Universities around the world have made fervent attempts in the past few years to diversify their student body, with mixed results perhaps the most generous assessment of the success of these efforts. Despite the appearance of effort however, a recent study from the University of Cordoba suggests there is still an awfully long way to go.
The researchers examined the websites of over 100 universities from around the world to gauge their level of compliance with a number of indicators for institutional diversity, including those in areas such as philosophy and institutional policy, and strategies around community, staffing and management. What’s more, if a diversity and equality officer existed at the university, they were asked to complete a survey (which around 1/3 did).
The analysis revealed poor performance across the board, even in universities with diversity officials. Even with the generally poor performance, there remained high levels of variance between each of the indicators. For instance, over 51% of universities make reference to diversity in their institutional statements, but just 12% have awarded or acknowledged individuals who champion diversity.
Geographically, it emerged that North American universities were most likely to have complied with diversity indicators, with European universities next most likely. The authors suggest this is perhaps because of the fight for civil rights and equal opportunities in America may have influenced universities there to consolidate their diversity outreach work.
While their findings are interesting, they accept that more work is needed to explore deeper trends in the institutionalization of diversity outreach, but they believe the initial findings are sufficient to encourage universities to do more to institutionalize various policies aimed to eliminating inequality on campus.
“Higher education institutions from the Academic Ranking of World Universities are at the beginning of the process to institutionalize diversity outreach. Combining inclusion with excellence in higher education would help eliminate inequalities and promote social justice,” the authors conclude.
