Diversity is an integral part of all aspects of our program, in the form of intellectual, disciplinary, and individual diversity. All partner universities are running specific programs to actively innovate and improve our services, processes, practices and knowledge to realize equal opportunities in all areas of employment, research and study. Social diversity of and equal opportunities for all of its employees and students are inevitable preconditions in order to establish a modern, future-oriented, dynamic program, where excellent scientific research and education takes place.

The three partner universities launched numerous measures which promote equal opportunities for men and women, both disabled or not, at all academic and administrative levels and which assist students and academics in combining family and career:

WWU:

The University as a whole is deeply committed to promoting equal opportunities for female scientists. The WWU Münster has successfully undergone an external audit and acquired the certificate “audit family-friendly university”. The specific gender equality measures at the University are, e.g., an internal gender mainstreaming program (200,000 Euro p. a.), career development support, childcare facilities, a Service Office for Parents, postdoctoral fellowships for female applicants (in progress), and dual career arrangements. The Office for Gender Equality is the central contact point for all issues regarding gender policy and advancement of women in education and research.

WWU also offers special assistance in line with its family friendly policies by its Office for Family Services as the central contact point for all questions regarding education, research and family. On the level of the institute, we will address candidates with families by providing the same services to the family members as for the candidates, e.g., support to obtain the visa, finding housing; free access to the same language courses as the candidates.

Since long, the WWU has a specific awareness for persons with special needs, e.g., in staff recruitment, and accessibility for wheelchairs to all university buildings. There are contact points on several levels: Rectorate, students’ representation, Central Office for Students Affairs (ZSB), faculties, see http://www.uni-muenster.de/leben/behinderte.html.

UJI:

The University has an Equality Unit, http://www.uji.es/serveis/ui to assure equality on all levels, and has initiated a Plan of Equality to work towards achieving this goal. Another example of the gender equality measures at the University is the Isonomia Foundation whose main objectives are based on providing equal opportunities for men and women. The Foundation is involved in coordinating national projects such as those related with gender violence and social equality for men and women and organizes courses and training sessions to provide information and awareness on these topics. One of its main goals is to incorporate a gender perspective to support both research and development of innovative ideas and the articulation of new paradigms. http://isonomia.uji.es/isonomiavingles/.

UJI assists candidates with families regarding the use of the University facilities for children such as the kindergarden at UJI (http://escolainfantil.uji.es ).

The UJI’s role in attending to students with special needs includes its volunteer program to integrate disabled people; this involves help with their studies, assistance in transportation, and access to sports and cultural activities. The Program for Attention to Diversity (PAD) http://www.uji.es/ES/serveis/use/enee/pad.html maintains the Project INCLOU whose objective is to develop awareness and collaboration with entities that help students with special educational needs.

UNL:

UNL has a balanced number of female (44%) and male (56%) students. In recent years, UNL had two physically handicapped students that concluded successfully their undergraduate studies. UNL has well-equipped environment for students with special needs. The university has been constantly improving the accessibility of its premises by installation of new restrooms designed for physically handicapped, barrier-free accesses, etc. Also the IC/IT technology (wi-fi connection on the campus and e-learning support) is there to improve the integration of disabled students and their access to information resources and study materials.