One of the fundamental responsibilities of higher education is to provide open and equal opportunities for students to learn, succeed, and positively contribute to their local, national, and global societies. Great strides are being made in increasing educational access, retention completion, and success, yet there is still work to be done particularly for students from disadvantaged or marginalized groups. Unprecedented shifts in migration patterns are causing demographic changes around the world. Additionally, governments, societies, and higher education institutions are increasingly recognizing the need and responsibility to create legal and institutional frameworks for providing more and better opportunities for people from historically marginalized groups to gain access and achieve success at the university level.
From South Africa’s “Historically Disadvantaged Institutions,” to Brazil’s “Law of Social Quotas,” and a long tradition of “Minority Serving Institutions” in the United States, just to name a few, higher education institutions committed to providing educational opportunities for local communities marginalized along ethnic, racial, religious or other lines can be found on every continent. What’s more, in light of shifting demographics and the growing focus on educational opportunity and access, increasing numbers of colleges and universities will be serving students from marginalized groups. For too long, institutions serving students at the margins have operated in a vacuum, failing to collaborate across institutional types and across nations. This Salzburg session will bring together leaders from institutions serving marginalized populations with policy makers and researchers to develop a platform for finding solutions to these institutions’ common challenges and capitalizing on their strengths.
This program is being designed and implemented in partnership with the recently launched Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and with Educational Testing Service. From 2010 to 2012, Salzburg Global and Educational Testing Service collaborated on a series of sessions on “Optimizing Talent: Closing Educational and Social Mobility Gaps Worldwide.”
Please click here for the Program Brochure
Please click here for an extended session description