Inclusive Excellence: A new University Model in the 21st Century Based on Universal Design for Learning

Affordable high-quality university education is a moral and legal imperative today. At the same time, there are still numerous barriers to get this university education. The orientation of higher education towards world rankings and economic efficiency indicators contradicts with inclusive values and goals. Inclusive politics needs radical revision and updating. The aim of this research is to design an inclusive university model based on universal educational design. The research method is a review and theoretical analysis of scientific publications devoted to inclusive higher education and published on the platforms SpringerLink, PubMed, Frontiers and Taylor &amp; Francis Group. The paper examines the concepts of inclusive excellence and universal design for learning and provides a theoretical analysis of the possibility of using these approaches to transform a modern university. The authors propose a model that takes into account: organizational culture, indicators of inclusive excellence, principles of transformation of the educational environment, external factors, global and national context and the process of transformation (involvement, representation, action through a plurality of means and environments based on agency). The expected result is of high importance for Russian and world science and is in the trend of key scientific research of education and its transformation, focused on the values of social justice, accessibility and equal opportunities, and also responds to the crisis situation in the humanities.</p

Risks of Educational Inclusion: The Experience of Regional Studies in Tyumen State University

The paper presents the results of sociological research in the universities of the Tyumen Province, Russia (2081 questionnaires from 9 state institutions of higher education, 2016, April). In the paper, we consider only one aspect of inclusion, namely, joint training of healthy students and students with disabilities. The aim of the study is to assess the risks of inclusive education and its risk factors. Inclusive education is interpreted as 1) a social value, 2) an alternative to social exclusion 3) a resource for development, and 4) an educational innovation with risk potential. The authors developed the concept of «risk» and «risk-factor» for inclusive education, offering their classification. The responses is structured and grouped into three risks mega-groups: 1) general social risks, 2) institutional and group risks, and 3) risks for education actors. These include the risks of falling quality of general, tertiary and vocational education, the risks of social dependency, organizational risks, threat of simulation inclusion and the formal inclusion, personal and professional risks of students, teachers, parents and administrators. Insufficient level of inclusive educational environments in institutions of general, vocational and higher education, lack of skills and competences of teachers for inclusive education, the deficit tolerant attitudes towards persons with disabilities in society and school class are all identified as risk factors. The research leads to conclusions about the need for a conscious administrative influence on the factors to overcome their negative consequences for the success of inclusion. This work was supported by grant 543873-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-DE-TEMPUS-JPCR

The Gender Dimension of the Inclusion: The Case of the Western Siberian Universities

The paper focuses on the attitude of university staff towards students with disabilities and on the readiness for inclusive higher education in members of the academic staff. It is stressed that one of the main tasks of the resource and training centers network is to help overcome such powerful barriers as social stereotypes and incompetence in inclusive education and to assist university teachers in establishing contacts and interaction with students with disabilities. The paper presents a study that involved 2181 university teachers from 10 universities of the Tyumen region. The study had two objectives: first, to explore the attitude of the academic staff of the universities to students with disabilities and the former’s readiness for inclusive education; secondly, to reveal gender differences in relation to inclusion. The main outcomes of the study are as follows. Women working in higher education are more positive towards inclusive education and its prospects, more tolerant and sympathetic to persons with disabilities. They are more focused on active inclusive behavior, on acquiring new knowledge and skills, and on rendering extensive support to students with disabilities. They value their own skills and competencies in inclusive teaching and collaboration highly enough. The paper concludes that women working at the universities of the Tyumen regions are an important resource for achieving the goals of resource training centers in the field of inclusive higher education

The Purpose, Objectives and Main Directions of the Development of Inclusive Higher Education in the Russian Federation

The article provides an analysis of the current state of inclusive higher education in Russia based on the results of the implementation of the Interdepartmental Comprehensive Action Plan to ensure accessibility of vocational education for people with disabilities for 2016-2018 (approved by the Government of the Russian Federation on May 23, 2016 N 3467p-P8).According to this Plan a set of measures was implemented to help ensure that persons with disabilities receive high-quality higher education. The development and adoption of this document marked the beginning of a new stage in the formation and development of inclusive higher education in the Russian Federation, which determined the goals, objectives and ways to achieve the main indicators of creating an accessible educational environment in Russian universities. Today in the Russian Federation a new Interdepartmental Comprehensive Action Plan has been developed and approved to increase the accessibility of secondary vocational and higher education for people with disabilities and limited health capabilities, including career guidance and employment of these persons. It was approved by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova No. 14000p-P8 (hereinafter referred to as the Interdepartmental Comprehensive Plan, ICP, VO, SPO). The 2021 ICP was formed by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science together with the Russian Ministry of Education, the Russian Ministry of Labor, other federal executive bodies and public organizations. The activities of the Interdepartmental Comprehensive Plan bring together more than 25 performers. The development of this Plan, as a strategic planning document based on the principles of succession and continuity, taking into account the stages and results of the implementation of previously adopted documents and largely determines the main directions for the development of inclusive higher education.</p