The project, in which the UB Solidarity Foundation takes part, focuses on three main areas of inequality and disadvantage in higher education: migrant background, women leadership and low socio-economic status.
The SMILE project (Social Meaning Impact through LLL Universities in Europe), co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme under the key action of ‘Social inclusion and common values’, has launched its website: smile.eucen.eu. The site addresses higher education staff and both students and potential students who are disadvantaged in various ways; basically, in three areas: migrant background, women leadership and low socio-economic status.
Besides providing a comprehensive overview of the project aims and phases to promote inclusive education, the SMILE website gives access to innovative tools which will be developed, test and implement by the project consortium, in order to improve the way higher education institutions deal with diversity and social inclusion.
These tools will include an audit model that allows universities to reflect on how they are addressing diversity; Continuing Professional Development courses that enable university staff to tackle the above-mentioned inequalities; policy recommendations for institutional leaders and policy makers, and a large variety of resources about the project’s topics.
The Solidarity Foundation of the University of Barcelona is one of the four civil society organisations from Belgium and Spain that participate in the SMILE project, together with six European universities from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Finland, Malta and Romania. The project is coordinated by eucen (European university continuing education network).
SMILE news will regularly be published on eucen’s “Inclusive Europe” social media channels: the Facebook page, the LinkedIn group and the Twitter account. The newsletter will also feature updates about the project’s progress.
About the Support program of the University of Barcelona for refugees
The UB Solidarity Foundation participates in the SMILE project within the framework of the Support program of the University of Barcelona for refugees and people from conflict areas, which is based on the development of a human rights perspective, with two main fields of action: academic support and social integration (scholarships, transition to university course, acommodation, support for language learning and daily life issues, legal advice and psychological assistance), as well as networking and cooperation.
This news is related to the following SDG of 2030 Agenda:
