As part of the European Union-funded OpenEU Alliance, Daugavpils University has proudly released the comprehensive Guide in Gender Equality, Inclusiveness, and Intersectionality. Developed under T3.3.1 in Work Package 3, this publication marks a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to widening participation and fostering a truly accessible higher education environment.

Higher education institutions serve as powerful catalysts for societal change. However, realizing a truly inclusive academic culture requires moving beyond general principles into concrete, daily operations. This new guide responds directly to the specific needs of traditionally underrepresented groups in higher education – including women in STEAM fields, migrants, refugees, people with disabilities, and those living in rural areas.

Grounded in institutional surveys and EDI assessments conducted across partner universities, the guide establishes a shared conceptual foundation by defining core terms such as gender equality, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and intersectionality—examining how overlapping identity factors shape unique individual experiences.

Key Competences for Academic and Administrative Staff

The guide outlines essential competence frameworks tailored specifically for both teaching and administrative personnel:

• For Academic Staff: Focuses on inclusive pedagogy and learning design (such as Universal Design for Learning principles), inclusive classroom communication, bias management, and the integration of diverse epistemologies into course curricula.
• For Administrative Staff: Focuses on inclusive service delivery, respectful communication and language use, GDPR-compliant handling of sensitive diversity data, and the removal of administrative barriers during admissions and student support.

Beyond theoretical frameworks, the guide provides practical, step-by-step procedures for university staff. It offers actionable strategies for maintaining balanced representation in teaching materials, avoiding stereotypes, managing respectful online and offline learning environments, and following proper institutional reporting pathways for bias and harassment.

This guide serves as the foundational stepping stone for the next sub-tasks in Work Package 3 – an Online IGE Self-Assessment Tool  allowing staff members to self-evaluate their knowledge against these core competences. This will be complemented by structured OpenEU IGE training programmes designed to support continuous professional development across all participating institutions.

OpenEU, the pan-European open university, brings together eight leading European open and distance universities and two on-campus universities engaged in digital transformation to become the European Universities Initiative’s main asset for accessing, using, and exploring digital education knowledge and knowhow in the EHEA.

More about the project www.openeu.eu

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Additional information:
Velta Trūle
Email: velta.trule@du.lv