Universities globally need to ask searching questions about their work on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and their sometimes exclusionary use of language, a conference has heard, as experts debate how best to respond to the US administration¡¯s rollback of DEI policies and growing attacks on higher education.

Bruce Watson, pro vice-chancellor of inclusion at UNSW Sydney, said that some of the work universities have been undertaking on DEI around the world ¡°has been exclusionary¡±.

He suggested that ¡°young men in particular¡±, who face ¡°a whole lot of problems for other reasons¡±, have been among those left out, and called on institutions to ¡°think about our cohorts as a whole and progress for all and through that thinking¡­draw everyone along¡±.

Speaking from the audience during a panel discussion on developing DEI policies to attract diverse students at the Global Sustainable Development Congress in Istanbul, Watson said: ¡°I think with some of the language of EDI we have brought the backlash on ourselves in many ways.

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¡°I think that, as we move into a post-Trumpian period in this space, there¡¯s a new form of university inclusion and the language around that, [which] doesn¡¯t exclude people¡­It has to be thought of holistically as a societal component.¡±

He was responding to a debate about how universities outside the US should respond to the and diversity.

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Speaking on the panel, Peter Ptashko, CEO and founder of Cambio Consultancy, which works with universities and organisations on social enterprise, said that ¡°language evolves anyway¡± and ¡°maybe there is an opportunity to be agile with language¡± around DEI, as well as other concepts, such as sustainability.

Sustainability too often became ¡°about the legacy of the organisation and the leader, and not enough about the beneficiaries and the people [universities] are trying to support¡±, he added.

¡°So it comes from that same sort of thinking about what¡¯s the wider goal here?¡± he said.

However, he warned that there were also universities in ¡°Trump red states¡± that would ¡°like to change the agenda altogether¡± away from DEI. ¡°It¡¯s a really interesting mixed picture,¡± he said.

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Hanna Snellman, vice-rector at the University of Helsinki, whose responsibilities include international affairs and DEI, said her initial response to the US¡¯ recent policies was to attempt to poach US-based academics ¨C a move that is gathering pace in several European nations.

However, she said that universities also had to bear in mind their many partners in the US and that ¡°it¡¯s good if good people stay in the US also. It¡¯s a balance.¡±

Universities also had to remain alert to other countries rolling back their policies on DEI, she suggested.

From a practical perspective, she said that the University of Helsinki was still encouraging academics to apply for research funding from the US, but the rector had told scholars not to censor their language ¨C even if that risks their applications being rejected.

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ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com