Inclusive Education as an Opportunity to Create More Sustainable Universities

Dear Colleagues,

The road to real, quality inclusive education continues to be a long one for education systems around the world. Undoubtedly, the construction of a curriculum for all implies, as evidenced by the Index for Inclusion, that inclusive values must be adopted with sustainability-oriented aims. Among the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, we highlight Goal 4 in particular: quality education. The importance of this goal lies in regarding education as an essential pillar in order to achieve a sustainable planet. However, many inequalities in access, retention, and academic success in education systems around the world, including in higher education, persist in the present day. Inequalities in the world of education are sometimes accentuated when education is no longer compulsory, making access to university more complex, and many groups face numerous barriers to the successful completion of their education. This is the case of people with disabilities in particular. Although the number of students entering university increases every year in most parts of the world, their success rates remain considerably lower than those of students without disabilities.

The objective of this Special Issue is to explore the advances that are being made in inclusive education and disability in higher education, with special emphasis on strategies, good practices, and actions that help university systems advance on the road to inclusion. The SDG of achieving quality education goes beyond universal compulsory education, as it also includes achieving universal access to quality higher education. This goal includes, among its aims, ensuring equal access to quality undergraduate education; increasing the number of people with employability skills; ensuring access to all levels of education for vulnerable people, including people with disabilities; and providing safe and inclusive learning environments. Therefore, research into the improvement of inclusive processes in higher education is a priority.

This Special Issue will accept original research articles and reviews on the topic of inclusive education, disability, and higher education. Areas of research may include the following:

• Experiences of students with disabilities in universities;
• Difficulties and barriers to inclusive education and how to overcome them;
• Faculty training and development in inclusive education;
• Good inclusive practices in higher education;
• Inclusive pedagogy and practices in universities;
• Educational use of technologies for an inclusive education;
• Universal Design for Learning and its implications for teaching quality;
• Sustainable higher education though inclusion;
• Analysis of politics and initiatives for educational inclusion in universities.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Rafael Carballo
Dr. Ana Doménech
Dr. Almudena Cotán
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• inclusive education
• inclusive pedagogy
• higher education
• universities
• students with disabilities
• faculty development
• educational technologies
• sustainable education
• universal design for learning