There are already attempts to embed and progress equality within higher education institutions and colleges, for example through widening participation and increasing support for disabled students, or by including commitments to equality within mission statements.
However, these initiatives don’t always consider the equality and diversity implications of everyday activities. Through mainstreaming, institutions will approach equality and diversity considerations as an ongoing process of quality enhancement across all functions of the institution.
ECU has produced two reports from the initial research findings of the mainstreaming project. The first focuses on mainstreaming in higher education and the second on mainstreaming in further education.
The higher education report introduces various approaches being used to mainstream equality in higher education, with examples of tools which have been proven to be effective in the higher education or elsewhere.
Areas covered by the report include:
- Understanding mainstreaming
- Approaches to mainstreaming
- Tools and strategies
- Measuring impact
The further education report highlights where the research from the higher education report is transferable to the college sector context, and provides additional college-specific resources to support colleges in achieving a mainstreaming approach.
