so you’ll always have to dig deeper. You might focus on gender, but there will be a new frontier within that – such as regional variances.’ She added that an issue, when considering diversity, is the importance of context. She explained: ‘An MBA student from Peru and an MBA student from Kenya might have more in common – for example, education and class background – than a student from the centre of Lisbon and a student from the outskirts of the city, so consider that context.’ Valencia moved on to talk about ways to promote diversity within universities, and she said more questions need to be put on the table to inform this conversation. ‘Having diversity is non-negotiable,’ she said. ‘Diversity is required for accreditations, and students are asking for it. But we have to “do” it in a way that makes sense for the strategy of the School. We must have non-judgemental discussions to enable this. We need to share best practices in an honest way. We need to understand what fails as well as what works. Concluding her session, Valencia outlined incentives for Schools to be more inclusive. She said: ‘Incentives have to recognise that diversity is contextual, and do not lead to tokenism. We have to recognise that people need a safe place to talk about their identities, without over-simplifying the issue. ‘Data is always insufficient; we have to be creative in terms of gathering and sharing information; we have to look at the big picture; we have to understand that diversity is contextual and intersectional; and we need to appreciate that there is a lot more we have to do together to build a network of best practice and facilitate a discussion within our Schools.’
EMMANUEL MÉTAIS Dean, EDHEC Business School
JEROEN MARTENS EMBA Program Director, Antwerp Management School
CRISTINA VÉLEZ VALENCIA Dean, Universidad EAFIT
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