The Academic Outreach Programme is one of the strategic projects within the strategy 2024 positioned within the IDEA centre. It is an operational project with three lines: early outreach, student-centred support, and building new blocks.
Diversity in the city, but not the university
Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands and has a diverse population consisting of approximately 170 nationalities. However, the cultural diversity of the Rotterdam population is not reflected in the student population at the EUR, especially among Dutch (non-international) students. This is not due to talent or cognitive abilities of students, rather to systemic barriers and exclusion mechanisms that prevent certain student groups from reaching their full potential.
The Academic Outreach Programme aims to promote equal educational opportunities across the student life course. The target population of the programme includes students who are historically underrepresented in higher education, i.e., (future) students with a bi-cultural or multicultural background, first generation students, and students from a low-income household. The programme works through university outreach, i.e., through developing, implementing, and evaluating university-led outreach interventions together with a multitude of stakeholders inside and outside the university.
Promoting equal educational opportunities and making university education more accessible not only contributes to a fair society in which someone’s background does not determine their future, it also positively impacts the university itself as a diversity in perspectives is beneficial for learning outcomes of students and relevant research insights.
Going into the city
The programme was launched in September 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Diversity Officer Prof. dr. Semiha Denktaş has been a driving force for the programme, aligning with her approach in which data collection is combined with action focused on inclusion, participation, and agency for marginalised communities.
The Academic Outreach Programme is based upon the best available scientific evidence and international best practices on effective outreach programmes, translated to the local context. Outreach interventions are co-created with important stakeholders, implemented in schools and neighbourhoods in the city, and evaluated together with these stakeholders. In order to do so, a lot of time and effort is invested in identifying relevant stakeholders and building and maintaining good, equitable, relationships in the city.
Co-creation
There are many stakeholders involved in the programme, including children and youth, parents, primary and secondary schools, societal organisations, researchers, and policy makers. Co-creation with these stakeholders often takes the form of design sessions, feedback sessions, and formal evaluation sessions. For example, during a design session, children may give input on what they find interesting, what kind of intervention format they prefer, tips and tricks on what to do (and what not to do), etc.
The Academic Outreach Programme specifically selects schools and societal organisations for participation in the programme, based on their student population and community population, respectively. In doing so, the programme hopes to positively impact especially those students who are most affected by systemic barriers and exclusion mechanisms.
Getting to know the university
The team has specific ways of working to optimise cocreation and collaboration with stakeholders. The starting point is always: ‘How can we take away barriers that stakeholders might face that would stop them from participation and collaboration?’. For example, while some design sessions with children and youth took place on campus (transportation and supervision provided) to allow an introduction activity to the university environment, an online design session with parents, at a time that considered the limitations and preferences of the parents.
Another example would be the alignment of communication means to the customs and needs of stakeholders; where some organisations preferred a more formal way of communicating, e.g., through e-mail, other organisations preferred telephone contact or communication through instant messaging.
"The children and youth that we work with may be the first in their family to potentially go to university. Therefore, university can be an unfamiliar and daunting environment. Through our outreach activities, we reach out to schools, societal organizations, parents, and children and youth, and provide an accessible introduction to the university environment. What does a university campus look like? What kind of people study and work there? What do these people do at a university? How can I go to university?"
Being accessible
One of the goals of the Academic Outreach Programme is to make children and youth feel welcome and experience the university in an accessible way. Outreach interventions therefore often take place in a familiar environment (e.g., in schools or community centre) to build trust and safety, but also include a day in which the children and youth visit the university.
Representation of Rotterdam children and youth in the programme team and involved scientists and EUR students (delivering the outreach interventions) is very important. Coming from similar backgrounds and having shared experiences, the EUR students are role models with whom children and youth can identify themselves and by whom they can get inspired. The children are often eager to learn about life at university and life as a student, as they do not always have people in their network that have attended university education. This brings all sorts of questions, such as: 'What is your teacher like?', 'What does your school look like?', or 'Where do you put your bike?'.
Gelijke onderwijskansen
Working for the programme, EUR students found themselves positively impacted in their sense of belonging and sense of community at the university. The second aim of the Academic Outreach Programme, i.e., promoting equal educational opportunities within higher education (Student Centre Support action line), was operationalised through the students’ work in the Early Outreach action line.
As a result of their work with Rotterdam children and youth, the students began to experience more success as they felt at home at EUR and had a purpose outside of studying. They represented the EUR community and took pride in that. As a consequence, they were more positive about studying at EUR, which is likely to result in more recommendations of EUR to other (future) students.
"As a university, we are part of society. As such, we see it as our responsibility to work on societal challenges, such as unequal educational opportunities. Engagement is our way of closely interacting with society to address these challenges".
The power of relationships
The basis for the impact of the Academic Outreach Programme lies in the relationships that have been built over the past years. There are many differences between the university and external stakeholders, e.g., in terms of organisational culture, working speed, language, vision, etc. Working with stakeholders, external stakeholders especially, therefore requires getting out of your comfort zone, and recognising and embracing these differences. In order to do so, inclusive leadership is very important.
At the EUR, we often seek ways to unite different goals, however, when we work with societal stakeholders in true engagement, the question should be ‘How can we define a common goal, together?’. Involving stakeholders in the early stages of collaboration, continuing involving them in subsequent steps, and remaining flexible and open-minded helps in building and maintaining good relationships.
Positive impact on equal educational opportunities
Through these equitable collaborations with partners in the city, the programme is creating a positive impact on equal educational opportunities in Rotterdam. At the beginning of the programme, the team encountered apprehension from external stakeholders regarding working with the university. Their previous experience(s) with the university was mostly based on the university as a research institute that collects data and performs research in the city, not so much as an equal partner in addressing challenges they see and face every day. Working together in this programme has changed the perception of the work of EUR by these stakeholders considerably.
"With the Academic Outreach Programme, we aim to contribute to a fair society"
It is important to note that relationships take time and commitment over a long period. It is advised that the people, aims, and projects do not change too quickly as it takes time to be able to pick the joint fruit of a (new) collaboration. As such, societal engagement warrants long term commitment and effort, crossing strategic periods. This is especially relevant for the Academic Outreach Programme, as unequal educational opportunities are a structural, complex, societal challenge likely to persist in the future.
A moral obligation
An important driver of the programme is understanding that unequal educational opportunities are unfair. In the city of Rotterdam, there are great disparities in educational opportunities, and the EUR feels a shared responsibility for doing something about this. We feel it as a moral obligation to step outside our own institute and have a positive impact on society, together with society. Furthermore, if we want to study the problems and opportunities in and with society and help find solutions and prospects, then the EUR’s community needs to be as diverse as society itself. With the Academic Outreach Programme, we aim to contribute to a fair society and a relevant and impactful university sensitive to the challenges and needs of our society.
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