iHETP: Inclusive Higher Education Training Program

2022-1-PT01-KA220-HED-000086344

Erasmus+

2022 - 2024

Project Bio

In Portugal 2020, the number of students with disabilities enrolled in higher education grew by 16.8% compared to the previous year, yet the number of students graduating did not reflect the same increase.

In Romania, 0.13% of 533,749 students enrolled in higher education education in 2019, which equates to about 694 students.

In Italy in 2017, there were 14405 students with disabilities enrolled on higher education (around 0.8% of total students). 49.8% of students with disabilities opted for vocational studies which when compared to 20.1% of total students suggest that Italian students with disabilities opt for a path focused on faster insertion on the job market.

In Turkey the number of students with disabilities enrolled in higher education rose from 47,751 in 2013 to 61,679 in 2021. However, the graduation rate is reported to be 22.3% whereas the rate of abandonment is 36.6%.

The employment rate of disabled people in EU in 2018 was 50.2%. 20.3% of EU students with disabilities aged 18-24 were classified as early school leavers in 2018. In the EU in 2018, 43% of people with disabilities aged 30-39 attended tertiary education.

These figures indicate a trend for people with disabilities in EU to search for tertiary or higher education. Yet, in 2021 one the researchers in this project, David Sotto-Mayor Machado, then a student with disabilities himself, observed in his MSc Thesis that when asked about the topic, most Portuguese higher education professors felt unprepared to instruct students with disabilities.
Most of them revealed never having had any pedagogic training or education. Professors felt less prepared to instruct students with sensory or mental disabilities and learning impairments.

In the same study students with disabilities were asked about their experience as a higher education student or their expectations of enrolling in a higher education program. The results indicated that despite the goodwill they received from professors, they didn't perceive them as being prepared to teach students with disabilities or to adapt their pedagogic materials.

Some students with disabilities express their support for teachers speaking and writing in foreign languages (English) to accommodate foreign students, but would appreciate the same opportunities if their professors could equally accommodate them.

Being a student with disabilities and having become a professor himself, David Sotto-Mayor Machado would also have appreciated being taught how to tutor students with different disabilities than his own.

This project aims not just to provide adequate training to professors, but also to help many other students, like David Sotto-Mayor Machado who almost gave up on his goal of completing his higher education program, benefit from inclusive higher education.

Project Objectives

The iHETP project aims to foster inclusive environments in higher education. In order to achieve this goal, the project aims to raise awareness about practices which can be employed by higher education teachers. Concretely, the project will work on the creation of high quality resources for teachers which will help improve their pedagogic skills and techniques, and ensure they feel well prepared to instruct students with disabilities.

The first step of achieving this goal will be to identify the areas in which higher education teachers feel they lack sufficient training. After the specific skills and techniques have been identified, the project will work on developing an e-learning platform for teachers as well as a full training program that will tend to the pedagogic needs of teachers. The training program will be subject to trial runs in each of the participating countries in order to test to efficacy and any necessary revisions will then be made before being made available to the public.

Partnerships

The iHETP project is comprised of 7 different organisations from across Europe. The type of organisation includes higher education institutions, NGOs, educational centres and SMEs, and each project partner therefore brings their own set of skills and experiences to contribute to the project. The partner organisations are the following:

Atlantica, Portugal
Archivio della Memoria (AdM), Italy
A.S.I.E, Romania
CESUR, Spain
Danmar Computers, Poland
Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Turkey
ProEduca, Czech Republic

Project Outputs

The iHETP project outputs are the following:

Investigation into pedagogic needs of higher education teachers and data analysis of results in order to identify the key areas in which educators feel they lack sufficient training. The results will be shared within the academic community as a scientific article and published at education science conferences in Europe.
Production of an online e-learning platform which will be ready to host the training program modules developed by the project.
A full training program curriculum with all modules and content translated into each participating country’s native language. The modules will cover best practices for working with students with a variety of disabilities, such as reduced mobility, visual impairment, hearing impairment, speech impairment and invisible disabilities. The program will be reviewed by a sample group of higher education professors and then any necessary revisions will be made before the final version is made publicly available.
A scientific paper based on the feedback of the original participants based on the e-learning platform released as an open source publication.