sou · GOB347 · 2001-01-01 00:00:00 — It then appears as more dangerous than earlier that someone is rejected from education, not least as education today, much more than earlier, decides individual social affiliation in a way that resembles the role that salaried work had earlier. Accordingly lack of education will be the same as unemployment with all negative sides, not least when it comes to social affiliation, individual integration and identity. When education becomes a norm the higher education students in many ways become more differentiated than earlier. If we assume that earlier selection, that created a relatively exclusive group of students, also meant a similarity in motive, intelligence etc, in all less diversity, the present situation results in a great diversity in many different ways. Our conclusion is that higher education must put more energy on educational upgrading among teachers to be able to handle this diversity better. Also higher education has to take a bigger responsibility to introduce the students in higher education settings. Diversity in quality work The quality work that has grown within higher education during the last century can be seen as a necessary answer to the tendencies of decrease of quality. Higher education must in the present situation, at the same time, secure quality in a more differentiated and diversified population of students. At the same time higher education has to learn how to handle diversity in order to increase quality In the report the definition of quality is discussed and different dimensions of quality in higher education are pointed out. Starting from these dimensions of quality we show how diversity itself can contribute to higher quality. When it comes to the research quality diversity can be used to make an already existing diversity of scientific perspectives still more diversified. Experiences from other parts of the world than Europe and North enriches research and education. In educational quality scientific diversity of perspectives is also of great importance. Multicultural competence becomes more important on a labour market that is more and more characterised by a globalised economy. Ethnic diversity contributes to increased quality among students and teachers. Identification in the learning process is of great value and for this reason gender, ethnic and social diversity among the teachers in higher education increases the possibilities of a more diversified group of students to find persons to identify themselves with. When it comes to the economic/administrative quality dimension we have found that within the smallest amount of persons with foreign background is the category administrative staff. An increase of the amount of immigrants as administrators in higher education can contribute to better economic/administrative quality. A consciousness of the special resources and problems that characterizes a non-traditional background in higher education can improve administrative routines, everyday distribution of resources, linguistic, physical and social accessibility in higher education. We think that as to social quality increased diversity can contribute to higher social quality because a social and cultural mixture is good. This is especially important taking the students´ further lives and careers into consideration, in the multicultural society in general and particularly in professions where one meets people with many different backgrounds. Social and cultural mixture in higher education contributes to a multicultural and multisocial understanding and reduces ethnic prejudices and class prejudices. Finally an increase in ethnic and social diversity contributes to the societal quality of higher education, since it´s legitimacy increases in society. has an important, unused resource in the potential students that do not apply to higher education today, because of different reasons, assignable to ethnic and social factors. It is of greatest importance for society to make higher education institutions more in recruiting these individuals, and then to get these potential students to actively apply to higher education – and when they are there – to be comfortable and be able to carry on their studies successfully. Resources are needed for higher education to be able to take energetic measures to promote diversity. Therefore diversity in higher education must be a concentrated and sustainable priority, to start with as a project for five years. During this time higher education shall build a lasting system to increase diversity – ethnically and socially. During this time various measures can be tried by different universities and university colleges. The government should allocate considerable amounts – up to 500 millions SEK a year – from which university and university colleges can receive support for development work and pilot projects during the five year period. An evaluation of the project should be done by the end of the period. The commission suggests the following measures to be taken: ·Compulsory introductory course for all new students. (The model for this will be evaluated in a pilot project at ten universities during a period of five years). ·A preparatory term to widen the recruitment base in higher education. ·A special scholarship connected to the preparatory term. ·Elective courses in the Swedish language in the introductory course ·Special support to students to learn Swedish language. ·University courses in the Swedish language for immigrant academics. ·More flexible selection rules and procedures combined with recruitment efforts for ethnic and social diversity. ·Special labour market measures for foreign academics. ·A goal for recruiting staff in higher education in terms of ethnic diversity. ·Appointment boards to enable fair assessment of applicants with part of their academic career abroad. ·Action plans for social and ethnic diversity in higher education. ·Diversity as a criteria in quality assessment. ·Resources for pedagogical diversity management. ·Multidisciplinary research program about diversity in higher education.