Student Diversity

CPRHE
Concept of Diversity
Dr. Malish. C M
Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education
National Institute of Educational Planning and
Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi
Meaning of Diversity
 Etymology - Diversitas (Latin) and

Diversite - (French)
 Meaning - difference, variety, variation,
not alike
 Pre-supposes two or more entities
 No rank order
 Diversity as an antithesis to hierarchy
 Socio-political concept of modern and democratic era

 Concept of diversity is integral to democracy and development
 Democracy - associative living -mutual respect
 It demands respect for heterogeneity in people characteristics and
their practices
 Development as freedom and choice or capabilities
 Capability -Freedom of people to do and be what they value
 Diversity is a value of inclusion which is imperative in
envisioning an inclusive society
Diversity in Education
 Dimensions of Diversity in education

 Diversity of institutional types, source of financing, type of
programmes, modes of delivery, teacher, student body etc
 Student “Diversity”
 Student Diversity refers to heterogeneity in student identities,
characteristics and attributes
 Social-economic, linguistic, political affiliation, faith, gender &
sexual orientation, schooling’s etc
Why Diversity Matters in Education
 Education attainment is key to mobility of individuals

and growth of economy - Knowledge economy
 But human capacities are diverse
 Diversity of knowledge and experience positively
contribute to production of knowledge and
innovations
 Educational opportunities are unevenly distributed
 Equalising educational opportunities leads to
extending access to diverse population
Summary
 Diversity is a value of inclusion in education
 Student Diversity contributes to Inclusive

development and democratic society
 Valuing student diversity contributes to creation of

knowledge and innovations which are socially and
economically rewarding
CPRHE
Valuing Diversity: Global and National Contexts
Dr. Malish. C M
The Context
 Diversity is a socio-political concept and value of
inclusion
 Concept of diversity began to receive wider attention
since 1960-70s in North America and Europe
 Diversity as a global debate since the beginning of 21st
century
 Role of International/transnational agencies: UN,
UNESCO
 India: National freedom movement and constitution of
India recognised value of diversity at least a century
back
UNESCO World Declaration 1998

 Right based approach to education
 UNESCO world conference on higher education in 1998 adopted World
declaration on higher education for the twenty first century: vision and
action.
 Convinced that education is a fundamental pillar of human rights,
democracy, sustainable development and peace, and shall therefore
become accessible to all throughout life
 Article 3 - Equity of access -No discrimination but ensure access to
special target groups
 HE as a public service- “The funding of higher education requires both
public and private resources. The role of the state remains essential in
this regard”.
UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity -2001
 Cultural diversity as an extension to human

rights: civil and political rights and economic
social and cultural rights
 As a source of exchange, innovation and
creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for
humankind as biodiversity is for nature
 Cultural diversity as a factor in development
 Role of market, state and civil society partnership
UNDP HDR 2004
 Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in

Today’s Diverse World
 Cultural liberty as key to development
 Cultural liberty is a vital part of human development
because being able to choose one’s identity—who one is
—without losing the respect of others or being excluded
from other choices is important in leading a full life.
 Need for managing diversity and respond new political
claims of countries, communities and individual
Constitution of India
 Unity in diversity is a political imagination and central

principle for the development of India as a nation state
 It is not merely a politico-administrative document
 Unification of people and culture with varying rank order
requires new values
 Constitutional morality over social morality
 Secularism – respect for all religion
 States formation based on languages but no national
language (14 to 22 languages in 8 schedule)
 Diversity as a value in constitution provides resources for
achieving political, social and economic
Summary
 Post 60s – diversity concerns emerged in EU and NA
 This scenario was linked to socio-demographic and economic changes that were
happening at that time
 Late 20th century and early 21st century – global recognition for valuing diversity
 Current debate on diversity is linked to changing nature of economic production
 Cultural diversity is increasingly seen as catalyst for development
 Indian freedom movements in early 20th century and Constitution of India

recognised value of diversity
CPRHE
Response to Student Diversity
Dr. Malish. C M
Diversity Discourse in Western Societies
 Advancement in technology and infrastructure

facilities and changes in production process
promoted cross-border mobility of people
(migration)
 Internationalisation and growth of student
mobility
 Society and its class rooms (all levels) became
diverse
 Diversity in ethnic background of students
 Diversity in language, culture etc
“Problem” of Heterogeneity
 Hostile ethnic groups

 Discriminatory practices
 Lack of social cohesion and harmony in
campus and society
 Negative impact on economic
development
 Heterogeneous ethnic population as a
problem
State Response to Diversity
Three major approaches
 Assimilationism
 Differentialism
 Multi-culturalism
Assimilationism
 Socio-cultural value system of majority remains as

dominant and legitimate
 Minority who came late is “other”
 Minority culture is undervalued
 Minority should assimilate or disappear in to
mainstream
 Minority must disconnect from past communities
 Also known as Melting Pot approach
Differentialism
 Differentialism contrasts with assimilation
 It promotes separation to avoid inter-mingling
 Reducing opportunity for intermingling as a strategy to reduce conflicts
 Each group is given separate spaces
 Promotes parallel systems
 Criticism: It is new version of apartheid

Multi-culturalism
 Acknowledge mono-culture is against humanity
 Human civilisation is multi-cultural
 Problems lies in the world view and perspective through which others
are looked at
 Multi-culturalism promotes co-existence of diverse cultures and diverse

people
 Toleration, accommodation and respect
 Right to be what they value without losing respect from others

Summary
 Lack of social cohesion and harmony as a threat to

social and economic development of countries
 Assimilationism is insensitive to minorities
 Differentialism is new avatar of apartheid
 Multi-culturalism -recognition and positive

accommodation of diverse other culture and people
CPRHE
Policies for Promoting Diversity in India
Dr. Malish. C M
Promoting Diversity
 Constitutional mechanism of reservation
 Diversity oriented admission policies
 Incentive schemes
 Student support programme in campuses

Reservation Policies
 Reservation is a constitutional provision
 Article 341 and 342 reservation for SCs and STs
 93rd constitutional amendment- reservation for OBCs
 124th constitutional amendment reservation for

economically backward general category
 Vertical and horizontal reservation

Diversity-oriented Admission Policies
 Institutions make interventions to attract and

recruit students from targeted groups
 Deprivation Points of JNU –Backward disctrict
 Gender Diversity Factor (extra marks in

interview) –IIMs
 Reservation for Transgender

Incentives Schemes
 Post-matric scholarships
 Post-matric hostels
 Monthly stipend
 Tuition fee waiver
 Travel concession
Student Support Programme
 Ensuring retention
 Remedial or/and academic enrichment programme
 Equal opportunity office
 Anti-discrimination officer
 Book bank
 Language labs/cells
 Earn while learn schemes
Summary
 Affirmative action for promoting diversity - to provide
access to and success in higher education
 Constitutional provisions, diversity oriented admission

policy, incentive schemes and student support programme
 Improve access
 Ensure retention
 Support to succeed
CPRHE
Empirical Evidence on Student Diversity in India
Dr. Malish. C M
Assessing Diversity
 Assessing Diversity requires understanding about
characteristics of population being considered and category
which exists at given period of time
 Diversity is temporal and contextual
 New categories are added
 Different Levels:
 Nation, state and institution
 Stream, faculty, discipline
 UG, PG and PhD
 Government, aided and unaided institutions
Assessing Diversity
 Caste
 Religion
 Regional background
 Income group
 Gender and sexuality
 Parental education background

Nature of Student Diversity

 Massification altered characteristics of clientele
 Increasing number of non-traditional learner’s access
higher education
 Non-traditional learner’s includes students from
 Disadvantaged social groups such as Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities like
Muslims
 Uneducated parents - first generation learner
 Under-developed region
 Schools located in remo
 Poor families
Caste
Caste wise Distribution (Share)
General OBC SC ST
All India 43.26% 36.34% 14.88% 5.52%
Source: AISHE 2019
Caste wise Distribution (GER)

All category SC ST
All India 26.3% 23% 17.2%
Source: AISHE 2019
Location
Location Share %
Rural 43.8
Urban 56.2
Source : CPRHE 2017
Gender
Share %
Female 48.6
Male 51.4
Source : AISHE 2019
First Generation Learners

%
First Generation Traditional

Background Characteristic
Learner Learner
Male 23.80% 76.20%

Female 23.90% 76.10%
Hindu 22.30% 77.70%
Muslim 32.40% 67.60%
OR 24.90% 75.10%
SC 31.40% 68.60%
ST 44.30% 55.70%
OBC 26.30% 73.70%
Upper Castes (Others) 16.30% 83.70%
Rural 30.90% 69.10%
Urban 18.20% 81.80%
Source CPRHE Study, 2017
Income
Enrolment share of income groups
Quintile 2007 2014
1 52.9 34.1
2 21.3 25.7
3 12.3 18.7
4 8.7 13.6
5 4.8 7.9
Source Thorat and Khan, 2018

Empirical evidence on student diversity in India
Summary
 Higher education expansion in last two decades has
made substantial changes in the clientele of higher
education
 Student are now from diverse socio-economic

backgrounds
 Higher education is no longer a privilege for elite
 However disparity continue to exists

CPRHE
Teaching Learning in a Diverse Class Room
Dr. Malish. C M
Teaching Learning in a Diverse Class Room
Diversity in Class Room

 Students in colleges and universities are from diverse
background –socio-economic, region, location,
schooling etc
 Socio-economic and cultural capital stock of the
family varies
 Socio-cultural practices, world view and experience of
students from diverse background vary
 Aspirations of students are diverse
 Learning habits and skills are also different
Teaching learning in a diverse class room
College Readiness
 Academic preparation level of student body varies

-Syllabus, language of instruction, type of school, location of
school
 Foundational knowledge on subjects is unevenly
distributed among student body
 Competency in medium of instruction
 Learning environment at home and learning support is
not uniform
 Learning background of student body is now diverse
 College readiness: Is college ready for diverse student
body or Is student body ready for college
Teaching and Learning
 Learning needs of diverse student body conflicts with

contemporary pedagogical tools, methods and processes
 Dominance of lecture mode as major form of teaching
 Opportunities are not adequate to bridge the gap in academic
preparation
 Lack of effective remediation/academic support programmes in
campuses
 Lack of mentoring support to students
 Low teacher –student interactions
 Teachers are not adequately equipped/oriented to address new
class rooms
Diversity and Inclusion

 Diversity as a value of inclusion
 Inclusion in access to success requires 3 Cs:
 Inclusive Curriculum
 Respectful accommodation of perspectives and life world of
diverse segment of society in curriculum
 Inclusive Campus
 Socio-cultural milieu, policies and structures of a campus that
welcome and are receptive towards diverse student body.
 Inclusive Class Room
 Recognises academic differences and promotes academic
success of students from all background
CPRHE
Institutional Strategies for Promoting Diversity
Dr. Malish. C M
Major elements
 Institutional Vision
 Institutional Plan
 Orientation to faculty and staff
 Institutional mechanism
 Conducive academic infrastructure
 Feedback system
 Monitoring and evaluation
 Institutional Research Model

Institutional Vision
 Developing a vision for valuing diversity
 Institutional Diversity Policy and Diversity Plan
 Principles of valuing diversity
 Areas of interventions
 Integrating diversity vision with structure and processes of institutions
 Collective engagement from all stakeholders
 Diversity as a shared value among all stakeholders

Orientation and Institutional mechanism

 Orientation for faculty and staff for valuing and
promoting diversity
 Pedagogical orientation to teachers
 Orientation to staff such as librarian, administrative staff
and lab assistant
 Strengthen existing institutional mechanism
 Create new structures for addressing concerns of
students
 Ensure coordination between various cells/committees
 A central coordinating body to look after overall activities
Academic infrastructure
 Creating inclusive academic infrastructure
 It requires assessment from students
 Inclusion of audio-video resources in library
 Special learning resources for visually challenged
 Differently abled friendly buildings and class room
 Technology supported learning environment (smart class room)
 Availability of quality learning material in regional languages
 Student feedback on social and academic experience

Institutional strategies for promoting diversity
Monitoring and Evaluation and IRM

 System should be in place to ensure diversity vision is enacted
 Develop indicators to assess
 Monitoring as a regular process
 Annual reports should reflect evaluation
 Need for institutional research model
 Periodic collection and analysis of academic and social experience of

students
 Institutional research for critical self examination and evidence for

developing strategies

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CPRHE

 Etymology - Diversitas (Latin) and

 Socio-political concept of modern and democratic era

 Dimensions of Diversity in education

Why Diversity Matters in Education

 Education attainment is key to mobility of individuals

 Diversity is a value of inclusion in education

 Student Diversity contributes to Inclusive

 Valuing student diversity contributes to creation of

Valuing Diversity: Global and National Contexts

UNESCO World Declaration 1998

UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity -2001

 Cultural diversity as an extension to human

UNDP HDR 2004

 Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in

 Unity in diversity is a political imagination and central

 Post 60s – diversity concerns emerged in EU and NA

 Current debate on diversity is linked to changing nature of economic production

 Cultural diversity is increasingly seen as catalyst for development

 Indian freedom movements in early 20th century and Constitution of India

Response to Student Diversity

Diversity Discourse in Western Societies

 Advancement in technology and infrastructure

 Hostile ethnic groups

State Response to Diversity

Three major approaches

 Socio-cultural value system of majority remains as

 Differentialism contrasts with assimilation

 It promotes separation to avoid inter-mingling

 Reducing opportunity for intermingling as a strategy to reduce conflicts

 Each group is given separate spaces

 Promotes parallel systems

 Criticism: It is new version of apartheid

 Acknowledge mono-culture is against humanity

 Human civilisation is multi-cultural

 Multi-culturalism promotes co-existence of diverse cultures and diverse

 Toleration, accommodation and respect

 Right to be what they value without losing respect from others

 Lack of social cohesion and harmony as a threat to

 Assimilationism is insensitive to minorities

 Differentialism is new avatar of apartheid

 Multi-culturalism -recognition and positive

Policies for Promoting Diversity in India

 Constitutional mechanism of reservation

 Diversity oriented admission policies

 Student support programme in campuses

 Reservation is a constitutional provision

 Article 341 and 342 reservation for SCs and STs

 93rd constitutional amendment- reservation for OBCs

 124th constitutional amendment reservation for

 Vertical and horizontal reservation

Diversity-oriented Admission Policies

 Institutions make interventions to attract and

 Deprivation Points of JNU –Backward disctrict

 Gender Diversity Factor (extra marks in

 Reservation for Transgender

 Tuition fee waiver

Student Support Programme

 Constitutional provisions, diversity oriented admission

Empirical Evidence on Student Diversity in India

 Diversity is temporal and contextual

 New categories are added

 Gender and sexuality