Pathways for the establishment of an inclusive higher education governance system: An innovative approach for diversity management

The ongoing transformation process of the European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) requires ever more flexible learning conditions for an increasingly diverse student body. It is due to these demographic changes that HEIs need to be prepared to reinvent their organisational study structures, cultural attitudes and teaching methods and design for the emerging era of lifelong learning. With regard to these multifaceted requirements, it appears reasonable to claim that a holistic frame that embraces the complexly interwoven elements of governance is needed. For these purposes, the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria has developed a framework that has the potential to be implementedin all structural and organisational levels (top management/administration/study programmes/research and development). To point to the wide range of aspects with regard to diversity issues at the tertiary level, the so-called HEAD (Higher Education Awareness for Diversity) wheel shall be presented in this contribution.