Superdiversity & Higher Education

One of the fundamental driving forces of  UNIC is to develop best practices addressing superdiversity in our universities and post-industrial cities. Prof. Ahmet Icduygu of Koc University, director of the Migration Research Center at Koc University, comments on  the recently published ‘Superdiversity in Higher Education Settings: A State-of-the-Art Report’ co-authored by UNIC Koc team members, Birce Altiok, Birce Demiryontar and Souad Osseiran, highlighting why this topic is so important to not only the UNIC universities, but also for higher education institutions throughout Europe.

What is superdiversity?

The SOA uses “the definition coined by Steve Vertovec, Superdiversity is a multi-dimensional approach that extends beyond a focus on ethnicity or immigrant status, where several identity variables like country of origin, migration channel and immigration status, human capital, religious affiliation and practice, gender, age, language and space/place multiply, combine and differentially converge .”

Why is superdiversity interesting for Higher Education?

“At the UNIC universities, superdiverse student communities are already present and included in teaching, research and administrative. However, we recognize a gap between higher education institutions’ strategies and policies and the needs of their superdiverse student populations. We argue that higher education institutions have the power to redevelop their policies and respond to the changes and growing complexities of their superdiverse student populations and that a superdiversity lens presents a productive framing from which to develop such a responsive approach.”

The state-of-the-art report is the initial research output of the UNIC Superdiversity Academy, which aims to combine teaching and research expertise, for developing and applying an innovative model of superdiversity in teaching and learning. The goal of the report is to contribute to practical and policy making aspects of social, economic and cultural inclusion in superdiverse post-industrial university and city lives. It is a first step towards developing a model of practice for transforming higher education institutions and cities in superdiverse settings. It will serve as a handbook for upcoming UNIC activities on superdiversity.