Background's Main Facts

• One of the main obstacles in Europe to implement an inclusive education is the irregularity in the transition between educational stages, in particular to higher education.

• There is a disparity between the different Member States of the European Union regarding the implementation of universal strategies that facilitate the access of persons with disabilities to higher education. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) describes the European scenario as worrying emphasizing that "in various MS, many children and adults with disabilities do not have access to an inclusive and quality education".

• The diagnosis of the situation of persons with disabilities in Europe indicates that the proportion of persons with disabilities who reach a tertiary level in the European Union (EU-28) is lower than that of persons without disabilities (15.5% compared to 25.0%).

• One of the eight priority areas of action in the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 is Education and Training. Its aim is to promote inclusive education for students with disabilities, and to increase the number of students with disabilities who successfully enter and finish their studies.

• Students with disabilities continue to be a group minimally represented in mobility programs. These programs are essential to compete professionally in the face of current job demands in the countries of the European Union.

Objectives of the EUni4All-Network Project

• • Encourage the inclusion of persons with disabilities in higher education through diagnosis and analysis of inclusive universities to be a reference for other universities.

  • Create a network of inclusive universities to reduce the barriers for persons with disabilities to higher education, as well as to equate the strategies of universal accessibility for all.

  • Promote the inclusion in the university community supporting both faculty and administrative staff in order to stimulate diversity.

  • Promote the international mobility among the students with disabilities and raise awareness within the university community regarding accessibility and social inclusion of young persons with disabilities.

EUni4All-Network in figures

• Start date: November 1, 2019

• Ending Date: December 31, 2022

• Ersamus+ Grant: 290.530,00

According to article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), States Parties must ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, the Convention sets forth the obligations of the States Parties to ensure that, among other things, the persons with disabilities receive the support required and reasonable accommodation is provided.

All European countries, as well as the European Union itself as a supranational organization, have ratified the Convention and its optional protocol. Since then, States Parties have been developing public policies to ensure the social inclusion of persons with disabilities, in particular in the areas of education and employment. However, there is a disparity between the different Member States of the European Union regarding the implementation of educational strategies and universal access that facilitate and promote the access and the participation of persons with disabilities in higher education. Some countries have been pioneers in achieving progress in this area, removing barriers for learning, and promoting the participation of all persons in educational and vocational activities. Others, however, have failed to provide the support, the reasonable accommodations, and the curriculum adaptations required to ensure equal educational opportunities and remove the gaps of inequality associated to disabilities. Consequently, the inclusion indicators for university students with disabilities in the European Union continue to show inequality and discrimination, as the percentage of young persons with disabilities that have access to higher education is still low.

Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Union’s agenda for growth and employment, demanded efforts to reduce the drop-out rate in the educational system to 10%. In the same line, the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals 10, 8, 4, and 11, protect the rights of persons with disabilities (over one billion people worldwide) to promote sustainable development. Goal 4 establishes the need to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education to promote learning opportunities for all, and Goal 8 urges countries to promote inclusive and sustainable growth and full and productive employment for all. Furthermore, in some of its recommendations, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has described the European scenario as worrying, emphasizing that in various Member States, many young persons with disabilities do not have access to an inclusive and quality education. Consequently, students with disabilities are still marginally represented in mobility programmes, which are critical for quality education and for competing and meeting the professional requirements of today’s employment scenario.

A study conducted within the project co-funded by Erasmus+KA3, EPFIME, responded by 1134 students from 30 European countries, highlights the mobility challenges faced by university students with disabilities, and conversely, the advantages of such experiences, through the comments of the students: “As a result of the lack of information on disability, I decided not to study abroad. I was afraid I would not have the appropriate services.” “In the city where I lived during the exchange programme, I found a new perspective concerning blindness …I acquired better social and mobility skills."

Another study promoted by ONCE Foundation on the international mobility of university students with disabilities in Spain showed the positive impact of participating in a mobility programme for university students with disabilities. These experiences help them improve their autonomy, their skills and professional expectations, and their employment opportunities.

For all these reasons, with the aim of promoting inclusion in universities and facilitating the international mobility of university students with disabilities in Europe, Erasmus+ European Network of Inclusive Universities (EUni4All-Network), a project coordinated by ONCE Foundation, is being conducted since November 2019. Other entities participating in this initiative are the Eastern University of Finland, the University of Trieste (Italy) the Lublin University of Technology (Poland), the University of Porto (Portugal), the European Disability Forum (EDF) and the Spanish universities of Murcia, Autonomous University of Madrid, and University of Seville.

The objective of this project is to encourage the inclusion of persons with disabilities in higher education; promote their inclusion in the university community supporting both faculty and administrative staff in order to stimulate diversity; promote the international mobility among students with disabilities and raise awareness within the university community regarding accessibility and social inclusion of young persons with disabilities.

The ultimate goal of the project is to build a European network of universities working for inclusion to serve as a reference for students with disabilities.

The expected outcomes of the EUni4All-Network are: 1) Creation of the Guide for Standards of Inclusion for Students with Disabilities. 2) Creation of a European Network of Universities working for inclusion. 3) Creation of workshops and teaching materials to promote teacher education for faculty. 4) Creation of a web platform identifying the European universities contained in the network to facilitate useful information for university students with disabilities interested in participating in a mobility programme. These universities will be able to share their good practices and access the good practices of other countries and institutions.