La diversidad es una realidad cada vez más presente en las instituciones de educación superior, vinculada a la globalización y la presencia de estudiantes no convencionales. Investigaciones previas han explorado la percepción de los estudiantes y del profesorado sobre la diversidad en el contexto universitario. Sin embargo, se tienen pocas evidencias sobre cómo perciben la diversidad actores sociales que colaboran con las instituciones de educación superior. Este artículo indaga sobre percepciones de actores sociales respecto a la diversidad en la universidad, en concreto, se analizan las percepciones sobre las medidas que las universidades ponen en marcha para responder a la diversidad y sobre los retos que presenta la diversidad paras las instituciones de educación superior. Utilizando una metodología cualitativa, se realizan 18 entrevistas semiestructuradas a actores sociales vinculados a 8 universidades españolas. Los resultados indican que los actores sociales interpretan la diversidad de manera diferente, aunque sus concepciones, en general, suelen estar vinculadas a los colectivos tradicionalmente asociados a la diversidad: género y discapacidad. Esto muestra la invisibilización de ciertos grupos y sobre todo la relación percibida entre diversidad y cuestiones relacionadas con las desigualdades y la equidad. Las conclusiones analizan iniciativas que podrían facilitar la colaboración con los agentes sociales para avanzar en la agenda de compromiso social en las universidades.

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We analysed discourse produced in the Spanish press on a number of issues relating to disability (accessibility, education, employment, sport and institutionalisation). The aim was to identify the underlying paradigm: that of rehabilitation or personal autonomy. The analysis was based on 435 units of analysis including news, editorials, opinion articles, reports and letters to the editor, selected from two national newspapers (ABC and El País) published between 1978 and 2012. Discourses generally evolved from reflecting a medical-rehabilitation concept of disability to a more social perspective on disability. It was necessary, however, to examine discourses and practices in different domains separately, as this evolution was not reflected in equal measure in all of them.

When it comes to human development, justice, and sustainability, universities should play a driving role, given their specific assigned task of providing specialist education and conducting research. They should also educate and promote the values of solidarity and commitment towards a more egalitarian and just society. This involves making a firm commitment to social change, which many Spanish universities have done by cooperating to foster the development of more impoverished countries. To this end, they have developed structures through which they can undertake different actions. The research presented in this paper was conducted as a direct result of the authors’ interest in finding out more about the specific actions carried out by Andalusian universities. The research conducted was qualitative, using in-depth semi-structured interviews with key informants (development cooperation officers and senior policy-makers within each institution) from Andalusia’s ten public universities. All universities incorporate an area for development cooperation within their organisational structures, and they have staffing and funding for the organisation and development of actions, although the panorama is diverse and heterogeneous. The actions carried out encompass academic training and education, research, promotion and awareness, university volunteering schemes, and cooperation out in the field.

This article presents the results of research into the treatment of physical functional diversity in the Spanish press. The research has involved the analysis of news items referring to functional diversity in two high-circulation newspapers in Spain (ABC and El País) between 1978 and 2012. The results show that the number of news items on functional diversity has risen over this period, with an evolution in the terminology and approach to the information. The creation of communication departments in some of the organizations in the sector, the production of style guides and/or norms and the recommendations of international organizations may have encouraged these changes. Even so, news items still appear in which the news is the functional diversity in itself, which does not help to deconstruct the stereotyped image that has accompanied this group for many years.