«How do you feel in your campus?» Evidence from a sample of Italian University students

Usually students from sexual minorities describe Higher Education contexts as unwelcoming and chilly environments, compared with their counterparts. These disparities in climate perceptions, often, lead to negative health and academic discomfort.

However, up to now, researchescollecting the experience of sexual minority students within European Higher Education Institutions is limited.

A group of researchers from the University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy), led by Dr. Amodeo,sought to expand previous empirical evidence by investigating the associations between sexual minority status, students’ perceptions of campus climate, psychological (i.e., anxiety–depression)and academic outcomes (i.e., intellectual and academic success, and considering leaving the university) in a sample of 868 Italian university students (17.9% sexual minority students).

The results (available here) showed that sexual minority students reported more negative perceptions of campus climate, which, in turn, were associated with higher levels of anxiety–depression symptoms, lowered academic success, and a high probability of considering leaving university.

Further research is needed to investigate the experience of sexual minority students within European Higher Education contexts and to explore possible actions that could contribute to fostering a greater sense of belonging to the campus community for all students, and particularly for students from sexual minority groups.

The three-years Erasmus+ project “XENIA: HE Inclusiveness Index” accepted the challenge to support Higher Education Institutions in promoting and implementing actions to contrast and prevent discrimination against gender and sexual marginalized identities. Capitalizing on the expertise of researchers and experts from 5 European Countries (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain), XENIA will develop an operational tool – the XENIA Index – to support HEIs to measure, realise and value the relevance and efficacy of their diversity and inclusion policies and programmes.

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In the framework of XENIA Erasmus+ Project the University of Barcelona, one of the partner involved in the transnational project’s consortium held the workshop ‘Entre Griegas’ promoted within the Community Psychology course of Psychology studies by the University of Barcelona last 27th November 2020.

Using methods taken from the theatre of the oppressed and theatre for life, the workshop had the objective of investigating how to expand, multiply and bring together the cracks or breaks in the system of domination of the cis-hetero-patriarchal-monogamous-capitalist-euro-white in the context of the Faculty of Psychology.

35 students took part in this workshop that has been developed during 3 classes for a total of 6 hours, facilitated by Noé (collective of Las Precarias) together with Professors Dr. Moisés Carmona and Ruben David Fernández.

The “Entre Grietas” Workshop is part of a set of actions promoted by the University of Barcelona’s Research Group on Interaction and Social Change to disseminate XENIA project and to penetrate Xenia impacts in the University context.

The aim and objectives of XENIA project are to develop and implement an inclusiveness index to support inclusion, equality and diversity in European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Specifically, an algorithm matrix based will measure the level of social and educational inclusiveness of sexual minority and gender marginalised students and staff within the HEIs context. The project will also share practices and tools for promoting and improving equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

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