By William Beacom. No one spoke English at my SAT center. The proctor struggled to read the script and probably didn’t know what “proctor” meant. My peers couldn’t understand my English when I tried to make small talk before the test. After the College Board decided to shut down all test centers in mainland China, I tested among hundreds of mainland Chinese attending an “SAT tour” in Hong Kong. The competition was fierce. After finishing the math section in under six minutes, a girl closed her test book, turned to me and watched me with the most malicious smile while I struggled to finish in time. When we got to the English sections, I made sure to drum my fingers on the table impatiently, as she anxiously watched her Hello Kitty alarm clock count down. Yes, it was a very stereotype-affirming experience for the both of us. More...

Pour vous permettre de transformer vos obligations en opportunité, AGEFOS PME vous propose des diagnostics diversités.
Vous pouvez bénéficier de ces diagnostics sur un ou plusieurs thèmes.
Ces diagnostics bénéficient du financement du FPSPP (Fonds Paritaire de Sécurisation des Parcours Professionnels).
Diagnostics proposés
Diagnostics seniors
Depuis le 1er janvier 2010, toute entreprise ou groupe de 50 salariés et plus est soumise à une pénalité égale à 1% de la masse salariale au titre de chaque mois au cours duquel elle ne sera pas couverte par un accord de branche étendu, un accord de groupe, un accord d'entreprise ou un plan d'action pour l'emploi des seniors. (Art L.138-24 et L 138-26 du Code de la Sécurité Sociale).
Diagnostics égalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes
A compter du 1er janvier 2012, toute entreprise ou groupe de 50 salariés et plus se verra infliger une pénalité égale à 1% de la masse salariale durant la période non couverte par un accord de branche étendu, un accord de groupe, un accord d'entreprise ou un plan d'action pour l'égalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes (Décret 2011-822 du 7 juillet 2011).
Le diagnostic Egalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes vous permet de répondre à votre obligation. Nos prestataires vous accompagneront dans l'élaboration de votre Rapport de Situation Comparée et dans la mise en oeuvre d'un Plan d'Action adapté à votre entreprise.
Diagnostics travailleurs handicapés (en lien avec l'AGEFIPH)
Les entreprises occupant 20 salariés et plus doivent compter, parmi leur effectif, 6% de travailleurs handicapés sous peine de verser une contribution annuelle à l'AGEFIPH.
Les organismes suivants ont été sélectionnés pour vous aider à faire le diagnostic de votre entreprise et définir un plan d'action.
Téléchargez la plaquette Diversité.

La diversité en entreprise: transformez vos obligations en opportunités
Au-delà de ses obligations et d'un engagement sociétal et moral, la diversité est, pour l'entreprise, un avantage commercial.
Recruter des profils et des talents divers, c'est:
- améliorer l'image de marque de l'entreprise,
- permettre à l'entreprise d'être le reflet de la société et donc plus proche de ses clients, de ses attentes et besoins,
- favoriser le travail en équipe en mêlant les atouts de chacun,
- contribuer à la motivation des salariés grâce au respect de l'équité et de l'égalité,
- faciliter la créativité et l'innovation,
- s'ouvrir aux marchés internationaux.
AGEFOS PME s’engage pour la diversité et la mixité en entreprise
Un engagement fort d’AGEFOS PME dans le cadre de la Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises (RSE): les actions en faveur de l'intérêt général sont au service de l'intérêt économique des entreprises.
Des régions impliquées sur ces sujets sur tout le territoire pour:
- Informer et sensibiliser,
- Accompagner les entreprises,
- Faciliter la mise en oeuvre des projets et des actions menées,
- Mettre en place des formations adaptées aux besoins,
- Evaluer et capitaliser les actions menées.
Les obligations des entreprises
    Principe de non discrimination: l'employeur ne doit, à aucun moment, prendre des décisions fondées sur des critères illégitimes, c'est-à-dire sur d'autres critères que les compétences professionnelles. La Loi du 27 mai 2008 a transposé en droit français quatre directives communautaires prohibant les discriminations dans l'entreprise. Les titulaires d'un contrat de travail et les candidats à un emploi, à un stage ou à une période de formation sont protégés de toute discrimination directe ou indirecte. Toute disposition ou tout acte pris à l'égard d'un salarié en méconnaissance de ces dispositions est réputé nul.
    Egalité professionnelle: la Loi prévoit que les entreprises d'au moins cinquante salariés sont soumises à une pénalité de 1% de la masse salariale lorsqu'elles ne sont pas couvertes par un accord de branche étendu, un accord de groupe ou d'entreprise ou, à défaut par un plan d'action relatif à l'égalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes. (Art 99 de la loi n°2010-1330 du 9 novembre 2010 portant réforme des retraites. Décret 2011-822 du 7 juillet 2011)
    Emploi des seniors: les entreprises d'au moins cinquante salariés sont soumises à une pénalité de 1% de la masse salariale lorsqu'elles ne sont pas couvertes par un accord de branche étendu, un accord de groupe ou d'entreprise ou, à défaut par un plan d'action pour l'emploi des seniors. (Art. L. 138-24 du code de Sécurité Sociale - Art. L. 138-26 du code de Sécurité Sociale – Art 87 de la loi n°2008-1330 du 17 décembre 2008 de financement de la sécurité sociale pour 2009)
    Handicap: les entreprises d'au moins vingt salariés doivent compter, parmi leur effectif, 6% de travailleurs handicapés ou appliquer un accord de branche, de groupe prévoyant la mise en œuvre d'un programme en faveur des travailleurs handicapés ou verser une contribution annuelle à l'AGEFIPH. (Loi du 11 février 2005)

Monday is the deadline for briefs backing the University of Texas at Austin in its Supreme Court defense of the consideration of race in admissions. On Thursday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill filed a brief, and included a new research study arguing for the educational value of diversity. The researchers, who looked at law school students, found that racial differences "contribute to learning because differences foster richer interactions and positive educational outcomes that benefit students, institutions and society," according to a summary by the university. "In addition, when a law school’s racial diversity was significant and group interaction was high, graduating law students perceived their law school as more open and respectful of diverse ideas."
Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a group that opposes the consideration of race in admissions, questioned the study. In an e-mail message, he said: "The issues chosen to show how racial diversity correlates with perspective diversity are deliberately narrow (Anything about property? How about tax? ....), and of course law itself is a discipline in which such correlation is more likely than most others (Is there a Latina perspective in chemistry? Mathematics? Economics? Engineering? Russian? Etc.) Even if there are some educational benefits to having racial diversity in a class on "Race and the Law," that would not justify racial preferences in undergraduate admissions to the University of Texas."

INQAAHE 2013 Conference. From Monday 8th until Thursday 11th April 2013 INQAAHE will organise its Biennial Conference in Chinese Taipei. The conference host is the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). The conference theme is Managing Diversity: Sustainable quality assurance processes.
There are four related subthemes:
1. The QA of cross-border education: from quality providers to quality assured provision
2. Innovative approaches to external QA in tertiary education: not a single approach towards excellence
3. Impact of QA and the effects of external and internal QA: regional perspectives to a shared issue
4. National qualifications frameworks and their links to QA (including involvement of stakeholders)
The Conference organisation accepts papers or posters on the four sub-themes of the Conference. Please consult the call for papers and posters below for the exact requirements.
We are looking forward to receiving your contribution at Secretariat[at]inqaahe.org by 15 November 2012.
More information about the programme and registration for the conference will follow soon. Call for papers and posters (PDF / 91.7 KB).
Call for Papers and Posters for the INQAAHE Conference - Chinese Taipei, 8 – 11 April, 2013
The Conference accepts papers or posters on the sub-themes of the Conference. The Conference Program Committee welcomes any contributions on the sub-themes. Examples of topics for contributions are listed under each sub-theme. Paper and poster proposals will be assessed by members of the Conference Program Committee for compliance with the criteria for acceptance.
Conference Themes and Sub-Themes
Theme: Managing Diversity: Sustainable quality assurance processes
Sub-Themes
1. The QA of cross-border education: from quality providers to quality assured provision
The QA of Cross-Border Education has turned into an essential topic in the agenda of the major HE systems all over the world. Agencies –and regional networks– have led the debate following the initiative of UNESCO-OECD on the Guidelines for Quality Provision
in Cross-border Higher Education, issued in 2005. Cross border provision takes many faces, and each of them poses different challenges for quality assurance agencies.
Papers presented under this subtheme should address the ways agencies deal with the need to assess the provision of CBHE in various settings. A special attention on good practices on the definition of published general frameworks or criteria to facilitate the QA of CBHE is welcome.
Issues to be covered could include the following:
• Sharing responsibility for QA: role of the QA agency from the home country, and that of the agency in the receiving country.
• Main issues to be addressed in evaluating CBHE offerings: focus on the programme contents, delivery methods and resources, the quality of the academic staff.
• Consistency of the diploma awarded with similar diplomas granted in the home country; relationship of the diploma awarded with the receiving country’s national regulations or quality criteria for similar programs (including the national qualifications framework when available).
• On-line provision and the challenge for QA mechanisms
• Information on quality assured provision: What can the QAAs regional networks do?
• Cultural-academic challenges in the provision of TNE
2. Innovative approaches to external QA in tertiary education: not a single approach towards excellence
Innovation is within the genome of tertiary education. QA processes must also be geared towards favouring innovation, and avoiding the bureaucratic burden of the procedures. But innovation is an overused word, needing a clear context to be entirely understood. In QA nowadays innovation means a plea for ways to rethink the current approaches, in order to develop QA processes that are sustainable in terms of financial and human resources; that effectively provide sound information on the quality of HE offerings; that allow higher education institutions enough flexibility to reach excellence; that take into account institutional and programme diversity.
The conference provides a forum for sharing and discussing innovative approaches and good practices for external QA in various settings and academic traditions; papers dealing with those or some of the following topics will be welcome:
• Analysis of QA approaches from the point of view of their potential to enhance innovation in tertiary education – ideally with some evaluation results.
• Innovation within the external QA agencies: How are agencies dealing with the changes in higher education? Have these changes impacted in their organization, their procedures or the standards they apply?
• Lessons learned from external review of agencies or from studies measuring the impact of QA processes, which have led to revised external QA processes.
• International benchmarking and innovative processes: the benefits of the regional networks.
• Good practices and mechanisms for their dissemination
3. Impact of QA and the effects of external and internal QA: regional perspectives to a shared issue
For many years, external assessment of QA focused on the activities of the agencies. Nowadays, it has become essential to learn about the effect of the introduction of QA practices on the actual operation of higher education institutions. On the other hand, budgetary constraints and economic difficulties in some regions push decision makers to require QA agencies a reflection on the impact of their processes.
Several countries, in different regions of the world, are carrying out such studies, asking stakeholders about their perceptions of the changes that QA has promoted in the higher education institutions they are associated with. This subtheme presents an opportunity to share efforts and experiences on the analysis of external QA processes and to discuss the lessons that can be learned from them.
Issues to be covered could include the following:
• How can impact be defined and measured, taking into consideration the difficulty to isolate the effects of QA on the operation of HEIs?
• Reporting on information showing anticipated and unanticipated effects of the introduction of quality assurance processes on different dimensions of HEIs.
• Changes or adaptations in the QA processes as a result of information on the impact of external QA processes.
• Is there a ‘regional agenda’ related to the impact of QA according to different regional settings?
• Links between QA processes and other policy instruments in place.
See also INQAAHE 2012 Forum, INQAAHE Conference 2011.

The EAN 20th Anniversary Conference, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, “Student Diversity in Higher Education: Conflicting Realities”, (Tensions affecting policy and action to widen access and participation), Mon 20th - Wed 22nd June 2011
The European Access Network (EAN) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with a conference on student diversity in higher education and the tensions affecting policy and action to widen access and participation for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. In the current political and economic climate, what’s the future for them, and for the institutions committed to access, equity, diversity and inclusion?
For higher education institutions the pathway toward greater student diversity can be hazardous and difficult.  Those seeking and driving change in institutional policies and practices face pressures from both within and outside the institution that can hinder or stifle progress. Even in the best of times, fulfilling expectations can be difficult. Where achieving greater student diversity is seen as difficult and costly, or of lesser importance than other institutional goals, progress will falter.  Both within and outside institutions, there remains an unresolved tension between issues of diversity and quality, and there are also funding tensions, especially when finances are tight.
What can be done to ease such tensions and ensure that progress continues toward the achievement of diversity goals?

Bridging cultures, promoting diversity: higher education in search of an equilibrium, EAIR 33rd Annual Forum 2011, Warsaw, Poland, 28-31 August 2011.
The 2011 EAIR Forum will discuss new trends and challenges faced by higher education in a changing, dynamic, multi-cultural environment undergoing simultaneous processes of globalisation, internationalisation and diversification. This "equilibrium" theme together with suitably designed tracks promises high-level academic discussion by HE prominent specialists and with internationally renowned keynote speakers.
Poland, where more than fifty percent of young people are studying and where the HE system has been undergoing continuous reforms for the last twenty years, is an appropriate place for such a discussion. It's not by chance that the Forum theme was chosen: Bridging cultures, promoting diversity: higher education in search of an equilibrium.
We might doubt whether we will ever find this equilibrium; but we are sure that with the help of many Forum participants from all over the world we will build many bridges, learn about many cultures, improve our respect for diversity and return home with the feeling: "another EAIR Forum where we met interesting people in the domains of research, policy and practice - it has been value for money".

The EAN 20th Anniversary Conference, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, “Student Diversity in Higher Education: Conflicting Realities” (Tensions affecting policy and action to widen access and participation), Mon 20th - Wed 22nd June 2011
The European Access Network (EAN) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with a conference on student diversity in higher education and the tensions affecting policy and action to widen access and participation for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. In the current political and economic climate, what’s the future for them, and for the institutions committed to access, equity, diversity and inclusion?
Conference Theme & Objectives
For higher education institutions the pathway toward greater student diversity can be hazardous and difficult.  Those seeking and driving change in institutional policies and practices face pressures from both within and outside the institution that can hinder or stifle progress. Even in the best of times, fulfilling expectations can be difficult. Where achieving greater student diversity is seen as difficult and costly, or of lesser importance than other institutional goals, progress will falter.  Both within and outside institutions, there remains an unresolved tension between issues of diversity and quality, and there are also funding tensions, especially when finances are tight.
What can be done to ease such tensions and ensure that progress continues toward the achievement of diversity goals?
For higher education institutions the pathway toward greater student diversity can be hazardous and difficult. Those seeking and driving change in institutional policies and practices face pressures from both within and outside the institution that can hinder or stifle progress. Within institutions for instances, progress can be slowed by resistance to change among students and staff, by a need to reconcile competing needs and views and to align diversity efforts with other institutional goals and policies. Competition for funds among the institution’s varying priorities may sap energy as well as restrict budgets.
From outside the institution many of the pressures that can impede progress arise from the views and expectations of governments and communities about the roles and functions of higher education institutions – especially when institutions rely substantially on public funding. In the context of the global financial crisis institutions face even greater scrutiny to operate efficiently and deliver even more ‘value-for-money’...
Even in the best of times, fulfilling all of these expectations can be difficult. Where achieving greater student diversity is seen as difficult and costly, or of lesser importance than other institutional goals, progress will falter. Both within and outside institutions there remains an unresolved tension between issues of diversity and quality. Some argue that diversity dilutes academic quality and threatens the reputation of the institution, while others believe such fears are unfounded and point to the evidence that diversity enhances social and economic wellbeing. There are also funding tensions – with some arguing that attention to diversity is costly and consumes resources that would better be devoted to improving facilities, services and research – especially when finances are tight.

Le séminaire organisé par la CPU sur la diversité à l’université le 16 septembre 2010 a réuni 120 personnes, dont un grand nombre de présidents et représentants d’université.
Cet événement a été l’occasion de mettre à jour des pratiques innovantes en matière de dispositifs d’accueil à l’entrée de l’université, d’accompagnement pédagogique ou d’aide à l’insertion professionnelle, vers tous les publics qu’accueillent les universités, qu’ils soient en difficulté ou en réussite.
Le nombre de présents et la qualité des débats qui ont eu lieu démontrent la nécessité pour les universités de poursuivre la réflexion autour de cette thématique. Le colloque de la CPU du 17 et 18 mars sur le thème de la licence sera notamment l’occasion d’approfondir le sujet.
A l’issue du séminaire, la convention relative à la charte sur l’égalité des chances dans l’accès aux formations d’excellence a été signée par Valérie Pécresse, ministre de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche, Yazid Sabeg, commissaire à la diversité et à l’égalité des chances et Lionel Collet, président de la CPU. Cette convention rappelle les spécificités des universités dans la diversité de leurs formations et de leurs publics et propose de poursuivre les échanges avec le ministère de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche sur les actions des établissements à pérenniser et à généraliser en rapport avec cet objectif.
A l’occasion de ce séminaire, une trentaine de fiches expériences ont été distribuées afin d’illustrer l’engagement des différentes universités. Pour en savoir plus, consultez l'entretien de Christian Morzewski président de l’Université d’Artois et membre du groupe de travail de la CPU «diversité et excellence».