The educational and social integration of students with disabilities in the EEES: University of Bologna

Abstract

Today, the European university is faced with the challenge of promoting effective care to students with disabilities within their institutions, for which the set of ideas and attitudes of members of the university community is crucial. In this line, and continuing previous research in other European countries, there is the initiative to conduct this study in a context traditionally inclusive as it is the Italian one, analyzing the notions that students have about the integration and attention to their peers with disabilities.

The subjects of the study were 272 students from the Faculty of Education at the University of Bologna (Italy). The results are reflected globally and in terms of categories of analysis that highlight the main indicators of attention to disability in college. At the same time a comparative analysis of subgroups has been made according to different variables and from the issues raised by the respondents a qualitative interpretation was carried out in order to evaluate the influence of Italian university context in the perception of students about integration of students with disabilities.

After the analyses, we conclude that, overall, participating students from the University of Bologna have some favoral ideas and attitudes towards education and social integration of students with disabilities. Nevertheless, even though institutional approaches are advancing at a good pace in theory, collective integration of disabled students in higher education is a task that is still to be concluded at the University of Bologna.