The Trinity Inclusive Curriculum Project (INC) is no longer to receive top slice funding from the Access fund, according to the minutes of an advisory board meeting in August 2024.
The INC Project, established in October 2020, operates within the Office of the Associate Vice Provost for Equality, Diversity and Equality.
The project aims to implement principles of diversity, equity and inclusion across teaching and learning within Trinity through collaboration with staff, students and academic and support spaces.
The project has been responsible for several initiatives including the Student-Partner Programme which is a committee of students from communities which are commonly underrepresented and/or disadvantaged in Higher Education.
This committee, the Student Partner Committee, works to raise awareness of experiences of inclusion and exclusion within curricula at Trinity and collaborates with other student groups including TCDSU.
INC also has been responsible for the running of the Professional Learning Module in Inclusive Practices. This module, offered to those teaching at Trinity and recognised by the National Forum for Teaching and Learning, is an introductory professional development course, outlining the principles of universal design for learning.
In a statement to Trinity News, a spokesperson for College. said that the project will continue this year before being integrated into curricula throughout the university.
“The EDI Office has done a wonderful job of developing and running a pilot programme on the Trinity Inclusive Curriculum Project.”
“We now need to mainstream it so that it can be embedded throughout all the curricula at Trinity. The programme is running for 2024/25 during which time we are working to transition it to an integral tool for academics designing modules or courses.”
They further stated that the project was only intended to receive funding for a year.
“In August 2024, Trinity-INC was advised by the Academic Services Division that there would not be a continuation of top-sliced pilot funding from the Access fund for 2024/25.”
“A minute from the meeting of the Widening Participation Group (June 2020) explains the situation. The group noted that the then newly-established EDI Office would house the Trinity-Inclusive Curriculum Project, which would be established and granted funding from a top slice of the HEA Access Funding grant to Trinity for a one-year project.”
“This first year coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and the initial funding rolled into subsequent years, with some additional annual funding since 2020 which has sustained the project work and staffing to date.”
