Inclusion in higher education: university practices of implementing inclusion

Abstract

The article highlights the problems of studying university practices
of inclusion in higher education in EU countries. The results of
scientific research were analyzed, which prove that insufficient
attention is paid to the development of the problem of creating a
barrier-free educational environment, design and stabilization of
its value bases and semantic content. The trajectory of successful
integration of persons with special educational needs into the
educational process of higher education institutions is revealed. It
was determined that the most productive strategy for managing a
higher educational institution as a heterogeneous organization is a
strategy based on a broad philosophical and pedagogical vision of
inclusive education. Approaches to the organization of inclusive
education are analyzed, two of which are classified as
compensatory and only one as truly inclusive and the main
elements of the inclusive excellence of the university, from which
the focus on the intellectual and social development of students is
highlighted; offering the best possible courses of study for the
educational context; purposeful development of improving the
quality of student education and the use of organizational
resources for this; attention to cultural differences; a welcoming
community. The obtained results served as a basis for the further
development of models of inclusive university excellence, which is
defined as a set of strategies and practices aimed at supporting
diversity. As a result of the analysis of models of inclusive
excellence of universities, a new understanding of inclusion in
higher education was defined, which is implemented as a binary of
approaches.