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Supporting Superdiversity
Superdiversity means a high degree of diversity in a population. In UNIC, and in our post-industrial cities, the term captures the growing complexity of diversity, including complex mixtures (and intersectionalities) of ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, culture, religion, social status, economic status, legal status, lifestyle and more. It reflects how our cities are home to a rich mix of people of different backgrounds and identities.
The UNIC Superdiversity Academy works to ensure UNIC universities are well-equipped to best support superdiversity.
The UNIC Superdiversity Academy at UCC is led by the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), in conjunction with Access UCC and the university’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Unit. It has been spearheaded by a working group within ISS21 with representation from the School of Applied Social Studies, School of Education and Department of Geography. Read more about the Superdiversity Academy on the ISS21 site: UCC UNIC Superdiversity Academy | University College Cork.
The Superdiversity Academy encompasses a number of key activities, as detailed in the following sections (click on tabs below for further information).
Superdiversity School and Seminars
A three-day Superdiversity Summer School was hosted in UCC in May 2022. The online event facilitated discussion and exchange of ideas and practices on superdiversity as a concept.
Each day focused on one of three core themes: teaching and learning, and issues of pedagogy; initiatives promoting access to, and engaging with, diverse groups in higher education spaces; and EDI policies and processes.
These themes show the relevance of superdiversity in the university space – in our teaching, in students’ access to education, and in the university’s equality, diversity and inclusion polices.
Prior to the Superdiversity Summer School, the Superdiversity Academy hosted a seminar series in February-April 2022 for discussions on the concept of superdiversity.
The seminar series brought together staff, students and external organisations such as the Cork Migrant Centre to discuss how we make our higher education spaces more accessible and inclusive to superdiverse communities.
Engagement With Schools
The UCC Superdiversity Academy team worked with school students who might be considering university life. They shared insights into UNIC and mobility opportunities, and explored with students the goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in universities.
The Superdiversity Academy also linked with secondary schools through the annual Easter Schools’ Visit to the university campus. Organised by Access UCC’s PLUS Programme, this initiative invites secondary school students to attend a range of talks, discussions and tours on different aspects of university life to see what campus life is like.
As part of both the 2022 and 2023 programme, the UCC Superdiversity Academy gave a number of talks on UNIC to students, highlighting its potential benefits for those considering university life.
Facilitating Peer Support
The Superdiversity Academy across UNIC worked to develop peer support structures in the university between students with experience of UNIC and incoming students through a ‘buddy couple’ initiative.
In UCC, the very successful Peer Support system already provides this to incoming students, so the UCC team worked with UCC student ‘Peer Support Leaders’, running an online training seminar on UNIC.
This seminar provided an introduction to UNIC and the concept of superdiversity, gave an overview of some of the lesser-known diversity and inclusion initiatives underway at the university, and hosted a UNIC student panel discussion featuring a number of student speakers involved in UNIC and university diversity initiatives.
Peer Review of UNIC Universities
The Superdiversity Academy undertook peer review of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies and initiative across UNIC universities.
UCC was reviewed by the University of Liège and UCC in turn reviewed the University of Deusto. This process provided a unique opportunity to share knowledge between partner institutions about each other’s practices, which offers important learning about different approaches across institutions and areas for improvement.
Capturing Learning and Best Practice
Key insights and learnings of the Superdiversity Academy are captured in a ‘State-of-the-Art Report’. The report brings together teaching and research expertise to develop and apply an innovative model of superdiversity in teaching and learning.
In addition to this report, each institution was asked to compile a collection of case studies for the Superdiversity Academy. These case studies are now available to view on the UNIC online case repository (where case studies can be filtered by institution).
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