Webinar 5 - The potential of universal design for learning with regards to mental health and wellbeing in higher education

 a lamp and innovative ideas with the title of the webinar ‘Towards Genuinely Inclusive Universities’ An international perspective on best practices in the implementation of universal design

Webinar 5 - The potential of universal design for learning with regards to mental health and wellbeing in higher education
Thursday, 29 April 2021, 15.30 – 17.00 CET

To allow current students and future generations of learners to reach their full potential, universities need to be aware of the growing concern that exists about mental health issues among students in higher education. This SIHO webinar will focus on the potential of UDL with regards to mental health issues in the higher education classroom, and will point out UDL solutions which are being proposed, from a design perspective, to minimize the impact of mental health issues within the learning experience.

Target Audience

This webinar series will be of interest to institutional leaders, service providers, academic staff, researchers, scholars, and students interested in the implementation of UDL. The objectives of the series is to offer participants the opportunity to deepen their reflection around UDL implementation and to encourage them to develop sustainable institutional policies and practices in this area. Each webinar includes its own specific participant outcomes.

Targeted participant outcomes

  • Participants will examine the impact that mental health issues are having on the post-secondary classroom;
  • Participants will explore the degree to which universal can eliminate the barriers that create, trigger or exacerbate these mental issues in the classroom;
  • Participants will consider, from a systems perspective, the change of mindset that is necessary for the impact of universal design to be fully acknowledged in this area.

Speakers

Amy Dicks is a Policy Researcher at Universities UK. She works across the mental health and social mobility, widening access and participation programmes. Prior to joining UUK, Amy worked at the University of Westminster. She has an educational background in Sociology, with a master’s degree in Education, specialising in social justice, equity, and inclusion.

Manûshân Nesari is the team coordinator of Student Services at University of Applied Sciences UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL), At UCLL, he and his team successfully implemented a guidance model in which students receive qualitative support and customized care in various fields of student life and learning. Universal design forms a solid basis in this guidance model.

Valérie Van Hees is the coordinator of Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education (Belgium) and has accumulated over 20 years of experience in the field of policy and inclusion in higher education. At SIHO, she forms a bridge between policy and practice on a daily basis, being a point of contact for both the Flemish Government and higher education staff to support the implementation of inclusion measures in policies and practices.

Frederic Fovet is Associate Professor, School of Education and Technology at Royal Roads University (Canada). Fovet is an inclusion specialist with a specific interest in emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), critical pedagogy and universal design for learning (UDL). Fovet also has a strong grounding in Disability Studies, and has served as a teacher and principal in schools with a focus on the successful inclusion of students with EBD.

Registration

All webinars are free of charge and registration will be open up to the start of each webinar. All webinars will be recorded and published on the website and video channels of SIHO.