Reconfiguring European Higher Education: Enhancing Diversity, Access, and Success for All

This panel examines higher education in Europe and the underrepresentation of people of color, whose participation in European Higher Education as students, professors, administrators, is extremely limited. Although racial and ethnic diversity is nothing new to Europe, it remains exceedingly difficult for people of color to gain access to European institutions of higher education. Drawing on case studies from the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden, we examine the major historical and contemporary challenges that shape the current context. Europe today is a continent where global social, political, and economic circumstances are facilitating rapid demographic shifts, which are resulting in further racial and ethnic diversification. Meanwhile, the growth of right-wing extremist, racist, and xenophobic social movements in response to this diversity in the European population is notable. As such, it is imperative
that European higher education respond to and challenge these crises with an agenda that is informed by a social justice imperative, and thus become more inclusive in order to strengthen civil society at all levels. As part of our engagement with historical and contemporary challenges, we will also discuss  strategies to facilitate change, such as curricular changes to address difference, power, and discrimination; compulsory coursework in tertiary education; student and faculty recruitment and retention; faculty development; and institutional climate assessments, drawing on international examples and lessons learned from a range of institutions of higher education.