LITE Masterclass- Towards the inclusive university: aspirations, tensions and challenges

Our latest LITE Masterclass will be delivered by Jan McArthur, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University. Jan is currently editor of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education and has published work on authentic assessment and The inclusive University. You can sign up for this masterclass here.

This Masterclass is focused on the inclusive university, and specifically on challenging us to adopt a more holistic understanding of inclusion that promotes genuine cultural change at all levels of the university, and affecting all members of the university community.  Inclusion risks being another higher education “buzzword”: carefully inserted into strategies, mission statements and university initiatives, without necessarily first finding time and space to really explore the meanings and implications of an inclusive approach.  For example, how do we deal with the apparent tensions sometimes felt between one form of inclusion and another?  Can we become so focused on processes and systems that we lose sight of the original aims?

This Masterclass will encourage participants to think differently about what inclusion means within the student education context and on this basis think through your aspirations for the University of Leeds.  We will then move on to consider how to nurture the change necessary to move closer to realising those aspirations?  Surely inclusion requires a safe space for staff and students?  A place where mistakes can be made and learnt from, and where open conversations are held to reflect upon what practices should continue and what should be changed?  In offering inclusion as a holistic concept, we will find no easy answers or “how to” guide.  But we will create a foundation on which to reflect on current and future initiatives, in the name of a genuinely inclusive university and pedagogical experience.