pre-planned conferences where who will speak at which time is scheduled often months in advance, and therefore subject to many changes, OST sources participants once they are physically present at the live event venue. In this sense, OST is participant-driven and less organizer-convener-driven. Pre-planning remains essential; you simply need much less pre-planning.

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04.

Sessions 4.1 Introduction Facilitator: Orsalia Andreou

Background Situated at the beginning of the event, this session aimed to introduce participants to tools and techniques that would improve their attendance, as well as, make them more aware of their interactions in the group.

Methodology The session began with a short game to empower teamwork, after which participants set their expectations and rules for the sessions. These activities were followed by a short introduction to the “finger rules� we would be using to facilitate discussions in the following days and their meanings. The main focus of the session was built around ways of expressing, phases of listening, and presentation skills.

Expressing We explained the different things to be expressed (observations, thoughts, feelings, needs) and why it is important to identify them, while being in a conversation.

Phases of listening

Participants were presented the phases of listening (not listening, pretending, selective, attentive, empathetic). To point out the ways they can affect a conversation, an exercise was held. Five volunteers had to leave the room and come back one by one, giving a speech on something they are passionate about. The audience was told to implement a different phase of listening to each of the speakers. When the last speech was over and all participants were back in the room, we asked the speakers what they thought that happened. Then we asked everyone about their feelings during the exercise and if it will affect the way they participate in discussions in the future.

Presentation skills

One of the ways to improve communication, is by improving presentation skills. For the last part of the session, we decided to address the factors that affect a presentation (voice, eyes and facial expression, gesture, posture). After explaining each characteristic, participants were split into 4 groups, with each one working on a different characteristic and how we can use to affect the way we communicate.

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Outcomes By the end of the session, participants were more aware of things that can affect their communication with others and felt more prepared to participate in the sessions that would follow.

4.2 Types of diversity Facilitators: Dariusz Wojtkun, Daniel GarcĂ­a

Background Throughout time, diversity as a concept has spread across the world, and has been remarked by many different groups of people, institutions or policymakers. Nations across the world have adopted laws in favour of empowering diversity, but not every entity manages to adapt at the same pace as the others, leading to inequalities. In universities, diversity is mostly faced by students. Regardless of the time, there are always students that fight for a change, that ecounter difficulties in their classes or that are just bystanders.

Methodology In the beginning, participants were introduced to the history of diversity in the workplace and types of diversity:

Race and ethnicity

Age and generation

Gender and gender identity

Sexual orientation

Religious and spiritual belief

Disability and ability

Socioeconomic status

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Thinking style and personality

Personal life experience

Then we read 3 statements from the survey created by Educational Involvement Department of BEST on Diversity in STEM, and asked participants to share how much do they agree with those statements. There were 4 options:

Strongly disagree

Slightly disagree

Slightly agree

Strongly agree

Next, participants were divided into 4 groups and each group had to answer the question ‘Do you think that diversity is important in STEM education? Why?’.

For the last part of the session students were divided into 5 groups. Each team had to roleplay a situation where someone experienced discrimination. In each group one of students played teacher.

Outcomes The results of participants’ level of agreement in the statements presented can be found in the Graphs 1 to 3.

Participants acknowledged the importance of diversity, connecting it with the quality of education provided, but noticed that the correlations can vary for different fields of study. They also shared that perceiving foreign students as more or less capable happens, but in some cases it may not be connected to their ethnicity or race.

During the first group work, all groups agreed that diversity is important in STEM education. Main arguments that were raised are:

Diverse opinions and points of views give benefits

Different cultures - different ways of approaching things Giving equal rights to everyone, so we can improve faster 13

All people could access education without discrimination

New methods of learning

Opening minds of people Multiculturality is an important factor regarding the quality of higher education

Strongly Strongly agreeagree 33,3% % 33,3

Slightly agree Slightly agree 66,7% 66,7 %

Graph 1. Level of agreement on the statement: “Multiculturality is an important factor regarding the quality of higher education”

Students from different cultures are perceived as more/less capable

Strongly agree Slightly disagree Slightly agree Slightly agree

47,6% 47,6 %

52,4% % 52,4

Graph 2. Level of agreement on the statement: “Students from different cultures are perceived as more/less capable”

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In my university we can experience different cultures

Strongly Strongly agreeagree 28,6% % 28,6

Strongly disagree Strongly disagree

23,8% 23,8 %

Slightly disagree Slightly disagree

19,0% 19,0 %

Slightly agree Slightly agree 28,6% % 28,6

Graph 3. Level of agreement on the statement: “In my university we can experience different cultures”

For the role playing we had, participants were again separated in teams and where given one of the following scenarios to develop and reflect around: Situation 1: Three students are concerned whether they can communicate effectively with their future project mate who is an exchange student and doesn’t speak their language. All of them speak English but they don’t feel confident speaking it.

Outcome: People tend to avoid working in a foreign language, they would rather work with other people only because of this reason. Also 2 students shared that it happened to them.

Situation 2: Two students are not happy with the grade, the teacher gave a bigger grade to the student with disability.

Outcome: That situation happens, but the problem is how to react, because the teacher and other students may take it as an attack to disabled person instead focusing on the problem.

Situation 3: Three female students in mechanical engineering go to talk to their teachers regarding changing their study programmes because of gender discrimination when looking for internships.

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Outcome: gender inequalities are still present in society, teachers should stand up for these people and help them in getting an internship. One of girl participants form Russia experienced that on her University from a female teacher.

Situation 4: Two male students come to the professor complaining that their only female colleague got a higher grade than them. They think that the professor did it in order to promote gender diversity without their colleague actually working for it.

Outcome: Teachers should treat every student equally. This situation happens quite often in STEM education. Also it may lead some students to abuse ‘positive discrimination’.

Situation 5: Three students want to switch group led by a colleague of hindu background due to the stereotype that people from India are lazy.

Outcome: We shouldn’t have prejudices.

4.3 European demographics Facilitators: Daniel García, Orsalia Andreou

Background It’s common to think that European countries are homogeneous, but the truth is that there is a lot of racial and ethnic diversity. Within this session, participants will understand the differences between race and ethnicity, and they will work on analyzing the diversity present in their own countries. The goal of this session is to map the ethnicities in each country and link it with the ethnic diversity present in higher education institutions. If some correlation is found, participants will brainstorm about possible causes.

Methodology The session began with an introduction about race and ethnicity. Both definitions were explained and then a quick test was carried out to check that participants understood them. Once completed, a teamwork activity was opened. Participants were grouped in countries or regions, and they had to research about the demographics of their country.

With this information, they had to map the ethnic diversity of their country.

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Moreover, participants discussed if that diversity was reflected in the universities, and in case not, what could be the cause.

Outcomes The groups formed were: “Romania”, “Russia”, “Portugal”, “Spain”, “Balkan” and “Slavic + Belgium”. These are the outcomes reached by each group: Romania: There is a majority of Romanians in the country, but there are three big ethnicities in specific areas: Transylvanians (center), Moldovans (upper right) and Hungarians (upper left). There are also some minorities present, like Roma, Armenians, Russians, Germans in the western part, and Ukrainians in the north. Despite some spots are reserved for Roma and Moldovans to encourage their attendance to university, the diversity of the country is not reflected in universities, where there is a large majority of Romanians.

Russia: Apart from Russians, there are other ethnicities like Tartars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs and Chechens. In terms of higher education, some minorities are underrepresented, like Chechenci, Yakut, Tadzhiks and Buryats. There are scholarships to access universities, but sometimes these are not enough to encourage minorities to join universities. Some other barriers are present, like traditions, lack of money, or the cost of moving from a small town to a big city.

Portugal: Population is generally unified, with a 95% of citizens considered Portuguese.

In between the minorities, there are many Brazilians and Africans, since they speak the same language, but also Roma, eastern europeans and asians. When this situation is linked to the university, it can be noticed that the higher education is not diverse. The majority is Portuguese, and some Brazilians are enrolled as well. African students are few and the rest of the minorities are barely present. To solve the problem, it’s common to find positive discrimination towards africans to access university, but there are not other proposals for the rest of ethnicities. Participants concluded that this lack of asians, eastern europeans and Roma is due to low income and different life expectations.

Spain: Population is also unified, but varies significantly depending on the size of the city. The minorities present in Spain are Roma, asians, hindi, arabic and scandinavic.

In the universities, diversity can be spotted, except for the case of Roma. Participants agreed this can be caused by the cultural differences of this ethnic group.

Balkan: Balkan area is quite diverse. Greece has some minorities like albanians, turkish, cyprus and romanian. In Turkey there are Greek, Bulgarians, Kurdi, arabic and Roma ethnicities. Serbia has citizens considering bosnian, albanian, hungarian and croatian , 17

meanwhile in Slovenia, there are many macedonians, albanian and turkish. In higher education institutions, this diversity can be found, except for Roma.

Slavic and Belgium: Slovakia has a big minority of Hungarians, and also a little percentage of Czechs and Roma. Czech Republic is a diverse country, with Moravians, Silesians, Slovaks, Poles, Germans and Ukrainians minorities. Belgium is divided into two parts, the Dutch speaking area and the French one.

4.4 Diversity now Facilitators: Dariusz Wojtkun, Daniel García

Background Before starting to discuss about future actions on the topic of diversity, it is important to know where we currently stand and define our starting point for the discussions to follow. This session gathered data from people, their experience with ethnic diversity on their university and discrimination that they might have witnessed.

Methodology The session started with gathering statistical data on the levels of diversity nowadays, we used online tool called ‘Kahoot’, where students connected to the server and answered a few questions using one out of four options.

Then, for the second part of the session students were divided into 2 groups. Group A – people who studied abroad (36.36% of participants), Group B – people who haven’t studied abroad (63.64% of participants). Both of these groups had to write down skills that they find useful in studying abroad. After that, they all voted which skills are the most important for them.

The session finished with a sharing of session on discrimination that students witnessed and why did they think it happened.

Outcomes Regarding the outcomes on Graph 9, students noticed that even though universities offer dorms for the students, the spots can often be few and the quality questionable.

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Do you witness foreign students in your university?

Never Never

II study study withwith them them

5,35,3% %

10,5% % 10,5

Rarely Rarely

42,1% 42,1 %

Often Often

42,1% % 42,1

Graph 4. Responses percentage on the question: “Do you witness foreign students in your university?”

Do they attend the same lectures as local students?

There There areare somesome 20,0% 20,0

%

Few Few

20,0% 20,0 %

MostMost of them of them

60,0% 60,0 %

Graph 5. Responses percentage on the question: “Do they attend the same lectures as local students?”. The option of “No” received a 0% of the total responses and therefore is not represented in the graph

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If local and foreign students attend the same lectures, what’s the teaching language?

Country’s official

Country’s official language language English English

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Graph 6. Responses percentage on the question: “If local and foreign students attend the same lectures, what’s the teaching language?”. The option of “Other” received a 0% of the total responses and therefore is not represented in the graph

Does your university provide study programs in English?

Yes,inin every Yes, every field field of 14,3% 14,3 %

of study

No No

4,84,8% % In most of study In fields most fields of 23,8% 23,8

%

In few fields In aafew fields of of study 57,1%% 57,1

Graph 7. Responses percentage on the question: “Does your university provide study programs in English?”

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Does your University have different tuition fees for international students?

Yes Yes No No knowknow II don't don’t

0

10

20

30

40

50

Graph 8. Responses percentage on the question: “Does your University have different tuition fees for international students?”

Does University support foreign students with finding accommodation?

60

40

20

0

No No

Yes,they they can livelive in Yes, they help help them Yes, can Yes, they the dorms find an to apartment in the dorms them find an apartment

I don’t know I don’t know

Graph 9. Responses percentage on the question: “Does University support foreign students with finding accommodation?”

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Do you have professors of different ethnic groups?

Yes,a lot a lot Yes, 4,5% 4,5

%

No No

31,8% 31,8 %

Yes, a few Yes, a few 63,6% % 63,6

Graph 10. Responses percentage on the question: “Do you have professors of different ethnic groups?”

Do you have visiting professors of different ethnic groups?

Yes Yes No No

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Graph 11. Responses percentage on the question: “Do you have visiting professors of different ethnic groups?”

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Do you witness racial or ethnic discrimination in your University?

Sometimes Sometimes 36,4% 36,4

%

No No

63,6% 63,6 %

Graph 12. Graph 12: Responses percentage on the question: “Q9: Do you witness racial or ethnic discrimination in your University?”. The option of “Often” received a 0% of the total responses and therefore is not represented in the graph

Group work: The two groups agreed on the most important aspects of studying abroad to be improving language and communication skills, being more independent, ability to adapt to a different environment, maturing, meeting a lot of new people, travelling, experiencing different education systems, developing a flexible mindset and generally learning things that you wouldn’t learn otherwise. With each participant having two votes, the most voted above mentioned aspects can be found in Graph 13.

Sharing session: During the sharing session participants from Serbia, Greece, Portugal, Russia and Romania elaborated on racial and ethnic discrimination examples towards not only minorities but exchange students as well, with some of them being from refusal of teaching common subjects in English or associating final student marks with their country of origin to negatively biased behaviours towards these students. Similar goes for Latvia where speaking the local language is a must for anyone wanting to study there, since students’ written performance on technical exams is highly affected by their level of efficiency in Latvian.

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When asked about how they would connect this sharing session to the roleplay that we had previously, students mostly agreed that roleplayed situations occur in their University. Nevertheless they also noticed that there are occasions of positive discrimination as well, pointing out the complexity of these issues.

Important aspects of studying abroad Votes Votes

Language Language skills

Communication Communication skills skills Being Beingmore more independent independent Abilityto to adapt adapt to Ability to a different environment a different Maturing Maturing Meeting Meeting aa lot lot of new newpeople people Travelling Travelling Different Different education education system system Flexible Flexiblemindset mindset

Learningthings things Learning that you wouldn’t learn that you wouldn’t 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Graph 13. Voting of the most important aspects of studying abroad according to participants

4.5 Views and perspectives Facilitators: Dariusz Wojtkun

Background BSE gives us the ability to listen to people from different countries. In this session, students shared how their university looks like in terms of diversity and what are the pros and cons of diversity in STEM education.

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Methodology Students were divided into 2 groups and they participated in a debate. Topic: ‘Racial and ethnic diversity in STEM’. First group - pros, second group - cons.

Rules of the debate:

2 minutes of statement from each group

1,5 minute of comment to the statement

1 minute of comment to the comment

40 seconds of wrapping up and giving final statement

Before each speech, the speaker had to say: ‘Dear opponent, dear Educado’

After the debate, students were divided into 4 teams, where they had to reach a final conclusion about the topic discussed in the debate. They had to include:

Factors affecting the level of ethnic diversity

How your decisions affect these factors?

Meaning of decisions on a global level

Outcomes Statements: Team 1 (positive): Increasing ethnic and racial diversity will make society more aware and can lead to a decrease of inequalities. As a society we would become more united and less divided. Diversity gives us different perspectives, so we can take advantage of that do develop better critical thinking which is important for youth. We’ll learn a lot about new cultures and increase tolerance.

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Team 2 (negative): Making University more diverse in terms of ethnicity is very expensive process, that doesn’t give that much profits for local students. That money and time could be spent on something fruitful for native students. Foreign students may lower education level. Respect and tolerance is something that doesn’t have to go with focusing on diversity in STEM, it should be all the time.

Table 4. Participants’ final comments Positive

Negative

Even though it is a huge expense, we should treat it as an investment for future students and for our society

We should focus first on the level of education, then on diversity

Tolerance has to be learnt and should happen in the university

There are different types of diversity too, some of them are more important than race and ethnic diversity

Summary: Diversity is important and we should be aware of problems that may come, when we try to increase diversity, so we can solve them.

Group 1: Final opinion: Ethnic diversity is important and can improve the education system.

Factors:

number of minorities in the country

economic side of country

racism level in the country

increasing diversity is a long time process

attractiveness of country

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Decisions:

sharing study material

have empathy

have tolerance and help foreign people

respect and share each others traditions

Meaning of decisions:

how foreigners number can increase? - everyone has to have a chance to attend any university so better opportunities and connections are made

Group 2: Factors:

historical development of the country

geographical position of the country

political situation of the country

economic situation of the country

Decisions:

more engaged programmes

more investment in international student organisations - better integration

discussions and possibilities (Empower taking actions)

investment in scholarships and programs for people that need them

improve cultural education in schools

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Meaning of decisions:

decrease of nationalization

better integration

hearing people’s opinion

Group 3: Final opinion:

Diversity is the key to a better social environment.

Factors:

different cultural background can make you understand better or worse

mindset (against or for)

social pressure coming from the outside

Decisions:

putting effort in topic of other’s cultures and traditions

sharing knowledge to get everyone know about everyone

critical thinking

Meaning of decisions:

everything needs an improvement on different cultural backgrounds, which will lead to safer environment

international involvement to understand and contact other people easily, it will become very natural

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Group 4: Final opinion:

Understand everyone’s importance in society

Factors: geographical historical socio-economic

acceptance in society (how comfortable minority feels)

University acceptance

Decisions:

all of us should make a bit of effort to support diversity - always be with local people or help foreigners integrate

organisations should promote diversity

the factors are politically related - it’s important to inform about the educational programmes the political parties are providing to students (students should be aware of who to vote)

Meaning of decisions:

students can affect integration of people

spread the values of our society and learn about others

be an example to everyone

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4.6 Diversity and employability Facilitators: Orsalia Andreou, Daniel GarcĂ­a

Background As the years pass by, big companies seem to expose their workers in diverse environments of all kinds. The aim of this session was to learn about the desirability of graduates exposed to diverse learning environments. What are the skills that most companies look for in our days and how universities currently support their development. For the last part of the session, we explored the future skills needed in STEM professions and their correlations with racial and ethnic diversity.

Methodology We opened the session with a discussion. Participants were asked if they would follow an international career and gave their opinions on what companies look for in a candidate. The session continued by presenting the top 10 skills that employers currently look for in STEM graduates, based on our research.

Table 5. Skills presented to participants with their definitions

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Critical Thinking

Define and approach problems and situations from many different viewpoints and analyze every possible solution, as well as anticipate the consequences and outcomes of each option before taking action.

Analytical Skills

Analyze data sets and to understand how they relate to other data, systems and processes. Ability to synthesize and interpret complex information from multiple sources.

Problem Solving

Finding solutions that use the smallest amount of effort to the greatest effect and are able to solve multiple issues at the same time. Ability to devise the simplest yet most effective solution.

Table 5. (continued)

Innovation

Willingness to take risks and offer creative, even quirky ideas. Fresh perspective and a spirit of inventiveness will outshine those that follow the same old path.

Collaboration

Skill to work with others toward a shared goal. Ability to relate to and collaborate with others in the workplace.

Contribute to your team’s success, learn from challenges of working with others and evolve your working style.

Communication

Convey complex ideas to people of varied backgrounds and job titles, including those who have less or more technical expertise than they do.

Customer Orientation

Create a meaningful experience for each customer while designing solutions that help them achieve their goals today and 10 years from now. Active listening to understand the client’s needs, and going above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to customer service.

Adaptability

The quality of being able to adjust to new conditions, environments or people.

Social Responsibility

Ability to share values and demonstrate consistency with those values in their decisions, their actions and the way of working with others.

Balance

Ability to develop and demonstrate work qualities activities not related to the job, such as hobbies passions.

in or

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The group had then to test their universities’ performance in assisting them develop such a skill set, as well as, the appeleaningness of the skills mentioned themselves. The session ended with a group work on the future skills needed in STEM professions, based on students’ opinion, and the way they can be affected or not by increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

Outcomes The great majority of the group agreed that studying abroad is an asset, with more than half of the participants expressing interest in pursuing an international career. When asked for the skills needed in STEM professions, the opinions varied, with the replies showing in Graph 14.

Skills needed in STEM professions Motivation Motivation 11,8% % 11,8

Teamwork Teamwork

23,5% 23,5 %

Versability Versability 5,9% 5,9

%

HRSkills Skills HR 5,9% 5,9

%

Leadership Leaderhip 5,9% 5,9

%

Ability to to learn Ability learn

17,6% 17,6 %

Adaptability Adaptability 17,6% % 17,6

Communication Communication

11,8% 11,8 %

Graph 14. Skills needed in STEM professions according participants

Continuing with testing our top 10 skills presented in the questions:

Are the skills mentioned important in STEM education?

How many of the skills mentioned is your university helping you develop currently?

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Which of those skills you feel that you need to develop in the near future? You can only choose 3.

Our findings can be seen in the Graphs 15, 16 and 17, respectively.

Are the skills mentioned important in STEM education?

No No

38,1% % 38,1

Yes Yes

61,9% 61,9 %

Graph 15. Responses on the question “Are the skills mentioned important in STEM education?�

During the group work, each team brainstormed skills needed in STEM professions in the future and the correlation they might have with increasing racial and ethnic diversity. Innovation, adaptability, social and environmental responsibility, teamwork, and communication where in their top choices, being mentioned by all teams, followed by leadership, motivation, emotional intelligence, ability to give and receive feedback, time management, and reliability. Regarding the connections of the skills above with racial and ethnic diversity in universities, participants said that all their top choices can be strongly affected by raising diversity. The same goes for leadership, motivation and emotional intelligence. For the remaining skills, no strong connections were found.

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How many of the skills mentioned is your university helping you develop currently?

Total number of skills

6

No 4

38,1 %

Yes

2

61,9 %

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Graph 16. Responses on the question “How many of the skills mentioned is your university helping you develop currently?”

Which of those skills you feel that you need to develop in the near future?

Number of replies Number of replies

Balance Balance

Customer Customer orientation Orientation Social Social responsibility Responsibility Critical Critical thinking Thinking ProblemProblem solving Solving Innovation Innovation Collaboration Collaboration

Communicatio Communication n Adaptability Adaptability

Analytical Skills Analytical skills 0

5

10

15

20

Graph 17. Responses on the question “Which of those skills you feel that you need to develop in the near future?” You can only choose 3

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4.7 Students’ attitude again racial and ethnic diversity Facilitators: Daniel García, Orsalia Andreou

Background One of the factors that can affect the integration of diversity in universities is the attitude that students have. Some might be raised with intolerant mindset and others might not take action to solve the lack of integration. Due to the importance of the topic, it was decided to deal in a specific session. Within this session, participants were aimed to identify the behavior of students towards diversity as well as to analyze the possible causes of this attitude.

Methodology After a short presentation about the context and goal of the session, participants were split into random groups, to work on identifying behaviors of students. This first activity was carried out through a World CafĂŠ, where participants had to identify attitudes in the following environments:

Lectures of the lessons

Project work

Student activities, volunteer activities, sports etc.

Social life after lessons

After the first round, each group chose one environment and they brainstormed on the possible causes of the attitudes present. Once finished, participants presented to each other the outcomes reached. In the final stage of the session, participants shared possible actions they could take to improve general attitude and contribute to a better integration.

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Outcomes Attitude during lectures: Participants discussed that students sometimes make fun of people with different cultural backgrounds, or simply don’t take into consideration their opinions. International and local students tend not to merge during the lessons and this can lead to an extension of the problem, since they don’t get to know each other. However, participants note that the general behaviour is just indifference. This lack of interest results in further lack of integration. When participants brainstormed about the possible causes of this attitude, they concluded that students care about their grades and time, and generally they want to stay with the people that are similar, and within their comfort zone.

Attitude during projects: Participants reached the conclusion that groups are not diverse, since students tend to make projects with their friends. But they also pointed out that there might be other reasons behind this attitude, like the language barrier, gender, background or stereotypes. When participants tried to explain why this attitude is happening, they concluded that students want to succeed in their projects and therefore, they want to be as efficient as possible. Participants agreed that diversity increases the workload, since the different backgrounds or working methods can slow the development of a project.

Finally, they noted that some students just don’t want to get out of their comfort zone.

Student activities, volunteer activities, sports: Participants agreed that in sports, integration seems more natural, since the teams unite people. In their experience, discrimination is not usual in this environment.

However, in associations environment, participants noted that there are some reluctance from minorities to join. They pointed out that there are also ethnic associations that can be helpful in the integration process. As a final comment, they realized that the lack of minorities in associations is basically due to the lack of minorities in universities.

Associations and sports are meant to put people together regardless of their background and there is no explicit reason that explains the lack of diversity, but the previous.

Social life after lessons: Participant agreed that there is little interaction between different ethnic groups.

Students usually look for people with similar cultures and merging is not usual. They also pointed out that there are initiatives to solve this problem but there are still many things that can be done.

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When they analyzed the causes, they concluded that people don’t want to leave their comfort zone, they feel threatened by the language barrier or they don’t want to invest in, what is assumed to be, a short-term friendship.

In the final phase of the session, a sharing was proposed so participants could give ideas to improve integration. Participants suggested that they could take actions to help students of different races and ethnicities like speaking up against discrimination, help them to adapt to the new environment or just be friendly and empathetic. Finally, participants suggested that the teachers could help a lot in this topic as well, by making diverse working groups, but they also agreed that they could step up and make those diverse groups on their own.

4.8 Unconscious bias Facilitators: Orsalia Andreou

Background Biases, conscious and unconscious ones, affect our everyday life and the way we react in certain situations. In this session, participants were introduced to certain types of unconscious biases with the aims to learn how to separate conscious and unconscious behaviours and become more aware of underlying biases that might be influencing their decision making.

Methodology We started with a TED talk. The first part of the session was about learning what a bias is, differences between conscious or implicit and unconscious or explicit biases, as well as some types of unconscious biases appearing when working in groups, such as Affinity bias, Attribution bias, Beauty bias, Confirmation bias, Halo effect, Horns effect, Gender bias. Participants had a bias and stereotyping test to check the relevance of the session and then were separated into 4 groups, brainstorming on the origin of biases and the way they are being developed in our brains.

After understanding a bit better these prejudices, participants were again separated in groups. This time they had 5 different case studies, one per team, tackling situations that could be affected by explicit biases. The purpose of the exercise was for participants to analyse those underlying biases and feelings, of the people taking part in each occasion, in order to be considered in the future.

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The last part of the session was about reflection and improvement. Participants had another bias and stereotyping test, followed by a guided reflection time, where they were asked to think of a situation where they were biased in the past, identify if the bias was conscious or unconscious and determine if their thoughts were a product of logical thinking or assumptions.

Outcomes During the first bias and stereotyping test participants were asked to picture an engineer.

18 out of 21 people pictured a white person

4 out of 21 people pictured a woman

7 out of 21 people thought of someone wearing glasses

When separated in groups, investigating the origin of biases, all groups agreed in the influence that entertainment industry and social media have. Same goes for historical and biological reasons, social environment and family values. Some of the groups also mentioned real life experiences, culture, religion and politics, personal background, as well as, educational system as factors affecting the development of unconscious biases.

At the follow up discussion, participants were confused on what is the “right” thing to do and if everyone should be treated equally in order to avoid positive or negative discrimination. They reached the conclusion that each situation is different and they should avoid generalisations.

Continuing with the case studies, the situations analysed by the groups and their results, were the following.

Group 1: Roma student enters University. He lets his group call him gipsy and acts like he is laughing about the jokes, when for him it is not so funny.

Analysis: The student was feeling ashamed of his roots, alone and powerless. He was allowing the jokes because he wanted to be integrated. The group was carelessly stereotyping him.

Group 2: A Turkish guy is studying in Greece. He asks permission to be excused from a lab due to religion responsibilities. The professor thinks he’s just being lazy and Turkish.

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Analysis: The professor might have political, racial or logical reasons, if the student is truly lazy, underlying in his behaviour. The student feels guilty and sad, might consider changing faculty. He should talk with the professor to overcome the situation.

Group 3: In Macedonia women need to see a mental doctor for 3 months if they want to do an abortion. Women can’t take rational decisions while being pregnant due to their hormones.

Analysis: Women may feel discriminated, alone and angry. Throughout history, men were usually in control when women have only recently become stronger. The law is trying to shut down their voices but they strongly need to be able to make decisions related to their bodies.

Group 4: A group of workers is having a new team mate. He proposes a change of perspective, but the group does not pay much attention to the proposal. They are kind of stuck but he just entered the project anyway.

Analysis: The new colleague wanted to do this because he thought of a new perspective. He desires to be appreciated by others, win their trust and show them his abilities (confirmation bias). After his proposal is being rejected, he feels his opinion is treated as not relevant. The team members lack flexibility and might be too lazy to put effort in understanding the new perspective or in making it succeed. They may sound a little bit arrogant because they did not pay attention to the new partner proposal.

Group 5: Romanian student is having his erasmus abroad. A group of people is looking forward to meeting him but he is afraid they may call him gipsy because of his culture and avoids them. During his first month there, some people called him gipsy.

Analysis: The group doesn’t know why the new student refuses to join them. The romanian guy should change his mentality, he needs to feel more comfortable. He shouldn’t be afraid of meeting new people, and also he shouldn’t be afraid of new people calling him gipsy. Making the guys that originally called him gipsy change their minds does not solve the problem: there will always be new people that may call him gipsy. All of them should change. Maybe he could also try understanding why he is seen as a gipsy.

For the second bias and stereotyping test participants were asked to picture a STEM professor.

8 out of 21 people pictured a white person

8 out of 21 people pictured a woman 39

2 out of 21 people thought of an Indian professor

When asked if they forced themselves to think differently, participants agreed that this was not the case.

By the end of the session, participants were able to identify explicit biases in themselves, categorise them and develop where they felt needed, in order to act more consciously.

4.9 Teachers and diversity Facilitators: Dariusz Wojtkun, Daniel GarcĂ­a

Background One of the main drawbacks to integration and a source of discrimination is, sometimes, teachers. Depending on the country and the age, some professors tend to have discriminatory behaviours, due to intolerant backgrounds or just lack of knowledge. Furthermore, their role in integration can be impactful and usually they don’t use it as a tool to promote inclusiveness. During this session, participants analyzed the behaviour of their teachers and studying methods they propose. Later, participants discussed how to improve the situation of integration. The goal of the sessions was both to get a set of ideas of improvement and to raise awareness in participants about this topic.

Methodology The session was conducted in two parts: in the first one, a teamwork activity was carried out to analyze teachers and teaching methods. In the second part, participants discussed in teams about how to improve the situation and promote inclusiveness. After the first part, participants voted the characteristics of their average teacher, and after the second part, they presented to the other participants the results of the discussion.

Outcomes Teachers: Participants analyzed the behaviour of their teachers, concluding that there are different types of teachers.

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Participants agreed that they all have professors that are passionate about their subject and passionate about teaching, but the majority are boring and don’t care if students learn or not. The average teacher is male, white and in his 40s or 50s. Participants agreed that the average teacher is also hard-working, but usually this effort is not oriented to engage people.

Teaching methods: Participants shared the common teaching methods of their universities such as lectures, practices, laboratories, seminars. After they made a list with those methods, they had to answer the question “Are these methods inclusive?”. They agreed that the most inclusive methods are the practical sessions, laboratories and projects. In general, those that involved interaction with other students. However, they agreed that there is still work to do. It is important to iplement a system of feedback students-teachers in order to solve some of these problems.

Ideas to promote integration: More projects with diverse working groups (including international students or minorities), have lessons and materials in english, make interactive breaks, make professors be aware of the situation and treat kindly the international students, start the lessons welcoming international students, implement a feedback system so that teachers are aware of the needs of the students.

4.10 Inclusive pedagogy Facilitators: Orsalia Andreou, Daniel García

Background Based on the model of the 5 dimensions of Multiculturalism, inclusive pedagogy is a method tackling content integration, knowledge construction, equity pedagogy, prejudice reduction, and empowering university culture and social structure. Instructors and students work together to create a supportive environment that gives each student equal access to learning. Inclusive classrooms work to ensure that both teacher and student participation promote thoughtfulness and mutual respect.

41

Methodology We started by explaining inclusive pedagogy as a method and analysing each of its dimensions. Then, participants were separated into 2 groups, one brainstorming on the benefits of this teaching method and one discussing the disadvantages. After presenting the outcomes of the working groups, a short discussion was held on the appealingness of the method to students and the feasibility of implementing it to current universities.

Outcomes Group 1: Advantages Content integration

sense of belonging

motivate local students

broaden horizons

decrease stereotypes

Knowledge construction

improve problem solving

develop soft skills

reduce biases

Equity pedagogy

consistency and adaptability

different perspectives

create the perfect learning environment

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Prejudice reduction

reduce stereotypes

promote acceptance

Empower school structure

educate by the power of example

opportunity to get in touch with other cultures

Participants believe that inclusive pedagogy would take into consideration the skills of each student and make them find their place in the learning environment and process.

It would develop a sense of belonging by providing a better environment for students to stop feeling like foreigners. Inclusive pedagogy would also helps with knowledge acquisition skills and promote soft skills. Furthermore, local students would benefit from inclusive pedagogy as well, by broadening their horizons and decreasing stereotyping.

Group 2: Disadvantages Content integration

extra work for teachers

Knowledge construction

not enough time

enforcing opinions

Equity pedagogy

less effective for specific people

different levels of understanding

Prejudice reduction

difficult to implement 43

Empower school structure

huge investment

Participants feared that inclusive pedagogy can be less effective for specific people, whose habits need to change, or have different learning needs. It would create extra work and extra effort for professors, that would be time consuming and people need to think of smart ways to combat prejudice instead of just enforcing opinions. Lastly, the group was concerned for changing selection criteria for university professors since if you select professors based on diversity and not on skills, universities might end up with less skilled professors and worse educational system.

During the final discussion, the group concluded that inclusive pedagogy is a good method, that would be more effective in smaller groups (20-30 people) to empower diversity in learning. Nevertheless, the current educational system needs time and effort to change. When participants were asked how they would prioritise the implementation of the method, no clear conclusion was reached. The method is already implemented in some universities but if they had to choose on something, they would prefer improvement of content and quality of education. Some suggested that a middle solution could be optimal for now.

4.11 Mobility programs Facilitators: Dariusz Wojtkun, Daniel GarcĂ­a

Background Mobility programs are one of the most common ways to increase diversity in the University and also they allow students to spend some time abroad learning. But they are not perfect. In this session we focused on identifying problems related to mobility programs in order to provide solutions to these issues.

Methodology The session began with gathering data from students about mobility programs in their university, with Kahoot survey. Then, we had some group work on problems with mobility programs and reasons that stop people from going on Erasmus. Possible solutions to these problems were then proposed.

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Outcomes Is your university in Erasmus+ program?

Yes Yes

20

No No don't know II don’t know 15

10

5

0

Graph 18. Students’ responses on the question: “Is your university in Erasmus+ program?”.

Students also knew, where they can go on Erasmus

How promoted is Erasmus+ on your university?

Number of replies Number of replies

20

15

10

5

0

Information on Meetings about Social media of Information on Meetings about Social media of a university page Erasmus+ univeristy, a university Erasmus+ university, emails etc.

page

All of them All of them

emails etc.

Graph 17. Students’ responses on the question: “How promoted is Erasmus+ on your university?”

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Is this program appealing to students?

NoNotatatall all

38,1% 38,1 %

StudentsStudents are interested are

57,1 %

57,1%

Very few people Very few people

4,84,8% %

Graph 20. Students’ responses on the question: “ Is this program appealing to students?” about Erasmus+

When asked if there is a lot of competition for people who want to go on Erasmus, participants replied that it depends on the field of study, for some there are none or very few, when for others there are too many places.

Does your university have non-european mobility programs?

20

Yes Yes No No knowknow II don't don’t

15

10

5

0

Graph 21. Students’ responses on the question: “Does your university have non-european mobility programs?”

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How promoted are these programs?

Information on Information on a a univeristy page

8

university page

Meetings about Meetings about programs programs

Social media Social media of univeristy, emails etc.

6

All Allof ofthem them

4

2

0

Graph 22. Students’ responses on the question: “How promoted are these programs?”, referring to non Erasmus+ related exchange programs

Are these programs appealing to students?

Students areareinterested Students

33,3 %33,3%

Very people Veryfew few people are

61,1% 61,1 %

Not No, notat at all all 5,6% 5,6

%

Graph 23. Students’ responses on the question: “Are these programs appealing to students?”, referring to non Erasmus+ related exchange programs

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Does your university have abroad internship programs?

II don't don’t know know 11,8% % 11,8

No No

5,9% % 5,9

Yes Yes 82,4% 82,4 %

Graph 24. Students’ responses on the question: “Does your university have abroad internship programs?”

Are they held by the university or by students associations such as IAESTE or AIESEC?

Students Students associations associations

University Univeristy

Both Both

0

2

4

6

8

Graph 25. Students’ responses on the question: “Are they held by the university or by students associations such as IAESTE or AIESEC?”, referring to abroad internship programs

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Does your university respect ECTS from Erasmus courses?

100% 100% 23,8% 23,8

Less Less than 50% than 50%

%

28,6% 28,6 %

More than More than 50% 50% 47,6% % 47,6

Graph 26. Students’ responses on the question: “Does your university respect ECTS from Erasmus courses?”

The ideas of the participants during their group work can be found on Table 6.

Table 6. Identified problems in Erasmus+ and possible solutions Problems

Solutions

Going to Erasmus is expensive

Scholarships, support from the government, help with finding part time job

Lack of information

International forum with all necessary documents and informations, promote sharing information from previous participants (maybe at the end of Erasmus a quick form or document)

Language problems, Free language courses, more courses in English sometimes it is required to on your University and the one that you are going on Erasmus, English classes for teachers speak the local language

Can it be solved by students?

Yes

In some parts yes

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Table 6. (continued)

Paper work

Standardize the process, digitise documents as much as it is possible

VISA

Possibility to apply to extra courses

Not fully respected ECTS

Higher flexibility, more united courses, transparency in process

Missed exams in home university

Higher flexibility of home university

Feeling alone

Social events for Erasmus students that mix them with local students

Yes

Bad promotion

Investing more effort, time and money into PR

Yes

4.12 Integration techniques Facilitators: Daniel GarcĂ­a, Orsalia Andreou

Background Sometimes, in order to solve a problem we have to first reflect on ourselves and our own actions. Variating from country to country, minorities often suffer from exclusion and lack of support in order to reach their highest potential. What’s the role of society, universities, students and companies in this? What techniques could be developed to better integrate/ include them in society?

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Within this session, participants identified the current situation and problems, and proposed changes. They were meant to brainstorm about ideas to help integration, both academic and social of people from different cultures. Also, they were asked to state the actions that the different stakeholders (university, teachers, students, companies, government) can take.

Methodology This session was designed to be solution oriented. In the first part, participants brainstormed about the stakeholders of education. Those were subdivided and written in a mind map. Then, participants chose one or two stakeholders and brainstormed in teams about the possible actions they could take to embrace integration. Finally, the actions were evaluated through an impact-effort matrix.

Outcomes University: Participants thought that the university could organize social events, tandem meetings where languages are exchanged, create a language club, or organize cultural trips. Also, universities should support students NGOs in their activities and encourage the staff to communicate in English when possible, to eliminate the language barrier. Regarding the teachers, participants thought that they should implement more inclusive teaching methods, promote and reward cooperation in their students and be internationally involved, so they can understand the need for integration.

Students: Some ideas were posed, like organizing non formal meetings for sharing, with international students and alumni, or focusing on actions of everyday life, like working with different people in projects, including international students in the lessons, have breaks together and avoid making ghettos. Finally, some students initiatives were presented like an international lunch for better bonding experience between local and international students, sharing sessions, cultural activities, parties and a big social media promotion of all these events.

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Companies and NGOs: The ideas reached for companies were: supporting NGOs in their activities, open a research about the diversity in the company to understand the situation, prepare lectures in english if a worker is delivering a lesson in the university, offer international internship programs, generalize an English speaking environment or make the HR team be aware of the lack of diversity. For NGOs, participants suggested that they should include diversity and integration in their priorities, that they should be open to welcome every kind of student and eventually, organize some integration activities like language exchange or guidance programs.

Government and Institutions: Participants suggested that international institutions as the Council of Europe should research on the problem and find the causes. Also they stated that the governments, both local, regional and nationals should promote and sponsor initiatives that aims to integrate diversity.

The final activity consisted in the evaluation of all the ideas, resulting in the following matrix: Table 7. Impact-Effort matrix of participants ideas about integration techniques Spend time with international students and people of other ethnicities Share actions and activities in the social media Sponsor integration activities

(+)

Organize social events, like

Impact

international meals

tandem meetings or

Being open minded Mixed accommodation Guidance programs for international students Make group projects with international students

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Implement new laws/regulations Generalized use of English Sponsor NGOs European Programme Meetings with alumni Research about the lack of diversity Ease the process for foreigners to come to a new country Internationally involved teachers International internship program Cultural trips

Table 7. (continued) Guest lectures in English

Impact Actions for religious groups

Changing teaching methods

(-) Hiring international students

(-) Effort (+)

4.13 Diversity and social responsibility Facilitators: Orsalia Andreou, Dariusz Wojtkun

Background Social responsibility is an ethical framework and suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large.

In our days, corporate social responsibility, creating shared value and individual social responsibility are trending topics worldwide, creating us the curiosity to explore their connections with the existence of racial and ethnic diversity in higher education.

Methodology We started the session by defining corporate social responsibility, creating shared value and individual social responsibility, as well as, their aspects. Then we had a facilitated discussion with the questions:

Do you think social responsibility is important?

Should universities develop this set of consciousness on students or only focus on technical aspects?

Are there any universities already supporting social responsibility?

Why do you think that universities do not support social responsibility in direct way?

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Participants were then separated into 2 groups and asked to brainstorm on how universities could engage students, or the university as an institute itself could be more engaged in social responsibility.

After presenting the outcomes of the working groups, we explored the ways racial and ethnic diversity can impact social responsibility through an open discussion.

Outcomes During the facilitated discussion, the opinions gathered in each question were: Do you think social responsibility is important?

Participants agreed that social responsibility is important and they noticed that corporate social responsibility is improving the public image of a company, while making its employees more satisfied and engaged in their work. It is a mutual benefit for society and companies.

Should universities develop this set of consciousness on students or only focus on technical aspects?

Participants agree that they should, especially for environmental issues.

Are there any universities already supporting social responsibility?

Generally, participants notice that the majority of their universities is not supporting social responsibility. In the group, we have the Technical University of Catalonia, where students have to write a paragraph on the social impact each of the projects they work on will and the University of Lisbon that provides some optional subjects on the topic.

Politehnica University of Bucharest is supporting Roma minority students by providing them certain amount of spots every year in its study programs.

Why do you think that universities do not support social responsibility in direct way?

Some of the opinions heard were that universities might have other priorities and focus areas, lack funding for working in projects supporting social responsibility or simply believe that students should develop in this area alone. They also noticed that maybe the external pressure is not enough to make them include courses on the topic. Nevertheless, it is believed that the best way to approach this topic is by universities, as institutes, accepting or refusing to work on projects depending on their impact in society.

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The ideas presented for the group work on how universities could engage the students, or the university as an institute itself be more engaged in social responsibility, can be seen below.

Table 8. Ideas for increasing social responsibility in a student or university level Create a department inside the university that would be responsible for the

Department of Social Responsibility

institution’s social impact. More specifically this department would: - Coordinate workshops and lectures on SR - Create relevant criteria for the selection of the university’s partners - Overview the social impact of projects the university is involved in

Evaluation of social impact

Evaluate university bobies and staff based on their socially responsible actions and create a reward framework

Content integration

Include topics of SC in the already existing curricula

ECTS

Have mandatory ECTS for being involved in social activities

Empower NGOs

Promote NGOs in the university environment

Company lectures

Introduce lectures, in collaboration with companies, on social responsibility and social impact

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Table 8. (continued)

Community hours

Establish hours were students gather to help the local community (e.g. clean beaches, plant trees etc)

SR campaigns

Create campaigns supporting SR and advertise them in the university

Participants mostly agreed that the best way to proceed in the near future is with content integration. When examining the correlation SR can have with racial and ethnic diversity, everyone agreed that we could only benefit from raising diversity. Each country has different problems, practices and culture. Empowering racial and ethnic diversity would broaden students’ horizons, giving them more issues to tackle and educating them for different topics.

4.14 The role of the stakeholders Facilitators: Daniel GarcĂ­a, Dariusz Wojtkun, Orsalia Andreou

Background One of the main problems encountered during the event was the lack of diversity in higher education institutions. To get solutions to this problem, this session was proposed. Within this session, participants were aimed to brainstorm about the possible actions that the different stakeholders could take in order to increase diversity in universities.

Methodology This session was carried out using the facilitation technique Open Space Technology.

Three stations were set up, each one representing one stakeholder, and participants could move freely and contribute to the one they want. At the end of the working time, the outcomes were presented to the rest of the participants and a discussion was triggered.

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Outcomes Companies: Participants discussed that firms should move to diverse basis, by means of actions like having the website in different languages, encouraging people to speak english in the work environment and promoting integration activities for the non-formal structure of the company. For recruitment process, participants supported the idea of positive discrimination, both for women and workers that come from other countries. Other ideas were discussed like having diversity in the mission and vision of the firm, international team building activities, international internships, collaboration with international universities, sponsor of integration activities and organise training programs open for everyone.

Government: Participants found that the governments can take many actions to promote diversity like invest in mobility programs and international cooperation, use social media to create awareness of the problem, regulate the advertisements to avoid propaganda, ease the process for foreigners to come to the country, avoid religious preferences and regulate education to focus on global history and not only on local one. As a final proposal, participants debated about the mandatory education, which agreed to be until 16 years old, to ensure every citizen has a basic knowledge.

University: The ideas proposed for this stakeholder were: increase the number of english classes, joining in more exchange study or internship programs and promote them better, raise awareness of foreign students, achieve union between universities to get double diplomas, offer free courses of native language, provide opportunities for students to earn some money to lower the cost of life, improve students’ living conditions, providing modern equipment for laboratory, promote free or cheap activities for foreign students, introduce positive discrimination for minorities, provide extra lessons to catch up, improve tutor programs, and improve the offer of cultural activities.

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4.15 Future universities Facilitators: Dariusz Wojtkun, Orsalia Andreou

Background In this session, participants used the knowledge that they acquired throughout BSE to create an action plan with the aim of empowering racial and ethnic diversity for their University.

Methodology We explained to students what is an action plan and what they should include in it.

We also explained to them what a S.M.A.R.T. goal is (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based), so that they knew on what should they focus. Their task description: ‘You have been elected to be the board of the university. Develop an action plan to raise and improve ethnic and racial diversity.

Outcomes Group 1: Goal: Promote mobility programs Tasks:

Sharing sessions with students that had been to a mobility program

Implement ‘buddy’ system – when you are on a mobility program, you get a person that is there to answer your questions. Buddy is a person that was on the same mobility program as you

Organise International Evenings to promote different countries, so that people can get to know each other and their countries

Simplify paperwork, so students won’t struggle anymore

Improve quality of websites, so that they are actual and appealing to students

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Group 2: Goal: Increase the number of people who speak English Tasks:

Free classes for students and teachers

More studying materials in English

Projects in English

Goal: Education more affordable for foreign students Tasks:

Partnership with local government in order to get financial help for students

More opportunities for part time jobs inside campus

Goal: Increase social interaction between local and foreign students Tasks:

English speaking zone

Diverse groups for projects

Goal: Improve mobility programs Tasks:

Reduce paperwork

Increase number of vacancies

More destinations

Online projects with different universities

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Goal: Create a safe space to talk about discrimination

Group 3: Goal: Support teachers going abroad Goal: Improve exchange programs Tasks: The same ones as listed in previous groups Goal: Improve local-foreigner relationships Tasks: The same ones as listed in previous groups Goal: Raise awareness about diversity Tasks:

Trainings from companies on soft skills about diversity

Activities in social media

Group 4: Goal: Collaboration between teachers, students and foreigners. Increasing unity between these groups.

Tasks:

Integrational events

Easy way for exchange programs

Tandem meetings

Language classes

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Goal: Comfortable environment for foreigners Tasks:

Improvement of living conditions

Actions to raise awareness about stereotypes and their weight

4.16 Case study Facilitators: Orsalia Andreou, Daniel GarcĂ­a, Dariusz Wojtkun

Background Throughout the event we had multiple session tackling different stakeholders, like universities, governments and companies. Nevertheless, since the participants were students, it was found relevant to tackle the final topic around their own environment.

For this last session, participants were aimed to design a new initiative that could make a change in the fields of raising diversity or promoting integration. The ultimate goal of the session was to show them what they could achieve as students, and give them motivation to run an initiative in their own universities.

Methodology Using the knowledge acquired in the previous sessions participants were split into 4 groups and had to work on a students’ initiative that would empower racial and ethnic diversity in their university. They should think out of the box, think innovative and research on currently existing initiatives aiming to increase and empower diversity in the academic environment. Then they had to create to create a presentation and show their work to the rest of the groups.

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Outcomes Group 1: BeU Zone BeU Zone stands for BeUnited Zone - a new international student organisation. It’s goal is to promote ethical and racial diversity in university campuses. BeU Zone is a place where people can come in free time to hangout and its design encourages integration of foreign students with local ones. Zone is an open space area à la cafeteria located near or in the campus. On the walls there are posters and banners promoting diversity. In the Zone are organised events to promote diversity, for example:

Sharing sessions

Country presentations

NGOs presentations

Tandem meetings Game & movie nights

In the Zone there is always be a facilitator or a person that can help to hold a discussion. Besides that, BeU Zone would be present on social media, always open for new volunteers and internationally oriented people. In terms of finances, organisation is going to apply for grants and get money from them.

Group 2: Explorado Under the motto of “Globalize the human connections”, Explorado app aims to build a social network of students from different universities by challenging users to try new experiences. In this app, users can create challenges related with promotion of integration and human interactions, achieve other’s challenges, and get rewards after. It also includes a forum where people can chat with other students with the same interests.

The business model of this idea is building partnerships with international NGOs, travel agencies and local students union, and use the existing network to promote their activities. Participants exposed that they will need at least 5 groups to start this idea: one for developing the app, one to get funds, one to manage the external contacts, another for designing the content and a last one for marketing and promotion.

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Group 3: You Decide You Decide, is a students’ initiative aiming to tackle racial and ethnic discrimination before it reaches higher education.When lack of funding, not inclusive social environments, lack of information and difficulties at home create an unbearable situation for highschool students, You Decide offers to provide them assistance, support and encouragement voluntarily from university students, to help them reach their highest potential and achieve entering higher education.

The project would start small by defining an area of action and the university responsible and then expand, focusing on high schools that have greater percentage of minorities and survey to collect the relevant data. The volunteers would visit each school for 1 or 2 days, creating an “Alumni”s corner” consisting of university students, parents and tutors interacting with the children. The support from the speakers would then be maintained through the You Decide website and social media.

Universities, sponsorships and alumni companies, would offer financial support for running the programme, when the entry of children coming from minority groups in universities would be funded by university economic aids, grants from the government and flexible education for working students programmes.

Group 4: InteGreat Integrate is a students’ initiative that aims to bring together first year students. To fulfill this goal, they will be carrying out the following projects:

Integration week: During the first week of the term, they will organize some activities as get to know games, city rallies or a tour across the university campus.

Supporting team: It consists of a group of people that manage a complaint system and try to solve discrimination issues.

Cultural events: About sports, music, food or dance.

Sharing sessions: Talks with high school students that belong to minorities to encourage them to attend university.

Human library: In this event, students can come and talk with people, that were excluded from a society or are burdened with stereotypes. This way, students can become more open minded.

Thematic clubs: Discussion groups about any topic, to bring together people with the same interests.

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