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About U.Porto - Equality, Inclusion and Diversity

U.Porto displays an ongoing commitment to equality, inclusion and the recognition of diversity. We work closely with the community to promote these essential human values.

U.Porto displays a commitment to equality, inclusion and the recognition of diversity in all its activities, together with research and education rooted in excellence.

In this context, U.Porto has been actively promoting and implementing these values in the academic and scientific community.

U.Porto’s Gender Equality Plan

U.Porto has elaborated and approved its first Plan for gender equality – UP Equality, which results from its commitment to gender equality.

This plan is a strategic instrument that establishes the University’s priorities and objectives in order to integrate the gender perspective in the institution’s structure, as well as in its fields of action. This includes the production (research content) and transfer of knowledge (education).

U.Porto’s Gender Equality Board is the main cross-disciplinary structure which offers support in matters related to the University’s compromise and action leading to the implementation of the Plan for Gender Equality.

A Plan for Everyone

U.Porto’s Gender Equality Plan aims to understand how the Academic Community:

  • Integrates the gender dimension in decision-making processes at different operating levels
  • Monitors the integration of gender issues in different fields
  • Adopts equal leadership
  • Attracts men and women to academic fields with a lack of representativeness
  • Promotes equality of opportunities in recruitment processes
  • Fosters equality of opportunities in career progression processes
  • Promotes equal access to reconciliation measures for all U.Porto workers
  • Integrates the gender and diversity dimensions in research
  • Integrates the gender and diversity dimensions in knowledge transfer activities
  • Demonstrates its active position regarding gender equality and diversity in institutional communication
  • Promotes equality and diversity in academic and cultural events
  • Fights for respect towards diversity in U.Porto's Community

U.Porto's entire community can participate in this process. Evaluate how you contribute to this change:

  • Are my interactions with work colleagues based on mutual respect and diversity?
  • Do I generally use appropriate terminology and language that does not reflect gender stereotypes?
  • When I coordinate, manage or lead a team, do I make sure all people are heard and are able to participate equally?
  • When I participate in an evaluation process that involves people or products (for example, reports, evaluations, scientific articles, exams, etc.), do I try to contradict possible gender biases/prejudices?
  • Do I refrain from making sarcastic jokes/comments while at the University?

In addition, several offices, initiatives and programmes at the University promote rights such as equality, inclusion and diversity:

The RESET project aims to place gender equality and diversity at the centre of political decisions on an academic and scientific level. U.Porto is one of the partner entities of this project, funded by Horizon 2020 (ref. 101006560) and promoted by seven European universities.

U.Porto sees gender equality through RESET’s perspective, focused on the individual in terms of equality and diversity, using an intersectional approach.

During the project (2021-2024), U.Porto will develop and implement a set of actions with partner universities involving all institutional ecosystems (students, faculties, administration, management).

This commitment is described in the Joint Declaration on Equality, Diversity and Scientific Excellence, a document that reinforces the effort of seven universities regarding the definition and promotion of equality, diversity and scientific excellence in leadership practices, institutional culture, knowledge production and transfer.

The academic world presents specific characteristics which may lead to persistent gender inequalities which need to be resolved. The first step is to recognise the existence and dimension of gender inequality so that we will be able to identify action domains and define goals.

The GIA.UP project launched in 2020 materialised the first activity developed by U.Porto to learn more about itself as an institution regarding gender inequality. It has a very important instrumental value and symbolises the importance of this topic for the University’s strategic development.

The main results and conclusions from the GIA.UP project can be consulted in their Final Report and Infographics.

NAI is an essential instrument in U.Porto's work relative to the recognition and valorisation of differences, as well as in the promotion of justice and equity related to the access of people with special educational needs.