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Globally, persons with disabilities are underrepresented in higher education. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where opportunities for higher education are especially limited, women are unlikely to continue their education. This research investigates women in Tanzanian higher education with the double marginalisation of being a woman and having disabilities. The women were interviewed on what factors enabled access and participation for their educational success. A thematic analysis of qualitative data was applied. All the women interviewed were motivated to complete their degrees. Key enabling factors were encouragement from their families and previous teachers, full participation in student life and sufficient financial support. Student life integration, especially peer study groups, and university staff training were emphasised along with structural modifications needed for campus facility access. They understood the importance of education, especially as women with disabilities, and the impact educated women with disabilities have as role models for young women, those with disabilities and without.Keywords: access to higher education; equality; higher education; inclusive education; marginalisation; Sub-Saharan Africa; Tanzania; women with disabilities; Introduction I think that we experience a lot of barriers due to the African culture which undermines girls and women. Even at home, family members may say 'this one is a girl and, on top of that, she has a disability. She may have capabilities but, if we help her to go to school or college, would that mean anything? There is no reason to help her. It is better to leave disabilities to inclusive education at all levels, including lifelong learning, without discrimination, on the basis of opportunity. In addition, Article 6 of the UNCRPD specifies the importance of guarding the human rights and fundamental freedoms of those with the multiple discriminations of being both female and having disabilities. These documents further emphasise the role of institutions of higher education in the development of equality and equity.Globally, persons with disabilities are underrepresented in higher education. There is also a lack of reliable, comparable data on the access and participation of students with disabilities in higher education. This underrepresentation stems partly from the prevailing inequity at the primary and secondary levels of education or, in other terms, the weakness of the education system to respond to the educational potential of students with disabilities (Ebersold, 2008).While there has been significant improvement in access to education in general, the education of persons with disabilities has remained neglected. According to the World Report on Disability disabled children (55.6%) than for children with disabilities (45.6%) and very low for girls with disabilities (32.9%) compared to the completion rate for boys with disabilities (42%). The World Report on Disability points out that, in developing countries, more evidence on actual social and academic out...

The study explores how sense of global connectedness can be enhanced by creating opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue in higher education. Thematic analysis of randomly selected 15 learning journals, students' reflections on their learning during an international seminar was used to identify students' significant learning experiences. The results emphasise the added value of diversity (geographical, disciplinary, cultural, social) among students, faculty and invited presenters for creating meaningful learning. Furthermore, they suggest that designing an integrated approach of contents, contexts and activities for critical engagement in global dialogue and knowledge generation in higher education can open up new perspectives to students in education and thereby increase their sense of global connectedness. The research addresses internationalization of higher education, contributes to the development of international study programmes and provides means to enhance inclusion of global issues in higher education policies, curricula and practice.

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