International Knowledge Week on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access

Inclusive HR

Organizations strive to be a good employer for all their employees, but how do they do it? What are the things to pay attention to, and more importantly, what are the tools organizations need, and apply, to be inclusive? 

In this HR stream we cover topics such as: 

-overview of HR processes where diversity and inclusion are crucial 

-recruiting and selecting employees in an objective way 

-engaging and promoting employees, focusing on leadership and role of rewards and recognition for the employees. 

Inclusive Education

Changing demography of the countries all over the world requires rethinking education and educational policies in higher education to understand whether the education provided is relevant to the diverse student population or not. In this regard, there’s increased focus on inclusive curriculum, intercultural competence of teachers and students, and the requirements of an over-all inclusive learning environment. 

In this Inclusive Education stream, we cover topics such as: 

• Define/Redefine ‘inclusive education’ in the context of a particular institution.  

• Understand how inclusive education, as a matter of social justice, requires participation and contribution from various parts of an institution (beyond just teachers and students) 

• Understand the possibilities with inclusive education tools in terms of changing the curriculum and the way we engage with our students.  

Academic Outreach Program Connecting Our Future

The Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is taking responsibility for addressing the complex challenges our society faces today. One of these complex challenges is unequal opportunities in education. With the aim of increasing higher education access, success, and progression amongst historically underrepresented students, the EUR has therefore launched an extensive academic outreach program. In the program, we are cooperating extensively with primary and secondary schools, as well as organizations in the city of Rotterdam. During the knowledge week, we will share examples and showcase (international) inspiration on how, in joint collaboration with a multitude of stakeholders inside and outside of the university, we are building and implementing this innovative academic outreach program.   

Inclusive communication

Finding a clear and respectful way of communicating that ensures that your message reaches a broad, diverse group of people; that the message is understood and heard by this group; and that this message makes people feel included. Inclusive communication is an important building block in making your organization more inclusive. Always have your (target) audience in mind when communicating. In this session about inclusive communication we share knowledge, we inspire, and we give tips and tricks on topics such as: 

• Inclusive communication – definition and importance 

• Inclusive language – words matter 

• Inclusive visuals – photography, videography, graphics 

• Accessibility of communication 

• Inclusive content – it is about the whole package 

Monitoring and Research 

Within this stream we will discuss the dos and don’ts regarding research on diversity and inclusion. We will talk about specific topics related to diversity and inclusion (e.g., how do you measure different diversity dimensions? What kind of questions can you (and can’t you) ask?) and we will also discuss ways in which we can make our research more diverse and inclusive (e.g., how do you account for diversity and inclusion in your research team? Are the research questions and methods diverse and inclusive?). Finally, we will give concrete examples of research that is done on these topics at EUR. 

Student Engagement

Student engagement means actively including students’ input into the design of changes that the higher educational institution is introducing and finding the most useful ways for students to play an active role in the implementation of strategies and policies. Within this stream, we will discuss how successful ways of student engagement are achieved through cooperation with student associations, social embeddedness, institutionalization of student roles and choosing strategic moments to be visible to students.