While Terminologies on Diversity and Fairness Evolve, Universities Should Maintain Long-Held Commitments

Abstract

Views about identity are subject to change, and so is the language utilized to explain experiences related to difference and exclusion within universities. Issue 104 of International Higher Education included a special section addressing anti-Black racism, as experienced by international students and as a pervasive experience in study abroad practices, along with the perils of university presidents making public pronouncements on social issues. Over the five years since its publication, things have changed dramatically and, as Jamil Salmi has noted, the backlash against equity policies in higher education is evident and constitutes a global phenomenon. Certain terms have become flashpoints in increasingly polarized societies, but it is important to recognize the impossibility of studying higher education from a comparative perspective without understanding the basic characteristics of the student body or the academic staff. In other words, it is impossible to ignore diversity in higher education.